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ledow t1_iyfae0d wrote

Reply to comment by Dry-Mortgage5063 in BBC to produce ‘lighter’ content to attract Britons from poorer backgrounds by do_or_pie

The BBC and licence fee were operated mostly on the basis that they wouldn't fall foul to just "crass entertainment", but carry educational programmes (e.g. the entire Open University lectures for decades), fund insightful and non-commercial programmes (e.g David Attenborough for decades), do the things that paid-for commercial channels wouldn't do (e.g. Children In Need, intellectual quizzes like Only Connect, etc.) because everyone else just wanted to appeal to your eyes, not your brain.

It's drifted away from that just in my time of watching it, let alone of late where it seems to be accelerating.

And - a bit like the NHS - the current government want it to look bad so they can justify scrapping it because it's an expense. Paying to educate the riffraff for free?! So they want to scrap the licence fee, force it to produce inane content and turn even an intellectual format into nothing but yelling, the same dozen comedians and nob gags (e.g. QI), wait for it to die, remove funding, force it to compete, then kill it off when it's not profitable.

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Dry-Mortgage5063 t1_iyfb9mg wrote

Well I don't care about your brit bong tv dynamics. But considering the BBC's most famous and successful show is some bullshit about a wonky space wizard, or whatever, and that's like 80 years old, it seems like it's never been what you describe.

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EpicPJs t1_iyfcjeo wrote

Sherlock, Faulty Towers, Blackadder, Line of Duty. All produced by BBC and all a extremely popular and quotable worldwide.

No need for the hostile attitude.

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ledow t1_iyfe06s wrote

Dr Who is shite. Sorry, but it really is. It's literally the kind of thing we're talking about. It was a trash sci-fi from the 60's that didn't go "cult" until what... the 00's? It's like people going ape over a Thunderbirds remake.

The BBC produced some of the best programmes in existence over the years - not churning them out constantly 24/7 for decades, that's impossible, but it produced a LOT of great stuff that other channels wouldn't touch.

Literally, the BBC Micro was invented to go along with BBC programmes to teach kids in the 80's how to use this new fangled thing called a home computer. They commissioned many series of programmes, the actual hardware (the BBC Micro, giving rise to Acorn/ARM's fame! The chip that's INSIDE YOUR PHONE NOW) , etc.

Schools showed BBC programmes directly during the day for lessons. Entire generations grew up with BBC programmes in their classrooms, then went and learned BBC BASIC on a BBC Micro.

The OU literally has millions of degree-level graduates who owe their degree to late night lectures on BBC2 that NOBODY else would dedicate air-time to, and the BBC basically funded them, gave them the facilities to make them, and put millions through university who couldn't afford it, have time off work to go to university or get the materials any other way.

BBC iPlayer was also ground-breaking. They invented their own codecs to make it work.

Not to even mention the World Service, etc.

Sorry, but if you think that Dr Who shit was what the BBC was about, you've already fallen for the con they want you to.

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