"See his pug-nose face." David Bowie, from Extras second season, which premieres tomorrow in USA. Stephen Merchant (from today's RADAR) and Ricky Gervais have been mentioned here before, but I think the David Bowie clip is worth it.
posted by headless on Jan 13, 2007 - 35 comments

The BBC Programme Catalogue: an index of 946,614 radio and television broadcasts, dating back 75 years. (Via BB.)
posted by steef on Apr 26, 2006 - 14 comments

Peep Show. Ah, now that's lurid-sounding. What it is, however, is a comedy from BBC that's way, way funnier than The Office. Reviewers chatter about the Herman's Head-like gimmick -- you hear the characters' thoughts -- but the better gimmick? Excellent writing.
posted by mimi on Nov 22, 2004 - 26 comments

BBC lists 50 places to see before you die. Overall, choices are a bit too exotic for my own taste (only four European cities???) and I still consider Bali a wildly overrated place, but what's really shocking is kitschy Las Vegas at #7 and La Serenissa Repubblica di Venezia at #18. What happened to the British tradition of extolling Italy's beauty? via Attu
posted by 111 on Nov 20, 2003 - 54 comments

Radiohead are taking over the BBC this Christmas. For one week, from the 22nd to the 28th of December, the band will assume control of BBC digital staion 6Music, choosing music, selecting shows, co-presenting programmes and contributing website material. The station is streamed worldwide. Christmas this year may be a little less jolly. ;)
posted by Blue Stone on Nov 11, 2003 - 33 comments

30,000 bombs were dropped on Iraq during the war. This is the story of just one. (RealVideo, 1h14m) While filming at a cross-roads in northern Iraq on April 6, a US Navy jet launched a bomb into a crowd of US and Kurdish soldiers who a BBC team were accompanying. In the seconds that followed, BBC cameraman Fred Scott began to film the disaster as it unfolded, footage which was heavily censored when shown on US news.
posted by Mwongozi on Nov 10, 2003 - 13 comments

GardeningFilter! James Dyson's Wrong Garden - water going uphill in a perpetual-motional Escher-like fashion; how is it done...?
posted by klaatu on May 21, 2003 - 9 comments

The more you earn, the lower your IQ. That's the clear but unexpected result from the second National IQ test broadcast by the BBC. The test is still online if you are curious. The first test was discussed here. For a higher IQ, be an unemployed Irish man and drink too much.
posted by grahamwell on May 5, 2003 - 44 comments

Dr. Who Shada Episode by Douglas Adams Flash or Real Player
posted by blue_beetle on May 3, 2003 - 28 comments

'A colossal squid has been caught in Antarctic waters, the first example of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni retrieved virtually intact from the surface of the ocean. ' Related (old news from January) :- giant squid attacks boat.
More squid sites :- Search for Giant Squid, a Smithsonian exhibit about a 1999 expedition. 'Whether living or extinct, on land or at sea, in literature or in life, large animals have long fascinated people. The largest animals have been known and hunted since prehistory: whales, walruses, elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, and large fishes... However, one large animal has gone almost unnoticed or certainly unobserved in its habitat. That animal is the giant squid. Although these animals have been found in the nets of commercial fishermen, in the stomachs of sperm whales, and washed ashore on different continents, no scientific information has been gathered by direct observations of live giant squid ... '
The UnMuseum's article on the giant squid.
posted by plep on Apr 3, 2003 - 23 comments

The Chant of the Weed. "Think of the received image of the jazz musician, the young man with a horn or the tortured singer with the gardenia in her hair. And think what baggage they carry, along with the reeds and the valve oil and the spare mouthpieces. Somewhere in the flight case or purse, tucked away out of sight but still seemingly essential to the image, a little something for after the gig, maybe weed, maybe white powder, maybe a discrete bottle of pills. Like it or not, drugs are very much part of the history and still more of the mythology or jazz." And you gotta hear the clip of Cocaine Habit Blues.
posted by theplayethic on Mar 28, 2003 - 12 comments

We Begin Combing in Five Minutes! The White House is vowing a strong retaliatory response after the BBC aired live video of President Bush getting his hair coiffed in the Oval Office as he squirmed in his chair and practiced on the teleprompter minutes before Wednesday night's speech announcing the launch of military operations against Saddam Hussein.

It's America's Funniest Outtakes (squirm). But where can we view it?!
posted by sparky on Mar 21, 2003 - 33 comments

Pentagon threatens to target journalists in Iraq. (RealAudio, 49 minutes into the broadcast.)
In an interview with Radio One Ireland, Kate Adie, former chief news correspondent for the BBC, drops a bombshell.
If satellite uplinks from the press are detected in Baghdad, they would be "targeted down", said a senior US military official. "They know this. They've been warned."
Ms. Adie also revealed that the US military are openly asking journalists what their feelings are on the war, and are using this information to block reporters from access to reporting on the conflict.
These actions are "shameless" and "entirely hostile to the free spread of information," says Ms. Adie. "What actually appalls me is the difference between twelve years ago and now. I've seen a complete erosion of any kind of acknowledgment that reporters should be able to report as they witness."
posted by insomnia_lj on Mar 12, 2003 - 74 comments

Look and Read offers storylines, songs, video clips and my first introduction to Wordy from this classic BBC School series. As someone who grew up on Sesame Street and Schoolhouse Rock, I found it interesting to see the British equivalent. Plus, it's good campy fun.
posted by snez on Feb 5, 2003 - 4 comments

Quanto putas mihi stare hoc conclave ? That's "How many prostitutes does it take to change a lightbulb?" in Latin. No, actually it's "How much do you think I paid for this apartment?". Here's hoping, in the wake of the BBC's superb The Roman Way series, written and presented by David Aaranovich, that good old Latin is on its way back, albeit in an Internet, soundbitey way. Those intending to smuggle some into MetaFilter should definitely start here. The owner, for instance, might find Ne ponatur in mea vicinitate useful - "Not in my backyard". And Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione - "I'm not interested in your dopey religious cult" should prove popular in the God threads. Vale!
posted by MiguelCardoso on Feb 3, 2003 - 26 comments

One-in, one-out: the nominations. "Who should be granted honorary British citizenship and who should have it revoked?" The BBC's Today programme has its annual poll and this year, it claims, is a little different. Various celebrities, politicians etc will be giving their opinions and the result will be announced on New Year's Day. Who will you be voting for?
posted by Kiell on Dec 18, 2002 - 6 comments

If this isn't a sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what is. What should be on the list of the all-time greatest pop tunes?
posted by LittleMissCranky on Nov 9, 2002 - 49 comments

Trial by Tabloid? Top BBC presenter Angus Deaton has been sacked after a sex & drugs scandal. He has presented comedy news quiz Have I Got News For You for over ten years. So, is ti right for him to be sacked after trial by tabloid? Do we actually care what our T.V. presenters get up to after the cameras are turned off?
posted by prentiz on Oct 30, 2002 - 16 comments

MOD Selects The Carlyle Group as Preferred Bidder for QinetiQ. In a move that seems to be going ahead with very little coverage, Britain's military research agency is being sold off to a foreign company. Given the important role Qinetiq plays in Britain's Defense, and the type of business The Carlyle Group is, this is perhaps surprising...
posted by chill on Sep 8, 2002 - 12 comments

Disposable Planet? Find out how many planets we would need if everyone lived like you.
posted by zoid on Aug 21, 2002 - 62 comments

"Women Empowering Women". This pyramid scheme is spreading like wildfire in the UK, with huge amounts of money involved. Basically you get a lot of people to put up say £100. The more people you attract to add money to the pyramid, the better chance you have of moving up and becoming entitled to many times your initial outlay. However, no investment occurs; this is simple cashflow juggling. Someone I work with gained £12000 on it in under a month - now everyone wants in the act. But (and I've pleaded with these people) the participants don't seem to appreciate the sheer idiocy of such schemes. Their attitude is "my husband goes to the betting shop, it's just my bit of fun". In the end, if you gain money, you're taking it directly from another participant. This is exploitation of people (normally hard-up, heavily mortgaged parents, it seems), is morally wrong and should be illegal - but it isn't in the UK. Here's a link to a BBC feature on pyramid schemes (aka trading schemes). This really boils my piss, but it carries on because individual participants can benefit from the fraud themselves. I understand women are targeted in this case as men are more likely to get in fights when they realise they've lost large amounts of cash.
posted by boneybaloney on May 3, 2002 - 18 comments

Vaisakhi Festival - Sikh New Year. Well, given the MeFi tradition of announcing religious celebrations et al, I just thought I'd note that today is the Sikhs invite everyone to celebrate Vaisakhi (or Baisakhi) -- traditionally the start of the agricultural year, and for the past several centuries also the birthdate of the Khalsa form of Sikhism. An interesting history provides some information on how the Sikhs were used and abused by the British, and their struggle (and resulting violence) for independence in the Punjab.
posted by five fresh fish on Apr 13, 2002 - 3 comments

Stephen Downing , aged 17, was arrested and interrogated for 8 hours by the police without caution and without legal counsel. Despite having the reading age of an 11 year old, he was allowed to sign a confession to the brutal slaughter of typist Wendy Sewell. 27 years later at the UK Court of Appeal, he became today the victim of the longest miscarriage of justice in the Britain's history.
posted by dlewis on Jan 15, 2002 - 7 comments

Mullah Omar speaks to the people of Afghanistan and Muslims around the world. But Voice of Shariat was destroyed in the bombing. So a tape of his speech was delivered to Voice of America and the BBC World Service, and they both broadcast it.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Oct 10, 2001 - 28 comments

BBC's John Simpson reports on the attacks from inside Afghanistan. i rate his reporting and am a great admirer of hir work and books
posted by quarsan on Oct 7, 2001 - 4 comments

Who is Osama Bin Laden? ...The Afghan jihad was backed with American dollars and had the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He received security training from the CIA itself, according to Middle Eastern analyst Hazhir Teimourian.
Is OBL the United State's Golem?
posted by housepox on Sep 12, 2001 - 2 comments

This interesting mini-series about the human face on TLC (via BBC), claims that technology and the Internet are replacing face-to-face contact, but without much needed facial expressions that play a crucial role in communication. No doubt, this is why we THINK OF CAPITAL LETTERS as "yelling" and use :) and :P in online communication. Where do you see online communication in 10 years?
posted by canoeguide on Aug 27, 2001 - 17 comments

Don't fear the reaper. Can this really predict my final days!!
posted by kramer_101 on Jun 14, 2001 - 29 comments

It was "clearly a big device" , which contained high explosives. Set by what appears to be the IRA outside of the BBC headquarters in London. Clues were given via coded messages phoned into a hospital and an "unnamed charitable trust" much in the same way as when the M16 building was attacked with a rocket last year. Forget Osama bin-laden. The Irish can be dangerous as well.
posted by liquidgnome on Mar 3, 2001 - 20 comments

Looks like any other 'amateur' web page with a popular culture slant, is actually the precursor to a BBC TV series about a dot com startup, the site is intended to be a tie-in to the series and viewers will be able to follow the progress of the site while they follow the progress of the characters behind it on TV. More here.
posted by Markb on Sep 8, 2000 - 0 comments

42! The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is now real, and you can get it on your cell phone.
posted by owillis on Jun 12, 2000 - 6 comments