I have concluded that the BBC is frantically busy compiling the equivalent of the Malleus Maleficarum, the documentation of “proof” by the medieval Church that witches existed. Here, we have alien species – in this case, floating pennywort, a nasty invader from the nasty US – callously and viciously invading the pristine waterways of Northern Ireland. Here, strange men called Megonigels are devising new and ever more cunning ways of … Continue reading
Here’s Peter Allen introducing the post-midterm edition of Drive on BBC Radio Five Live yesterday: Listen! Depends where you stand. (Hat tip John Horne Tooke) Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.
Question Time tonight comes from Sheffield, a city with the world’s first ever official football club, 2 million trees and absolutely no Tory councillors. On the panel tonight we have David Davis MP, Jeremy Browne MP, Jack Straw MP, Universal Shami (to be fair, she hasn’t been somewhere on the BBC now for, ummm, a whole 10 minutes) and Jon Gaunt. For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, tonight’s panel has been … Continue reading
Anyone know how they’re filling the schedules? Fingers crossed for 48 hours of Bilko (about time that was back on the telly). Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.
Last month, B-BBC reader La Cumparista made the following comment on David Vance’s post about a BBC interview with a Man Booker Prize nominee: I would really like Howard Jacobson to win the Man Booker prize this year. Has he had much publicity on the BBC? Jacobson is listed with the others on BBC news briefs about the authors on the short list, but only Peter Carey got a special … Continue reading
So hands up who knew that the BBC still has a secret underground bunker, 10-floors deep into a mountain in the middle of nowhere, built during the Cold War in case there was a nuclear Armageddon? Buried 10 storeys into the hillside is a fully functioning nuclear bunker, built at great expense in 1966, at the height of the Cold War. So few people knew of its existence that, even when … Continue reading
Whatever you make of the slur on Band Aid, the BBC’s apology to Sir Bob must have posed a dilemma.On the one hand, one of their favourite enterprises, fundraising for charities, fronted by one of their favourite personalities, Sir Bob Geldof.On the other hand, one of the BBC’s most intransigent internal organisations, the complaints department indoors which must be obeyed.So the complaints department eventually capitulated, and Sir Bob was sufficiently … Continue reading
…I’ll be busy doing something more enjoyable, like trying to gnaw my own eyeballs. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.
John Simpson, the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, has compared the licence fee freeze to “waterboarding”. In a letter written to Ariel, the BBC’s own in-house newsmagazine, the BBC’s own in-house newsmagazine Mr Simpson says that only “far-right idealogues” and the “Murdoch empire” think the BBC should share the pain being endured by the rest of the public sector. It’s not fair that B-BBC doesn’t get full recognition there too. “Our … Continue reading
The BBC is reporting “Israel halts ‘dialogue’ with UK over war crimes law.”This looks like another of Israel’s deliberate snubs, this time aimed at the UK rather than the US (over the curious incident of the announcement about settlements coinciding with Joe Biden’s visit.) William Hague is being humiliated, so they say, but at least he doesn’t risk being arrested in Israel, as Israeli officials do if they are foolish … Continue reading
