Picture from BBC
Friday night can sometimes be the best night to stay in and sit in front of BBC4 for the entire night when they really make the effort, other times you wonder what happened. The theme nights are great at times and I know they have to cater for all tastes, but other times I get the impression that someone has been left in charge with a box of videos and some crayons to keep them occupied. Surely there is uncovered ground with regards to music? I know BBC4 do stuff on other nights of the week, and they do knock out a decent documentary but as far as music is concerned, (which is why the majority of us watch it on a Friday) they seem to have taken their feet off the pedals a bit.
As far as the repeats of Top of the Pops goes, this was a great idea when it first started as they were broadcast in real time, as is the Radio Two show Pick of the Pops. I'd have taken this one step further and when the presenters on the repeats mentioned being on Radio One the next day I would have tried to get them to do just that. If nothing else it would shock today's Radio One audience if Noel Edmonds or David Hamilton suddenly turned up in the schedule. Obviously they had to scrap all of the episodes presented by Jimmy Savile and to a lesser extent Dave Lee Travis, but it is a shame that the music had to disappear with it. Surely they could have just cut the introductions out and played the episodes as constant music. Although they began to just miss out the week presented by a sex offender, (or indeed with one singing) now they have cocked it up completely by showing two episodes some weeks.
Documentary wise, the music programmes seem to be on a perpetual loop with no sign of any fresh ideas. I for one would love the opportunity to make stuff for them, documentaries on certain artists for example, but the BBC is a very closed door affair. We know this is true as I hit a brick wall with 6Music despite having a ready made radio show for them.
On a comedy note, I am enjoying the run of The Good Old Days, one of the few entertainments from the 1970s they can play without having to edit out racism or sexism. Surely there must be a selection of bygone entertainments that can be broadcast? How about the old Seaside Special shows, or sticking on a real time Saturday morning show starting with Swap Shop and working their way along the timeline until they get to Live and Kicking? There's the children's drama series that used to go out on a Sunday teatime, or other music shows besides Top of the Pops. Dick Clark apparently kept a personal archive of every episode of American Bandstand, why hasn't an offer been made?
===
Thank you in advance for donating using the PayPal button at the top of this page. It all goes towards creating podcasts, sketches, documentaries, films and more, all of which I will make available for free in return for your generosity.
