Climb Every Mountain ….

Or not, as the case may be. For Griff Rhys Jones, it was a high point of his television career. He had scaled the tallest mountain in Britain, the cameras rolling all the while, and last night he learnt that he had won a coveted Scottish Bafta award for the resultant series, Mountain. But even as the series was receiving the plaudits of the critics, doubts were beginning to surface … Continue reading

General BBC-related comment thread:

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may be moderated. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

For crying out loud, Now BBC fakes sound of babies crying on quintuplet film

: Sky and ITN ran clips of the footage without the audio, the BBC’s footage contains the sound of children crying, even though the babies have respirators in their mouths. A spokeswoman for the Oxford hospital said: “There was no audio on our clip.” “The BBC must have put it over.” “I thought they weren’t supposed to do things like that.” A BBC spokesman said the corporation should have left … Continue reading

John A, formerly of the respected Climate Audit blog

, has submitted comments to the BBC in response to their current, doubtless passing, interest of sorts, in the arguments against reducing Western Civilization to subsistence farming as a means to avoid the fiery fate predicted by legions of global warming doom mongers. Just in case his comments, for some predictable reason, don’t make it past the BBC’s censors, he’s posted them on his blog, BBC Black Propaganda #1 and … Continue reading

Keen on filing Freedom of Information requests and complaining, rightly, when public bodies prevaricate

, the BBC is getting a reputation of its own for prevaricating over Freedom of Information requests to the BBC by and on behalf of the tellytaxpaying public. Not content with its infamy (and sheer hypocrisy) for spending hundreds of thousands of tellytaxpayer pounds on legal action to withhold the Balen Report from the scrutiny of the public who paid for it, the BBC’s now doing its utmost to cover … Continue reading

“This Time it is Personal”

announces Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (aka ‘The Yazzmonster’): “It is personal guys. Several BBC broadcasters tell me they are not interested in ‘Guardian and Independent’ points of view. We are passé, irrelevant, annoying, elitist, too middle class and soft. Fashion moves on, the culture is now noisy and intolerant and the Beeb follows, is too feeble to stand up to ugly populism. Many of us have-beens are no longer invited on to … Continue reading

General BBC-related comment thread:

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may be moderated. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

The Today Programme …

Sarah Montague (for it is she, 15 minutes in (RealAudio)) : “Sean Penn, we’ve discussed your new film, now tell us about your politics, you’re known for your strong views, you’re opposed to the Iraq war, you’re opposed to the way America’s dealing with Iran … why aren’t your films more overtly political ?” SP: “There’s nothing more political than to be proactively human …” SM: “And your project for … Continue reading

BBC screws up

I don’t approve of taxpayers having to fund big sporting events but I am glad that Glasgow has won the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Better that our money be spent on infrastructure than most other state boondoggles. And one of those beneficiaries of the state is the BBC. Isn’t it astounding that the Beeb managed to screw up Glasgow’s big moment? BBC Scotland last night apologised after missing the moment of … Continue reading

Oh dear. Another day, another BBC Blue Peter scandal!

According to the Daily Mail, Blue Peter admit ‘competition winners’ were child actors: In the latest deception, children were asked to apply to the Blue Peter website for an opportunity to go to the show’s studios and interview Dead Ringers impersonator John Culshaw. Six children were chosen, but after the show it emerged two had been picked from a local drama group to liven up the slot. Each child was … Continue reading