Television What Television

I am a watcher of TV have done ever since Dad came home and announced Smiths Radio in Cirencester were delivering a 17inch GEC console model the next day, which would be in time for our Queens Coronation a week or so later. What a beautiful thing it was, floor standing with this big screen at the top a large 12inch speaker underneath 2 rotary knobs on the side an on/off switch and volume control, all encased in a highly polished walnut case the whole thing weighed a ton. I seem to remember running all the way home from school, don't you dare touch that til your father comes home was the command, happy days happy days.

What a revelation this was, I had never been to the cinema the thought scared me, but to see this wondrous thing in the comfort of our living room was to a 12 year old Magical, (mind you after the first day when word got out we had a TV the room was always filled with visitors.) and I loved it.
Thoughts of playing outside and missing the Grove Family,Whirlygig, Amos and Andy, the Saturday night Variety shows, gone, Mum had to pull the plug out to get me to go out. I was probably not that bad but you get the idea.

Saturday afternoon Sports, all the stuff Peter Dimmock, and Paul Fox had the foresight to sign up and start broadcasting. The plays and pantomimes, oh! and the Francis Durbridge serials, the variety of material was enormous. The BBC Charter said it was to Inform, Educate and Entertain, and it did.

Those were the days of the continuity announcers Jasmine Bligh, Mary Malcolm, Sylvia Peters, Peter Haig, Mac Hobley, there to introduce or fill in and inform when there was a break in transmission, yes the potters wheel and the ploughing horses.
So much of this stuff was live. If I was following a serial how frustrating it was to miss an episode especially the last one, I wished I could have recorded them to watch later, never thought that would happen, Now there are dozens of ways.

Over the years there have been many Landmarks in the history of television the Coronation, BBC2,the Introduction of Colour, Start of ITV, for me the Moon Landing probably the biggest.

What about News? ah yes what about it? it has grown from the straightforward reporting of events around the world given gravitas by the likes of Frank Philips, Alva Liddel, Dennis Mitchel, to the monster it is today, spewing out "News" filling out time until spitting out a real story then covering it to the point of exhaustion, by we viewers. Don't get me wrong news is important vital in fact, bulletins must be on during the day, however there are far easier quicker and more immediate ways to get it. Sorry I am straying off topic a bit, its just that I am not interested in what these popstars footballers and minor or come to that major so called celebrities have to say, or why their stories make headlines, for me this isn't news and should be put in a magazine type programe please note.

I have always been a watcher and listener to the BBC, I admire their training skills they have produced some of the finest technicians and broadcaster in the world, they are innovative and visionary, developing amongst others Teletext, and the iPlayer their web site is superb.

So what is all this leading to? Well for me it is sad to see this once great corporation tearing itself to bits. I don't care what the suits may say, I have witnessed a steady erosion in the fabric of television at the BEEB, events, people, and shows which should never have gone from our screens let go. Seeing the company get heavier and heavier at the top an inverted triangle if you like, money
haemorrhaging from everywhere. The end result is no cash for what really matters the Programes. You see I don't really care that much what top Stars get paid as long as they are worth it and deliver the goods. What I am looking for is plain honest to goodness interesting informative and entertaining Programs, I feel I am just not getting that.

I am so sad looking at the 24 hour schedules especially from 9am to about 7pm weekdays virtually everything is a repeat, not just once but every few weeks the same old dross is dredged again and again and again. So much so that I hardly turn the set on until middle evening. If you must repeat why not the previous 12 hours, shift workers and so on would benefit.
Why this obsession with soap operas? it's ridiculous that almost everyday of the week time is given over to these programs, they clog the schedules preventing other stuff airing, Purlease give us a break.
As for the weekends! forget it same old same old, saturday night is a farce I used to look forward to settling down for a night of good old entertainment, if I am lucky there might be a couple of hours of new stuff otherwise its the same old tired worn out done to death things like Casualty the National Lottery Show and repeat after repeat.

I fail to understand this chase for ratings, Why? you get your money whatever you do, spend it on commissioning good programmes there are loads of talented people full of ideas desperately trying to get stuff on the air, do it, try it, what does it matter if the programs fail there will be gems out there, forget asking the public what they want, how do we know until we see it. I would imagine the things that are so popular today were a gamble before somebody had the courage to give them the go ahead, My feeling is if they are good enough they will be a success, people will come, Fools and Horses, Dads Army were slow to ignite. I think in todays climate they would have been dropped from the schedules, what a loss that would have been.
What is so wrong with American programs? why can't we have some decent ones? what was one of the biggest shows on british TV? "Dallas", years ago the airwaves would have been dead without the sound of Sgt Bilko, Startrek in all its iterations and so on, I agree that it's stupid to run all 245 episodes of murder she wrote back to back or diagnosis murder, and many others, once a week for a season is sensible why use them as time fillers?

I fail to understand the reason for BBCs 3 and 4. BBC2 was always the channel for alternative programs so I ask why BBC3 BBC4? If there has to be a third channel why not make it for sports coverage with the red button (another bbc inovation) many events can be covered simultaneously.
Do we really need 3 childrens channels? 1 maybe, put the kids stuff back on BBC1 where it belongs between 3pm and 6pm. Where are the classic serials? Things that parents can look at and share with their children.


So thats about it I could be more constructive in my criticism but thats for another time.
To sum up my conclusion is that the BBC do not care about their viewers sorry Beeb

My report would read not trying hard enough could do much better