Broadcast on Halloween night 1992
Ghostwatch - a live investigation into a haunted house - was one of the most controversial and terrifying programs the BBC has ever shown.
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posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Oct 31, 2010 -
36 comments
Back in the 80s when
Doctor Who was mired in a creative and ratings slump, the programme's creator Sydney Newman was asked how to revive it. His
answer - regenerate the Doctor as a woman.
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posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Oct 12, 2010 -
102 comments
Some kind soul recently uploaded, in five parts, a 1991 BBC
Omnibus television documentary about
Peter Greenaway, who never ceases to inspire me in his dedication to push film into new, richly interesting places, to liberate it from its addiction to stale 19th-century psychological narrative and to open it up to accept and incorporate all manner of artistic information it's usually denied. Cleverly titled
Anatomy of a Filmmaker — Greenaway is an enthusiast of the nude human figure, which he sees as the single constant of art — it covers the filmmaker's career from his earliest shorts up through
Prospero's Books. There are bits about the time he spent honing his skills cutting together British propaganda, his experience with painting and his longtime collaboration with Sacha Vierny. It also presents subsections on Greenaway's own inspirational creators, including John Cage and the increasingly-intriguing-to-me R.B. Kitaj.
posted by colinmarshall
on Jun 14, 2010 -
16 comments
"Working in art film or commercial cinema is like dancing through a mine field, and every broadcaster is now racing down market in a desperate attempt to survive. But what is happening at the BBC is the real scandal: it is bigger than all the rest combined, it is free from direct commercial pressure and its public service obligations carry cultural responsibilities. There are no excuses." Veteran producer
Tony Garnett, has launched a
blistering attack on the current process of drama commissioning at the BBC
posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Jul 15, 2009 -
17 comments
Blatantly jumping on the opportunity to create yet another thread on
The Wire, I'd like to remind you that
starting tonight, BBC 2 will air the entire series start to finish, an episode every weekday. First episode starts in a moment, at 11:20 PM UK time. Watch!
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posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Mar 30, 2009 -
64 comments
"A frail old man lost in space and time. They give him this name because they don't know who he is. He seems not to remember where he has come from; he is suspicious and capable of sudden malignance; he seems to have some undefined energy; he is searching for something as well as fleeing from something. He has a 'machine' which enables them to travel together through time, through space, and through matter."
The Genesis of Doctor Who.
posted by Knappster
on Nov 19, 2008 -
49 comments
"Hello, and welcome to
Mainly For Men (
part 1,
part 2). And, as the title implies, this is a programme, fellas, just for you." Yes, everything the BBC thought the red-blooded male back in the late 1960s would be interested in (ie women, cars and shark fishing). The result was so hideous it was never broadcast until a TV Hell themed night many years later. Possibly NSFW... some brief nudity ('artistic', naturally) and mild swearing. And rampant mind-blowing sexism.
posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Nov 29, 2007 -
85 comments
On May 14th, 1967, the new British pop group The Pink Floyd makes one of their first ever TV appearances. Despite a stellar performance of the song Astronomy Domine, the pretentious host of the show, Hans Keller, has nothing good to say about the band. During the
interview (youtube, performance comes first, interview starts about 5:50 in.
transcript here.), he chastises the band for their "continuous repetition", "terribly loud" volume, and their "proportionately a bit boring" sound.
However, it seems that all Hans' show will ever be remembered for is
this single interview. Pink Floyd, on the other hand.. Well, we all know what happened to
them. Syd Barrett, on the other hand,
was not so lucky.
posted by Afroblanco
on May 29, 2006 -
67 comments
BBC interviews news editor regarding the Apple/Beatles verdict. Only one problem: the gentleman in the hotseat was the news editor's driver. Hilarity ensues. (video of the interview
here - the driver's expression when he realizes he's been mistaken is priceless.)
posted by aberrant
on May 14, 2006 -
79 comments
The Sky At Night Every episode of the BBC science series made since the end of 2001 viewable online. Anything I know about the universe I learnt from Patrick Moore.
posted by feelinglistless
on Jul 30, 2005 -
17 comments
The new Doctor Who series has been airing on BBC Television for three weeks now. And it is "good TV" Most all of the reviews are startlingly positive, far more than I've seen for a television series in a long, long time. What is most striking is that many of the commentaries about the "New Who" state that it is just plain ole' good television that combines something intelligent, something scary, something mysterious and something balls-out fun. In our world of reality television, what other series would you classify as being "good tv"? What makes for "good TV"? (Link goes to a fan site that has re-printed and linked to numerous reviews)
posted by tgrundke
on Apr 14, 2005 -
90 comments
Dr. Who Returns to the BBC on Saturday, 26 March at 7pm on BBC One. To those of us of a certain age, this is good news. Russell T Davies, creator of "Queer As Folk", is the writer and executive producer.
North American fans with
access to the CBC won't have to wait long to see the new series. It starts Tuesday 5 April at 8pm.
posted by paddbear
on Mar 16, 2005 -
46 comments
