The Future of the BBC

Alan Hill

The Killing is a great series, far better than anything the BBC has offered for years. So was Wallander where there is a direct comparison between the lackluster BBC version with Kenneth Branagh and the excellent Swedish version with Krister Henriksson. Current examples of BBC third ratedness are Outcasts and South Riding.

However I do not agree that the Americans and Danes now produce programs that the British cannot match. We have a huge, one might say unmatched amount of writing, directing and acting talent in this country it's just that in this as in so many other fields we don't let the people who are good at whatever it is....do it. That's the real British disease.

Erica Blair

Why didn't Nick review The Promise, an eight hour long drama shown on CH4?

Ian Walker

Or Being Human? Or Misfits? Totally refreshing and quirkily British takes on the supernatural/superhero genres that the US like so much they're making their own versions.

The only thing sinking into mediocrity around here is the profundity of the punditry.

MairT

@ Erica Blair.

Probably because it was a load of rubbish and pretty pathetic...........If your little heroine had ran around in the way in which she was depicted, in real time, she either would have been kidnapped or shot. Don't you recall that silly Scottish journalist..........?

MairT

@Erica Blair,

Probably didn't comment as it was pathetic to say the least. Biased Biased Biased unlike you Erica

C Cole

The Promise almost reviews itself: it started promisingly enough, but I was left feeling unfulfilled by the end. The final episode was haunted by the shade of Rachel Corrie, and not in a good way.

Hugo Chav

I've given up on BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. Four and Five have some stimulating programmes now and again. I watch CNBC Europe for business and market news. I watch Stratfor News on YouTube for geo-political data. The only decent political channel is C-Span, why is the BBC not like C-Span? BBC Parliament is total tosh.

Fergus Pickering

Naw, you're right. British telly isn't much good. It ALWAYS has a lefty slant which makes it very boring and predictable, and it moves very slowly. The Killing is very long but it moves rapidly and, what is more, you have no idea which way it is going to go. As I said before, the Beeb can do animals but it can't do human beings. By the way, there is another 20 episode Killing 2 and a Killing 3 in production. The word doesn't actually mean Killing, it means Crime. So, if the Beeb buys the other two we have something to look forward to. There's another current serties I enjoy which is American. I refer to 'The Good Wife' which is so bracingly cynical it could NEVER have been made here. I(tvalso has a most interesting lesbian detective who is not defined by being a lesbian. That's another thing we could never do. The Beeb is very unintelligent. And self-satisfied. I'd get rid of it.

Ulysses 31

The beeb is too scared to take risks, period.

That's why you get a steady diet of dance shows, reboots of old franchises, teen dramas and Eastenders.

Plus, it likes to employ from a pool of BBC 'faces' who don't want to be involved in anything too controversial, and of course have to tick all those representative boxes...

Bob

The future of the BBC? A simple one line bill passed in Parliament. "The payment of a television licence shall hereby be voluntary". If it wants an audience for quality TV the Corporation should have to work for it.

smell the glove

Erica love, do you have some kind of a crush on nick? I think its begining to show!

JohnBUK

Alan Hill - Couldn't agree more re The Killing and Wallander (Swedish). Frankly the rest is just so much crap.
If the BBC is so good then let them prove it, get rid of the annual "tax" and let's see what happens.

Oedipus Rex

Great post - totally agree. What's more, a little snide comment from the bizarrely named Erica Blair can only confirm it some more - hey, Erica: were you traumatically stood up by some Jew or Nick in particular to wage this rather sad and lonely diatribe every time he posts?

As for TV - I gave up on terrestial some while back - the Killing is great (I watch on iplayer) and reinforces my view that Scandinavia is one of the few remaining remnants of civilization. If only I could afford to live there!

I support publicly funded broadcasting but the BBC needs to be cleared out. The talent is probably there (I desperately hope) but how it is going to come through is anybody's guess.

Erica Blair

What a silly reaction for asking a simple question.

Try getting your opinions somewhere else other than Fox News and Glenn Beck.

St Bruno

What’s wrong with FoxNews and Glen Beck?
I think they are both top notch.
If the BBC were as good I would watch it instead, but the BBC has lost me I’m afraid , I don’t trust them/it anymore, sad but true.

D. Short

How dumb will The Spectator get?

It is 'Tennison' not 'Tennyson'

D. Short

And the BBC has just dumped 'Zen', the best thing it has produced in many years.

Imagine establishing such a great cast and crew, building a Sunday evening audience in the four to five million range, then dropping it altogether.

Only one organisation would waste that investment; one which is cushioned by a guaranteed income of well over £3 billion a year because of the licence fee tax.

Vulture

Very bizarrely, (and it stood out because its so exceptional to the rule), the BBC put out a programme - Panorama's 'Classroom warriors - (quite accidentally I"m sure) on BBC 1 last night which exposed the disastrous state of our schools - and what's more proposed a non-PC solution.

it showed how recruiting ex-soldier as staff restored discipline to previously anarchic classrooms, gave lost kids a goal and purpose again and only begged the question; why isn't the Army running the country?

Natch, the only dissenting voice was the harridan who runs the appropriately acronymed NUT union, Christine Boxer, under whose reign schools have descended into chaotic under-achieving hell.

Govey plans to extend the scheme to schools other than the two that were featured. This was the sort of programme the bbc should be making, and I don't understand how it got put on at all it was so good. Clearly an unfortunate blip in the otherwise unrelenting diet of Labour-supporting Biased Bullshit Crap.

Mark2

"Why didn't Nick review The Promise, an eight hour long drama shown on CH4?"

Erica, Erica, if Nick reviewed EVERY bit of anti Israeli propganda available on TV he'd never get to bed at night. Give the guy a break please!

TomTom

German TV is far better at concerts, floor shows, and interviews, it is just as weak on detective series with a PC slant of "policeman as friend", and has some excellent costume drama.

It is still taxpayer funded, bloated, and incredibly overpriced but it is regionalised not centred on Berlin, so it has diversity in some areas.

The BBC thinks of itself as a global corporation competing with Disney with the UK as a tax-funded base rather than a core audience.

Erica Blair

Commenting here is like lifting a stone and seeing what scurries out. Fun, in a way. I can't wait for the next opportunity.

BalaamsAss

When a new television series is released watch an old one.

If The Killing is still regarded in 5 years time then I shall buy the box-set on Amazon for £5.

BalaamsAss

I notice every time the NC posts Erica Blair pops up. Surely, you can't have an contrary opinion on everthing NC posts can you? I suggest you go and live your own life rather than fixate on Nick Cohen.

Erica Blair aka 'The Anti-Nick'!

smell the glove

Erica you have a fixation with Nick. Is this some kind of a courting ritual, your type go through?

Fergus Pickering

The Promise is lefty crap. It's supposed to be set sixty years ago but the people behave EXACTLY as people do today. That is because lefties have abolished history.

Baron

I’ll wait until Nick does ‘The past of the BBC’, then I’ll comment.

Bob @ 7.19: I second that.

Clear Memories

"Releasing the BBC archive, allowing people to watch whatever sitcom or drama from the past they remember with affection, will shore up the BBCâ™s status and boost its audience share."

More likely the pisspoor quality of the current in-house programming will be highlighted by past quality leading to a justifiable clamour for scrapping the licence fee.

And if the BBC displays its usual suicidal tendency and releases factual, news and political programming from the archive, the likes of Day et al will show up the current bunch of lightweight leftists for what they are - biased, bigoted Labour supporters who should have no place in a so-called even-handed national broadcaster.

Alan Hill

The Promise was quite entertaining if a bit soapy in parts. It certainly made the point that the Jews aren't saints and the British have nothing to be proud of over Palestine. I don't think it could be described as 'lefty' crap.

Fergus, only some of it was sixty years ago the remainder was contemporary and I think they made a reasonable job of the sixty year old stuff.....I'm mean I didn't see anyone with a mobile phone or a digital watch...don't think there were any contrails either.

Leftin Frefall

>>How dumb will The Spectator get?
It is 'Tennison' not 'Tennyson'

I expect English teachers the length of the country wish their pupils would make mistakes like that which would imply, as it does, that they'd actually read some literature.

Simon Stephenson

Leftin Frefall

More likely, perhaps, that they were familiar with the cricketing exploits of the Honourable Lionel Tennyson, who was England captain for the final three Tests against the Australians in 1921.

His grandfather was a bit of a scribbler, I believe.

organic cheeseboard

I've not seen the killing though I've no doubt it's good. however Nick doesn't seem to watch much US TV, really. The vast majority of recent US drama, pretty much everything since the Wire, has been utterly underwhelming. Boardwalk Empire is stilted and dull, Mad Men is self-indulgent and far too pleased with itself to ever be taken seriously (it also makes that mistake, shared with so many UK dramas, that being really depressing = dark and interesting), Treme is like the wire without any kind of narrative... it's pointless to go on. The vast majority of TV critics seem content to produce this 'UK bad, US and everywhere else good' narrative, and all it does is demonstrate how little TV they actually watch.

LisaBelle

Hi, well being a foreigner in this country, I have to say you do not know exactly how much of a jewel the Beeb is. And American television? It is SO superficial!! When I lived in Canada, any time there was a Beeb show on, everyone watched. And talking to my family, I note things are still the same. What is it that they say? "the grass is always greener....." Why don't you stop complaining about the standard of tv the Beeb is turning out and do like the rest of the world, just enjoy it!!!

Uncaged Monkey

@ LisaBelle

Thank goodness you came on here and pointed out the BBC's finer points. You've made me doubt my own powers of assimilation and ability to form a well-considered opinion. I'm sure all the dissenters, including myself, will now watch the corporation with renewed respect.