Writer and broadcaster Stephen Fry’s recent suggestion that the BBC’s output is infantile and idiotic may ring true when the corporation’s current trends and attitudes are taken into account, but his argument fails to suggest a solution to the problem, and certainly doesn’t go far … Read More →
Tag Archives: BBC
Doctor Who: Flesh and Stone (2010; dir. Adam Smith)
We’ve already expressed our dissatisfaction at the modern retread of this classic BBC science fiction series, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that Doctor Who (2005-Present) is nothing more than the British television equivalent of the Emperor’s New Clothes: despite the total lack of substance, … Read More →
The Quatermass Experiment (2005; dir. Sam Miller)
This is an horrendous miscalculation by everybody involved, including Nigel Kneale, who should never have allowed his original scripts to be handled in such a disastrously inept manner, and was suitably distraught at the results. Originally staged live by the BBC in 1953, under the … Read More →
Cinema Europe (1995; dir. Kevin Brownlow and Dan Carter)
With modern film criticism and theory on UK broadcast television limited to the insipid Mark Kermode and the pointless Matthew Sweet on the BBC, and virtually nothing on other channels, this documentary series seems as much part of yesteryear as the early silents and talkies … Read More →
Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric (1989; dir. Nicholas Mallet)
Supposedly Doctor Who is the UK’s longest running science fiction programme, but in reality its forty-odd-year run can be split into two separate and nearly contradictory versions: the original 1963-89 series and the re-envisaged, watered-down version that has been a flagship show for the BBC … Read More →
Ghostwatch (1992; dir. Lesley Manning)
A drama posing as a documentary, Ghostwatch borrows heavily from The Stone Tape (1972; dir. Peter Sasdy) and the true story of the Enfield Poltergeist. Despite unnecessary simplification, the story – which sees a broken home at the mercy of a sinister, perhaps imaginary spirit … Read More →
The Changes (1975; dir. John Prowse)
Like the similarly themed Survivors (1975-77) or Doomwatch (1970-72), this BBC children’s series offers a world where science and technology hold a threatening power over the ‘innocent masses’ and a return to the Dark Ages can’t come soon enough. Unlike those programmes, this show has … Read More →
Further attacks on the BBC
Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw has called for the BBC Trust – the body which governs the British Broadcasting Corporation – to be scrapped. He called the structure of the BBC unsustainable and recommended that a “national conversation” should take place when the BBC’s charter is … Read More →
Peter Watkins at the BBC
On Saturday night, BBC Four broadcast the 1964 documentary film Culloden as part of their “This is Scotland” season. The film was preceded by a “making of…” short originally produced in 1996 and featuring a brief interview with filmmaker Peter Watkins. Watkins is, without doubt, … Read More →
BBC under attack by Sky boss
A speech made by James Murdoch, boss of News Corp. which owns Sky Television, at the recent Edinburgh International Television Festival accused the British Broadcasting Corporation of being a threat to independent journalism and called for an overhaul of UK broadcasting. Whilst his comments that … Read More →
UKFC debate spreads to the radio…
Yesterday, Brett was invited to talk about the abolition of the UK film Council, and the prospective future of the British film industry, as related in our article here, on both national and local radio. Appearing on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Gabby Logan programme with … Read More →