Forgive me, ladies and gentlemen, for the months long absence of this podcast. Join me now, as we travel back through the mists of time to BBC Radio Nottingham in the early 90s, and meet fantastic local broadcaster Dennis McCarthy. Oh yes, and me when I was 9.
Download Podcast #3: Junior Jackpot (27MB MP3, 13:53)
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What a swotty little prick.
There is a pattern happening over at UKTV. Last year, they commissioned a new series of Red Dwarf – a show that the BBC had decided they didn’t want any more. This year, they commissioned a new series of Yes, Prime Minister for Gold, still written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn – and does anyone remember the stories about the BBC rejecting a proposed series Yes Commissioner a few years ago, based around the EU?
This week, I attended the first of six recordings for the new series. (They’re happening through September, so there’s plenty of chance to grab a ticket.) Interested in a little run-down, in lazy bullet-point form?
In a world of DVDs and downloads, one advantage television still has is when it comes to rights issues. Negotiating rights to music for commercial release can be especially tricky – series like Life on Mars and Skins are especially hurt by it. Even a show like I’m Alan Partridge isn’t quite the same on the DVD release as it was on broadcast. So, when Dave decided to do an I’m Alan Partridge Series 2 marathon last Sunday night, it was an ideal way of seeing the programmes as they were originally transmitted, yes?
Anyone reading this blog who has spent more than five minutes watching any of Gold or Dave will know the answer to that question. In fact, the episodes were edited for content for transmission pre-watershed – and then also shown in this state post-watershed. (The first two episodes were shown before the watershed, as the marathon started at 8pm – but they were repeated later in the evening with exactly the same cuts.) Here then, is a list of all the edits made to these episodes – indicated [like this] – and tune in for the commentary at the end.
Yesterday Dave decided to have an I’m Alan Partridge Series 2 marathon. Only I can spin two blog posts out of this fact. It’s the boring one today, and then the really boring one tomorrow.
So, here’s the title sequence – taken from the Series 2 DVD – from the episode I Know What Alan Did Last Summer:
…and here’s the version taken from the Dave broadcast on the 22nd July at 10:40pm:
The same clips, but without all the graphics added. Not even the title of the show! OK, so it’s not up to the standards of this, but still. (It does at least afford us a proper look at the set used for Alan’s pieces to camera which close each sequence.)
Checking the rest of the episode, barring deliberate edits for language (see tomorrow for more on that), the rest of the episode was identical to the DVD version. I’d be fascinated to know how the wrong version of the episode was even delivered to UKTV. Not that it should ever have got to air anyway…
I love Brand New. Describing its purpose as to “chronicle and provide opinions on corporate and brand identity work”, a huge part of the site simply presents logos before a redesign and after, and invites comparisons. You could get lost in those archives for hours.
However, I have to – admittedly belatedly – take issue with the following post – New University of the Arts London Logo, or Why I Hate Helvetica. Click the link, read the article, especially the rant at the bottom – I’ll wait.
Filthy Rich & Catflap, end of Episode 3. Richie’s party has been a disaster. And, because it’s Filthy Rich & Catflap, the oven explodes, taking out a large section of the wall…
…and three figures, never seen before, peer through the hole.
So, my question is: who are they? They peer into frame very deliberately, so they’re quite clearly supposed to be there.
Answers on a postcard*, please.
* In the comments or on Twitter.
Via the excellent @BobDinan, here’s a depressing article – What I’m really thinking: the radio presenter. It takes some feat to contradict yourself so splendidly using only four paragraphs, but somehow this piece manages it.
“Listeners have told me they’re pregnant before they’ve told their boyfriends. They’ve just had nobody else to go to. This job has made me realise there are a lot of lonely people in the world. I know they think I’m their friend.”
Radio as friend. Got you. Makes sense. I mean, I’d quibble with how it’s phrased, and it seems to pity an audience of which the vast majority doesn’t need pitying – but whatever.
“This is the only job I’ve done and I’m amazed we still have an audience. With a smartphone you can listen to whatever song you want, whenever you want. You don’t have to tune in on the off chance I’ll play something you like. Within a generation I think there will be no such thing as a radio presenter. Which is why, when people ask me how to get into radio, I think – don’t.”
…hang on. You started the piece by pointing out how radio can connect with an audience – using the human voice, in a way that an iPod can’t. Have you completely forgotten what you’ve just written?
So, I’ve just spent the last week in Brussels, and I’m happy to report I spent half the time being extremely childish, and the other half being vaguely cultured. On the childish side you have things like this, and on the culture front I visited the fantastic exhibition Stanley Kubrick Photographer at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, on display until the 1st July.
And so, with the surprising success of the opening episode, welcome to the second Dirty Feed podcast. This time, I take a look at Bodysnatcher – an unmade episode from the very first series of Red Dwarf…
Download Podcast #2: Bodysnatcher (23MB MP3, 11:45)
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As ever, I’d love to have your feedback below. Hopefully they’re interesting in their own right, but these podcasts are also warm-ups for some longer, half-hour shows later in the year – so any suggestions are pathetically gratefully received.
DISCLAIMER: I do know someone who worked on the DVD release mentioned here. Seeing as I spent an entire year slagging off Back To Earth though, I think you can be confident that my opinions about Red Dwarf are honest.
Last year, I started a series of posts about jingle samplers, from the fantastic collection of Ken R. After a short break, I meant to get back to it – but in the meantime an excellent site has sprung up from Ted Tatman, archiving all the samplers I have, and rather more besides. Rather than duplicate the effort, especially as that site has a bit more context, I thought I’d finish my series by just giving the site a great big link:
As there really is much great stuff over there, I thought the following would be a a fitting end to this series of posts:
And that great song leaves me with a question – just what was it about 70s pop culture which made them constantly mention the year? I keep seeing it with material from that decade. Even the Carry On films were doing it with this poster for Carry On Behind – “…with the ’76 touch”. Why?