BBC
Listed: Television's long-runnersSaturday, 30 November 2013
In the past weeks there has been a frenzy of publicity about the timelessness of a Time Lord. Through sundry incarnations (and one sizeable moratorium), Doctor Who has been on television screens for 50 years. But it's by no means the only show... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: BBC Radiophonic WorkshopSunday, 24 November 2013
BBC Radiophonic Workshop: BBC Radiophonic Music / The Radiophonic WorkshopThe inescapable 50th anniversary of the television debut of Doctor Who has had the side effect of drawing attention to the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the... Read more... |
DVD: Fall of EaglesFriday, 06 September 2013
Fall of Eagles, a 13-part series which combines history and lavish costume drama, was first broadcast in the same year as The World at War. But while one continues to be seen as landmark television 40 years after it hit our small screens, I vouch... Read more... |
The Route Masters: Running London's Roads/Airport Live, BBC TwoWednesday, 19 June 2013
I bought a new car recently, but by the end of The Route Masters (***) I was feeling a powerful inclination to sell it. The film would have rung a masochistic bell with anybody accustomed to trying to travel round London on a regular basis, and the... Read more... |
DVD: Dead HeadFriday, 19 April 2013
British film noir followed two courses in the 1980s. Whereas the American neo-noir revival of the 1970s prompted such contemporary crime thrillers as The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, and Stormy Monday, three superior BBC drama serials, though... Read more... |
Alex Polizzi - The Fixer, BBC TwoWednesday, 20 February 2013
The arts are in a bit of a state just now. Okay, we all knew that. The money that was there in the past - and where it was coming from - just isn’t the same any more. Finding a new way of doing things is the buzz. Looking outside the box.Maybe... Read more... |
Panorama: Jimmy Savile - What The BBC Knew, BBC OneTuesday, 23 October 2012
From 10pm last night to around 11.40, the BBC did what no other broadcaster in the world would have the stomach for. It turned its guns with maximum lethalness on itself. The result was extraordinary television. “Crisis at the BBC,” chimed News at... Read more... |
Emmys 2012 bring lean times for Team GBMonday, 24 September 2012
In time-honoured fashion, hope sprang eternal for the British contenders in the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, held last night in Los Angeles. Downton Abbey had picked up seven major nominations (and 16 in all, including various behind-the-scenes... Read more... |
3D: A First for the Last NightMonday, 10 September 2012
During an orchestral rehearsal, it’s tense in a TV scanner at the best of times. A scanner is one of the huge vans parked outside the Royal Albert Hall with a wall of screens showing the shots from the cameras within. There’s a large huddle of BBC... Read more... |
Good Cop: From Page to ScreenMonday, 27 August 2012
On Thursday the BBC will screen the opening episode of the television drama Good Cop. I finished writing it back in August 2010, and on the strength of that story and ideas for a total of four episodes, the series was green-lit in February 2011. We... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The KinksSunday, 12 August 2012
The Kinks: The Kinks at the BBCKieron Tyler“Meet a group that recently came from nowhere to the top of the hit parade. A rhythm and blues outfit with long, shoulder-length hair and the strange name of The Kinks.” With that, Brian Matthew... Read more... |
Tusa wraps up for the World ServiceFriday, 13 July 2012With the electrics being dismantled today at Bush House, central London HQ of the BBC World Service for 70 years, Sir John Tusa, its former MD (and chairman of The Arts Desk) presents a Radio 4 programme of memories of radio broadcasts from the... Read more... |
