when I was young and stupid (as opposed to old) I used to think Brian Walden really hated the tories with his contemptuous "I put it to you" line of aggressive questioning. But amazingly he is still alive and a recent wiki check showed he had run as Labour candidate in the 60's and Thatcher had some notion that the BBC hated them, apparently. But most startlingly there was something floating about on google about how it was Walden who persuaded Cameron + Osborne to do the ConDem rather than attempt a minority gov.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 13:21 (five years ago) link
He was a Labour MP from 1964 to 1977.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Monday, 3 December 2018 13:27 (five years ago) link
i mainly associate him with Weekend World which was on ITV tbf
― biliares now living will never buey (Noodle Vague), Monday, 3 December 2018 13:31 (five years ago) link
I've killed so many brain cells since then, it feels like a century ago.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 13:32 (five years ago) link
but I used to watch him through Sunday hangovers, back then. For reason I thought he was beeb.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 13:33 (five years ago) link
i had to double check
― biliares now living will never buey (Noodle Vague), Monday, 3 December 2018 13:34 (five years ago) link
now i've just got "Nantucket Sleighride" stuck in my head
"Nantucket Sleighride" amiritedudes? *high fives and misses*
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Monday, 3 December 2018 13:35 (five years ago) link
LOL frazzled minds think alike.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Monday, 3 December 2018 13:36 (five years ago) link
Andrew Marr doesn't rock this hard
― biliares now living will never buey (Noodle Vague), Monday, 3 December 2018 13:37 (five years ago) link
The BBC *as a whole* feels like it's improved in the last couple of years
No Clarkson (who ten years ago was hosting the corp's most popular entertainment show and using that to take potshots at the then PM while being best pals with his successor) helps
― nashwan, Monday, 3 December 2018 13:52 (five years ago) link
the BBC is like a tree that is rotten from the roots, rotten from the top and .. um rotten in the middle. A tree with Brian Cox at the top, smugly pissing on you.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 14:14 (five years ago) link
Worst Christmas ever. Again.
― nashwan, Monday, 3 December 2018 14:18 (five years ago) link
lol!
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 14:19 (five years ago) link
scuse me, I read that as worst Christmas Tree ever.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 14:20 (five years ago) link
just stick R3 on for some medieval x-mas hymns and avoid the Dr Who spesh at all costs imo.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 14:22 (five years ago) link
and no Moyles
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 3 December 2018 14:28 (five years ago) link
for every Moyles, Evans, Clarkson that has gone there are still scores of terrible people who you are compelled by law to pay for. And none of them were tried for their crimes, although Moyles seems to have disappeared without a trace, thank fuck!
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 14:33 (five years ago) link
Chris Moyles can be heard seguing Oasis into the Courteeners on Radio X if you're really interested.
― Matt DC, Monday, 3 December 2018 14:59 (five years ago) link
that cursed netherworld where he was one of the highest paid at the beeb was some kind of bad dream, you might be tempted to think. But no.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 15:04 (five years ago) link
Shaun Keaveney's still on the books, the Chris Moyles for Shed 7 fans
― Neil S, Monday, 3 December 2018 15:21 (five years ago) link
Stella Creasy will be a regular listener then!
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 15:30 (five years ago) link
In 2012 Chris Moyles was involved in a tax avoidance scheme[81] and requested a court order to prevent the press from reporting it, because he claimed it would infringe his human rights
can u have human rights if ur not human
makes u think
― We're in 2009—it's time to take risks, (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 3 December 2018 16:28 (five years ago) link
― calzino, Tuesday, December 4, 2018 1:22 AM (three hours ago)
the wily Chibnall has outwitted you again by having a New Years special this year instead
― sans lep (sic), Monday, 3 December 2018 18:59 (five years ago) link
As a tribute to his punch-ably annoying smug face and terrible writing I'll watch summat I got from the movie torrents instead.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 19:51 (five years ago) link
gregg wallace and his unearned gurning
(in fact i still love masterchef despite this)
― mark s, Monday, 3 December 2018 19:56 (five years ago) link
My Youtube history has some shameful stuff: DJ Smile, The Young Turks, H Lewis JP GQ interview, Eddie Shit videos, The Queen's Corgi trailer and even J Oliver associated Food Tube stuff. But I have never delved into that Masterchef space.
― calzino, Monday, 3 December 2018 20:31 (five years ago) link
https://paulbernal.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/fake-news-and-fake-vicars/
― brokenshire (jed_), Tuesday, 4 December 2018 16:09 (five years ago) link
A bit of groaning and moaning about the BBC. In the end the stuff on post-truth and too big to change etc. undercuts what are a bunch of reasonable points.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 13 December 2018 23:12 (five years ago) link
and the new Eastenders set is going to be extremely delayed and several millions pounds over budget, which seems like an absolute disaster?
― boxedjoy, Thursday, 13 December 2018 23:34 (five years ago) link
Not if it keeps Eastenders off our TV screens.
― It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christ (Tom D.), Friday, 14 December 2018 00:13 (five years ago) link
we're due to play united there mid feb so i really hope its in ok shape by then
― Moussa- ppl gon die (darraghmac), Friday, 14 December 2018 00:23 (five years ago) link
That is one of the best pieces I’ve read about the BBC in a long time. It is wrong to conflate BBC News and World Service with the BBC, as it does, though. That’s only about half the corp and half the story. The situation in TV and Radio is different and they’re facing different challenges. The BBC is also not doing a great job of describing all the ways it is trying to change rn. It’s an org that is good at resisting core change but nevertheless changing the outer levels quite radically and I think another of those is brewing
― stet, Friday, 14 December 2018 00:51 (five years ago) link
I find Simon Reeve's stuff seductively enjoyable but I don't really trust him in the same way calz hates Dan Snow
― jou're much too jung, girl (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 19:54 (four years ago) link
totally get that. don't trust him either. something's up. don't know what.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 19:55 (four years ago) link
I think he just presents a specific kind of party line - Foreign Office-ish, really - but sells it as more neutral and exploratory than it is. Like I say tho, I enjoy his programmes if for no other reason than they show bits of the world not widely filmed.
― jou're much too jung, girl (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 20:01 (four years ago) link
Same, about not trusting him. I've only seen the last series, Mediterranean, but he comes across as being out of depth, a bit of a lightweight? Which can't be right looking at the long list of series he's done. And yet.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 20:10 (four years ago) link
from what I've seen (some of the Myanmar one) it's nicely shot and there are genuine attempts to capture the interesting details of the location rather than centering the presenter all the time. And they slum it with the hoi polloi and you get a good look at ordinary things like what the public transport is like or what life is like in obscure provincial places. But it's a very mediocre BBC voice he has, like some have already said ..untrustworthy. He sort of seems to typify that R Biggs classic quote about travel narrowing the mind - and it's almost like his entire knowledge of history comes from reading Tristam Hunt books at times.
― calzino, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 20:32 (four years ago) link
I haven't seen much of his stuff I'll admit but imo that whole style just needs to go. it's patronizing even when it's good. i want to hear people talking about it from the inside. take one of the interviewees and make them the presenter.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 20:35 (four years ago) link
Bingo
― jou're much too jung, girl (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 20:36 (four years ago) link
A problem I have with a lot of travel TV and writing is the overapplication of journalistic distance, like we know you they are coming from one culture and viewing another, know they are keen not to be appropriating anything, but giving up even trying to experience anything except in the most presentery way makes for shit lifestyle TV & books and nothing else. I don't mean they need to marry a local and spend a decade living with their family like I did, but the refusal to stake part of themselves in a place means you're just making a more highbrow version of those awful business travel shows.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:14 (four years ago) link
I like the guy who goes and shrooms with various tribes and takes the initiation ceremonies whose name I can't be arsed to Google right now but the stench of 19th century missionary comes off most of these shows. Palin kind of side-stepped it by playing himself as character.
― jou're much too jung, girl (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:18 (four years ago) link
Yeah Calz and Tracer and NV otm. It is that. Inevitably you yourself, as a viewer, stumble upon a certain subject or country you happen to know something about as well. And then it starts to grate, realizing that if Reeve gets something wrong and on this off instance you can call it out... Then how much more moments must there be about topics you might not know as well, where his representation is just as feeble?
And yes, it's patronizing. The 'Tintin goes to Africa' style needs to go.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:28 (four years ago) link
(apols for that terribly written post, the gist of what I mean is in there somewhere)
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:29 (four years ago) link
"The name of the country is important ..it was called Burma for decades of course ..and then the former military dictatorship decided to rename it Myanmar"
gr8 history lesson there m8 simon, you complete fucking cock!
― calzino, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:37 (four years ago) link
changed the name to avoid confusion with the shaving cream iirc
― jou're much too jung, girl (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:38 (four years ago) link
but to avoid just being negative the Turkey show had loads of great sequences, i felt like there was ground being covered that i hadn't seen before, he is pretty decent at talking to randoms and not talking over them
― jou're much too jung, girl (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:40 (four years ago) link
Did he at least brush on Kurds/Armenian genocide etc? Or does he go out of his way to avoid ~the inconvenient truths~?
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:45 (four years ago) link
xxpat least they were spared military dictatorships when they had one that's sole purpose was complete ruthless exploitation of all their nation's GDP and rubber and eradication of all human rights!
― calzino, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 21:51 (four years ago) link
simon reeve is one of those guys who gets salty abt phds. I'd like to see ppl making programs about where they live but there's a lot to be said for outsider's eyes (esp someone you know how to take)
― ogmor, Thursday, 18 July 2019 07:54 (four years ago) link