The problem with the self-congratulatory coverage the BBC has run over the past few days is that what the EastEnders team see as a great accomplishment isn't anything of the sort - it's not that long since many shows, even dramas, routinely went out live. "I'll settle for that" says EastEnders boss Diederick Santer on what he describes as "a near faultless" live episode of … [Read more...]
EastEnders, where licensing laws don’t exist
January 29, 2010 By
In the spirit of honesty I should declare that I consider EastEnders to be the product of a lazy, untalented and unimaginative production team who over rely on cheap violence and tepid re-hashes of past 'successes' for their storylines. Whenever it manages, quite deliberately, to upset some of its diminished audience, the BBC refer to it being an 'edgy' and 'realistic' drama. … [Read more...]
The BBC needs more reform and less rhetoric
September 9, 2009 By
I’m really getting fed up with BBC bosses hiding behind Licence Fee payers when it suits them and ignoring them when it doesn’t. Today, in response to a speech last month by James Murdoch, BBC bosses have seized on a Guardian/ICM poll showing four out of five people saying “the UK should be proud of the BBC”. All the usual platitudes are offered, first by Mark Thompson … [Read more...]
The BBC’s woes are wholly of its own making
June 17, 2009 By
Yesterday’s announcement that the BBC is to be forced to share some of the licence fee to help rollout universal broadband and fund regional news and UK-originated children’s TV drew the predictable protests from the corporation’s in-house ‘regular’, the BBC Trust. The tragedy is, the decision was only possible because BBC bosses, including the trust, have become deaf … [Read more...]
