Comfort and inspiration for a nation

[altariel]

So rewatching that Mitch Benn video (AS I HAVE BEEN RIGHTLY DOING ALL AFTERNOON), I think there are only a handful of the TV shows mentioned that I have never watched: Charlie and Lola, Fireman Sam, and Horrible Histories (don't have kids around the house - tho' even then I've seen Teletubbies and In the Night Garden!). I'd heard of them though. Everything else I've seen at least one episode, or tuned in at some point (Last Night of the Proms, Glastonbury), or I've used the service (iPlayer, website, World Service). I don't listen to the radio much, but I recognized all the broadcasters, and I think I've seen them all do something on the tellybox, and I think I've heard all the radio shows mentioned. I can't quite make out all the things mentioned at the end, and I haven't actually watched everything on BBC Four (yet). Anyway I'd be really interested to know what other people's recognition and viewing or listening levels were. You know, from a sociological perspective. How well did he capture a kind of universal experience of things BBC.

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

It;s a brilliant list. Of course it doesn't include every good programme - that would be impossible - but it does an excellent job of showing the breadth pof the BBC's programming over the last 55 years or so. (I think that the earliest may be "Hancock" from the second half of the 1950s, if you exclude things like "Woman's Hour" that have been going on for ever.)

He's evident;y not a fan of soap opera, as I don't recall "The Archers" or "Eastenders" being included, and "serious" drama seems to be under-represented (no "Wednesday Play" IIRC, for instance). But those are just quibbles.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

And David Attenborough was a producer from the early 50s.

Both The Archers and EastEnders are there! (I caught a bit of an episode of EastEnders just the other night - before I saw this - and thought it was really well acted and written. I used to watch it religiously back in the 80s.) I counted Tinker Tailor as serious drama.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I watched EastEnders for the first five years or so, and then gave up. It was so unrelentingly miserable. At least Coronation Street had a leavening of humour (though eventually I gave up on that too).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Quatermass started in the early 50s.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

OK, make it from 1940. :)

I was glad that he singled out BBC 4 for praise. It now seems to be filling much the role that BBC 2 was originally intended to fill. I probable watch more BBC 4 programmes than those of all the other BBC TV channels added together. There's rarely anything on BBC 1 that I want to watch (apart from "Merlin", and even that I'd be hard pressed to describe as anything better than "enjoyable tosh"), and BBC 2 isn't much better.