British Broadcasting Calamity

I am a big fan of the Commonwealth Games. Known as the friendly games of course it feels to me like the Olympics used to be and are all the better for that. There are still amateurs competing, the chance of the postman to represent his or her country with pride. Real people doing remarkable things. A chance for the small nations to shine, a chance for the minor less glamorous sports to raise their profile and demonstrate the skills and dedication they also require. For me the Olympics has become a rather ghastly vehicle for commercialism, cynical professionalism, and the power of money to dominate.

But....the Beeb seem to have lost faith in the Commonwealth Games, or to be more to the point lost the art and point of sports broadcasting. Not only is the coverage very poor generally, there is far too much emphasis on the professional “glamorous” sports and they spend more time doing fancy inserts than showing us the action. Maybe they need to justify having that mumbling American Michael Johnson as a a host – a man so good he cant get a job in his own country. Lets take last nights highlights programme as an example. One hour long to cover a busy day at the games. You would expect lots of variety covered, lots of time trying to cover the remarkable achievements of the ordinary men and women who represent the home nations and pay that licence fee.

What do the Beeb do – well they spend 15 minutes – so a quarter of the time talking about an Australian sprinter who won an event that lasted less than 15 seconds. They even showed the Australian TV trailer for the event! So on it went on more athletics for half an hour. Now had none of the home nations done much that day then okay fill the time, but to be honest there was plenty going on. Lets not forget for example two golds – one for England one for Scotland. Oh but I forgot, they were amateurs, probably taking unpaid leave from their jobs to compete in sports that they really do have to sacrifice things for – not the “sacrifice” the lottery funded professional speak so glibly of. So did these champions get mentioned – oh maybe one minutes coverage between them. And for why – well they were in Bowls and shooting – clealry not sexy enough for the shallow Beeb. Shame on the beeb, and shame on us for not melting their phone lines in complaint.

Does Today have a Tomorrow?

The Today Programme has really hit a new low - today! It has been noticeable that the quality of news reporting on radio has declined in recent years. The World Service is a poor refection of its former self, but the Today programme, that supposed flagship of Radio 4, has really gone downhill. Some of the decline is down to decisions made at a corporation level - notably the production of news items for consumption on both TV and Radio. The result being the appearance of news items on Radio that are actually produced primarily for TV and so we are subjected to stories where sections are filled with disembodied and disjointed sounds that, when seen with the accompanying pictures on TV, make some sense, but when played without commentary on Radio are just, well junk. But the editorial decision of the Today editors are as much to blame. On a regular basis we have to listen to extended advertorial for other BBC programmes masquerading as news. So, this morning we have, as usual on a Monday, to listen to an extended piece about tonight's Panorama. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the Panorama programme per se (although it has to be said that Panorama has been systematically dumbed down over the past 10 years) but the fact is that its content is not news, it is self declared news. To compound this in a prime slot post 8am we have to suffer a piece about the rise of Stand Up Comedy. Once again lets be clear I have nothing against Stand Up comedy - I am a big fan - but it is hardly news! And to add insult to injury we are told this is the first of a three part series on Comedy. Three parts!!!!

This concerns me for lots of reasons, not least that it seems to indicate that Radio 4 believe our appetite for news - and I mean real news - and analysis - and I mean proper analysis - is in decline. "The audience cant take it" seems to be their view because, trust me there is plenty of news and analysis out there to be covered if they chose to do it. Instead they seem to believe that we want some parochial magazine show. So Today is declining into a flabby self satisfied and safe magazine programme - no doubt with sofa type sound effects soon.

What is particularity worrying for me is that it seems more and more like the USA where the absence of good news programming amongst a plethora of channels is staggering. One of the consequences of this is a population very poorly in formed about what is happening outside of the borders of their own country. But perhaps that is it. Radio 4 has become obsessed with the USA - we even had to sacrifice Go4it to the truly risible Americana. So maybe that is the plan – BBC may turn into FOX News – oh heaven help us!
I will go back to Tunbridge Wells now.

Get out (of Islington) more

Lots of commentators and members of the chattering political classes – of which I guess I am one – are getting very snobbish about the the BBC boat during the election coverage last week, Andrew Neil played host with a suitably piratical air to a group of “celebs” who made comment on events unfolding through the night.

Rachel Cook, in her article Ship of Fools in the New Statesman, is the just the latest in a long line of critics. Now I though it was a rather daft exercise but I am at odds with what seems to be the general criticism. Generally the view of the nay sayers is that the “celebs” were uniformed or were giving opinions about “weighty political issues” that were judged on superficial or trite considerations rather than some forensic examination of manifestos.

I am not in the slightest surprised that the vast majority of voters are not obsessed with these matters and vote on the basis of what people like Rachel might think are unimportant considerations, and often blind tribalism. That's the way it is, that is democracy.

What I found rather disturbing about it was that the BBC thinks that the views of “Celebrities” should be any more important than the man in the Clapham omnibus who cleary hadn't been invited into the HellOK crew. For me “celebrity obsession” is far more depressing than the foibles of universal suffrage.

Oh dear another one gone!

At the risk of this blog becoming an obituary column we have to say farewell to Harry Carpenter. Harry has been described as “one of the old school”, and I think that is meant affectionately rather than in any pejorative sense. He was without compare as a boxing commentator but was versatile and acted as anchor for more general sports programmes – notably Sportnsight.

He was, though, BBC trained in the days when the BBC could get it right. An interesting voice rather than a spectacular voice, but he used it to such good effect. Modulated and not prone to hyperbole or high volume outburst he was able to inject tension excitement and bring the viewer of listener into the event. Today's scruffy and unrestrained commentators – who seem to think that shouting and squeaking, as if on the terraces, makes for good commentary – would have learned a lot from Harry – know what I mean?

Happy New Year

Well that was a pretty poor performance in terms of blogging last year so perhaps my new years resolution should be to blog more regularly. Either way here it is, the firs of 2009.

Alistair Cooke must be one of the shining jewels of the spoken word world. His passing deprived us of the continuing joy of tuning in on Sunday morning, at least that is when I did, to listen in to his musings on life on the other side of the pond. Point of View is fine and I can listen to the idiosyncratic delivery of Clive James with a good deal of pleasure, but Cook is still king.

One of the good things about 50 years of broadcasting though, particularly with an organisation of the quality of the BBC, is that a good deal of archive material still exists of Alistair Cooke speaking at different times on a variety of subjects. As a result, and in the absence of anything better, the BBC do periodically dust off Cooke broadcasts and share them again with the nation and this Christmas has been no different. So it is with pleasure that I recommend to you the festive Alistair Cooke broadcasts. Introduced by the rather limp Justin Webb - but you can quickly overcome that to wallow in the honeyed tones of the master.

Find the broadcasts here.

Poetry please

I have always loved poetry, even the stuff that doesn't rhyme! Learning poems by heart and being able to recite them out loud was something that we would do at junior school and the practice was part of the schools annual Eisteddfod. It was good for memory, good to develop confidence of public speaking and, for the more dramatically oriented, an opportunity for an early performance.

Whist I cant claim to have a huge back catalogue committed to memory there are still a few that stick with me and it is fun to be able to trot them out as a bit of a party piece. They have served me well at various Poems and Pints nights where an impromptu recitation has been rewarded with a drop of something from the bar. Interestingly enough when I suggested to a group of friends this was something everyone should be able to do, recite a poem that is, I did get some rather blank looks and I fear it was another of those opportunities for them to reinforce their view that perhaps I am a bit odd! On reflection most of these friends were considerably younger than me and we, as group, had just ridden a long way across Cuba on push bikes, so perhaps it was not a typical sample.

So imagine my surprise and happiness when I discovered that the BBC were running a competition called Off By Heart for school children aimed at introducing them to the joys of poetry memorized and recited out loud. The wonderful selection of poems has some enduring classics, The Way Through The Woods - Kipling, The Listeners - de la Mare amongst others that I recall from school, and some more contemporary stuff from the likes of Benjamin Zephania. Championed by the wonderfully named Daisy Goodwin this is surely one of those initiatives that is so welcome, so sensible ye and so entirely obvious it rather makes you wonder how it ever needs to be revived at all.

The BBC have the ability to shoot themselves in the foot sometimes and to be sure it is not the institution that it once was and thsi is to theri proudest week, but on this occasion I applaud them, and Daisy of course!