“Blankety Blank”, “Celebrity Mastermind”, and “Live at the Apollo” to be cancelled as apparently the Beeb has to make savings. While they are at it, they don’t need to send 500 to Glastonbury. I love Auntie, but she has made far too many bad decisions recently, and I suspect that the best brains in media no longer see the BBC as the place to go. I’ve had a bit of involvement making programmes for them, and the folk doing the programme making are generally fantastic. As ever, it’s the management that is the problem. Yes, I pay my licence, and would pay a subscription – if so, I would like to have options as to how the dosh is spent. They can start by having proper “Dr Who” (episodic stories, cheap effects), news programmes for adults, showing “The Singing Ringing Tree” annually, and never ever having Scrappy-Doo on again.
My God, what shall we do?
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Savings are savings – but Blankety Blank C List celebrity fees, Mastermind’s one chair on the set, and 3 cameras in The Hammersmith Apollo may not generate the riches they are wanting.
Dumping Graham Norton might save a bit more dosh – does anyone watch the Friday Night show
(someone might, fair dos – personally I think it a waste of airtime)
Didn’t Graham Norton dump himself? I didn’t watch, but I remember a short-lived Claudia Winkelman replacement being tried. But, yes – I was surprised to see what I assumed was cheap celebrating telly on the list.
A while ago there was an item on The Rest is Entertainment about a US quiz show (single set, members of the public) which is filmed in Salford because it is cheaper to fly all the contestants and host over and film in the UK than to make it in the US.
I had heard there was a US game show filmed in Ireland with crew, presenters and contestants flown in. I didn’t quite believe it until I looked it up just now – not just one but several. We live in strange times…
“ Although Live at the Apollo will end, the BBC said it would “shortly be announcing digital plans focused on stand-up and emerging comedy talent”.
I can only surmise that this means a web cam in the back room of a pub in Wigan.
There’s bugger all new content of any interest on BBC tv or any of the legacy broadcasters really. We gave up on so called prime time years ago and even the drama fails to live up to expectations these days. I still listen to Radio 4 when working or driving but avoid Today and a few of the afternoon shows such as Rambling.
I know there was a lot of crap during the times we look back fondly on and there was a lot less airtime to fill then but it’s hard to imagine anyone producing much now that will be talked about in 20 or 30 years time.
Well depends what you like I suppose but, just to take drama as an example, I’d say that any channel that has produced Blue Lights, The Night Manager, Riot Women, This City is Ours, The Other Bennet Sister, Lord of the Flies, The Capture, Ludwig, and The Narrow Road to the Deep North over the last couple of years, amongst others, isn’t doing so bad. The problem is that there is so much competition now that it’s hard for anything to really stand out.
^ exactly this. They also produce some well regarded stuff for kids.
They do acres of light entertainment which I watch almost none of but were (or still are) the most watched shows in the UK – Strictly, Norton, Traitors, Bake Off plus other dramas like Line of Duty, Peaky Blinders, Call The Midwife, Killing Eve, I May Destroy You, Sherlock, Luther, Happy Valley, Bodyguard, The A Word. There’s plenty of comedy that offsets the inevitable mention of Mrs Brown – Motherland / Amadaland, Fleabag, Ghosts, This Country, Detectorists, Inside No 9 etc
We’re bound to see a decline in output. In real terms their funding is down by 15 to 20% since 2010 (OFCOM say license fee income in real terms is down 24% in the last decade). The license itself was frozen for 9 of the last 16 years, and part of a strategy by Osborne, Cummings et al.
Everyone has shows they can’t abide – that’s the problem with broadcasting – the clue is in the name. There’s a lot of old toss on the streaming services too – I mean Is It Cake? Who gives a toss?
Agreed, all we watch on the Beeb is drama and big football matches (if they have them). Otherwise nothing. There’s good nature stuff apparently though I haven’t watched it. Obviously they lost my interest in current affairs coverage years ago.
@davebigpicture – I’ve been in several backrooms in Wigan pubs, and I can categorically state they’re much funnier environments than Live at the Apollo.
Graham Norton is HUUUUGE, he gets A list guests and it is broadcast in other countries. Claudia was apparently just a stand in for a few weeks and she decided she wasn’t going to pursue that particular career opportunity.
Graham is so huge that he was invited to The Wedding.
I believe she wasn’t a stand in it was her own show it ran for seven episodes she decided not to do a second.
Yes she said it was too stressful.
I suspect the reviews were very stressful.
Yes it was her own show. I should have phrased it better, her show was on the air when Norton was taking a break.
I was going to say Scrappy-Doo hasn’t been a threat this century, but I checked and he was in the 2023-24 Velma series (I haven’t seen it).
There are a number of the better late-90s/early-00s direct-to-video animated Scooby-Doo movies on iPlayer at the moment. Zombie Island, Witch’s Ghost, Alien Invaders, Cyber Chase, Loch Ness Monster are all worth a watch. They really started to go downhill fast when the animation was offloaded from Hanna-Barbera to (IIRC) Korea.
When they went downhill fast, I expect they made that rapid swan whistle noise that accompanies all such antics.
My kids have just discovered Scooby Doo and have worked their way through the latest series “Mystery Incorporated”, I think. It has story arcs and subplots like Daphne and Fred’s engagement. We get to meet all their families and there’s a number of regular characters other than the main crew. It’s not bad and is Scrappy Doo free. There was even a reference to the Miner Forty-Niner from the classic Scooby Doo of old.
That’s one of the better ones. Essentially, each owner of the brand makes one good series and then a shit one, and shifts it on. The ones worth watching are:
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (CBS, 1969-1978 – the originals, although the animation might look a bit creaky now).
What’s New, Scooby-Doo? (Warner Brothers, 2002-2006, currently on iPlayer)
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (Cartoon Network, 2010-2013)
Avoid anything featuring special guests or Scrappy Doo.
Thanks for that. I’ll share this information with my offspring.
It’s nice to have an useful application for the shit I carry around in my brain.
That could be an Afterword T-shirt slogan.
Blankety Blank cancelled? So the Beeb are still capable of some sensible decisions then. No doubt they will re-route the savings into other quality programming like Alan Carr’s Picture Slam.
Weird coincidence – I watched The Singing Ringing Tree this very evening. As strange and dream-like as ever.
There’s a box set of that and others coming out but I can’t find it. However the Tinder Box is on YouTube so that’s my next viewing sorted.
They showed the Singing Ringing Tree at the Tyneside Cinema several years ago, so of course I went. Still strange still marvellous.
I believe that this may be the box set you seek: https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/into-the-forest-folktales-at-defa-limited-edition-box-set/
The Singing Ringing Tree, Robinson Crusoe, White Horses, The Flashing Blade, Belle and Sebastian, Noggin the Nog, The Long Chase…..classic 60s and 70s kids’ telly for those of us of a certain vintage.
Ah, The Flashing Blade. All I now remember about it is the theme tune, but it was a highlight of my Saturday mornings for a few years.
All very BBC indeed, but weren’t at least half of them foreign-made and bought it? Like – say – Scooby Doo, and The Magic Roundabout. I can live perfectly well without Celebrity Mastermind and/or Blankety Blank, and I hadn’t realised quite the global reach of Graham Norton until we were in New York watching the BBC International channel, but I would pay my subscription for the Glastonbury coverage alone, given the performance archive it’s continually generating.
Having had a glancing involvement with the BBC I’d agree that the enthusiasts at the coalface get a bum deal from the suits upstairs, not least when it comes to local radio. One man’s “We’re expanding the range of our ‘Introducing’ coverage” is another’s “We’re merging three counties so we can lay off four studio assistants and you can listen to the same thing”.
Blankety Blanket was always shit even with Terry Wogan
Yet somehow it attracted 20 million viewers back then – 1 in 3 of the UK population roughly.
Of course, there were only 4 channels back then though and it was always the sort of programme you’d “watch through” having seen something before it and were then waiting for what followed it. The best Blankety Blank was when Kenny Everett grabbed Wogan’s stupid microphone and bent it double.
The genius of Les Dawson is that he knew – better than anyone – that Blankety Blank was crap.
Yes. I recall one episode where he couldn’t seem to help himself but to declare forthrightly to one losing contestant, ‘Well. You’ve won nowt’
Actually I think there were only 3 in the BB era, but 20m was well above the norm even then. It was never highbrow stuff – even Wogan admitted it was pretty sketchy, but it pulled a lot of people in, just as Mrs Brown’s Boys does today, although it’s a mystery to me why.
“No one has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
The latest BB is fine as light entertainment – Bradley Walsh is a very funny man. The thing that they need to do is lose their habit of having showboating, extrovert members of the public as contestants. They should be meek and open to ridicule and not try to compete for laughs. This is the way.
Ian Hislop gets paid £20,000 per episode of HIGNFY, a show so tired Paul Merton looks like he’s physically attempting to sleep through it. It stopped working as satire about 20 years ago, precisely because the people who host it/Merton and Hislop are exactly the sort of people who now need to be satirised.
Completely agree with the comments about Glastonbury – if you’ve paid hundreds for your ticket, you don’t want every other bugger to watch it on telly. The BBC can send hundreds of staff to ‘Glasto’ (shudder), but they can’t employ anyone to hit the mute button when a crap band on stage start death chants.
Things I’d happily want the BBC to scrap, change, “rationalise” or simply cut back on in order to save money:
The ludicrous, uncritical amount of airtime given over to Glastonbury, when it isn’t having one of its fallow years.
Almost anything to do with Alan Carr. Sorry but I just don’t get it.
Radio 1.
Later with Jools. Tired.
The Apprentice. Tired and tiresome.
Those sort of “follow up” shows, such as the ones that Strictly and Bake Off insist upon. (Is the latter called “Extra Slice” or something?)
Do keep up – Bake Off has been on Channel 4 for several years. BBC has a sewing version, and I thought they had a pottery one too but checking should that it too is now on Channel 4. On the BBC’s own site the show that got the biggest shoeing in the comments was the abysmal Mrs Brown’s Boys.
Ha, shows how often I watch Bake Off!
The BBC still produces excellent television – both drama and light entertainment.
Traitors and Race Around The World are both great concepts but they are also delivered brilliantly. Race Around The World, in particular, picks it contestants with great skill. There are always an annoying pair (or two) at the beginning but when you find out more about them during the show (the back story telling is very carefully revealing), you end up rooting for them. This years series was fantastic – SPOILER ALERT – the two Scouse lads that won were an absolute delight.
Ludwig is ace as well. Drama with its tongue in its cheek – it’s clever and enjoyable – and a genuinely orginal concept. The Night Manager was fantastic – it would be lauded if it were on Netflix.
Add to that the good stuff that we take for granted – Gone Fishing, Blue Lights, Happy Valley, Line Of Duty, Masterchef (I liked the new judges), House Of Games, MOTD….its all a very high standard.
None of the canned shows I will miss though – they aren’t original or great. Sometimes budgets help get rid of the chaff.
The first season of The Night Manager was excellent. The second season was awful.
I’d go with less good. It was still very watchable.
The Night Manager S2 was watchable until the risible final episode which then undermined everything and made the time spent viewing what had come before a complete and utter waste.
Thanks for confirming, am 2 episodes in and am struggling
The end was very underwhelming, but did leave a get-out into a potential third series. Or did it?
I seem to remember that S2 teed up S3.
Don’t watch the third.
Third episode or third series (if there is one)?
Series. I’m slightly joking, it’s only rumoured at the moment.
Ok, I will maybe persevere with series 2 at least for a while
Don’t.
You will be furious that you have wasted your time watching the over-contrived bowl of shite when you have seen the final episode.
I thought the second series was watchable, in the same way that The Second Coming by the Stone Roses isn’t as bad as people said. In both cases, however, you end up thinking: they should probably have left it alone.
Agree – on both counts. Both still comfortably above average.
I was annoyed at the final episode it’s true.
Th cost cutting taking place within NBH right now is brutal according to friends who works there in newsroom or radio. But I guess the programmes themselves need to be as broadly appealing as possible at the moment while talks around licensing options roil and bubble – hence Mrs Brown’s Boys etc and the filleting of serious news coverage.
If you think the Beeb is awful, I offer you to pop on le Shuttle to Lille. My BIL will be happy to show you Saturday night prime time broadcast TV in France. You’ll be coming home muttering that the licence fee isn’t high enough.
There’s a reason the walls of his office/spare bedroom/downstairs loo are lined with shelves groaning under the weight of VHS tapes and DVDs.
Yes when I lived in Paris I had a hooky Sky sub – there are firms who supply the dish and point it the right way. As long as your credit card has a UK address everyone is happy.
Yes I had one in Switzerland too for a few years. They have since made the satellite footprint smaller I believe, but you can stream Sky through Now TV instead if you have UK bank account details (I don’t any more) and a VPN
After more than twenty years here, I still can’t believe how bad mainstream French TV is. Freeview through the Sky Satellite gives us all UK channels (except when there’s thunderstorms around) and let me tell you the BBC is like a beacon of hope, intelligence and damn good taste compared to almost anything French TV has to offer. (And our French friends 100% agree)
I don’t have a T.V. Licence and therefore have nothing to say about the quality of BBC television programmes. I see that other contributors have highlighted some apparently good quality programmes produced in recent years. I daresay the programmes are excellent, but it doesn’t seem like that great a return given annual budgets of £5-6 billion per annum
The total operating cost of £6bn doesn’t relate to TV, but the entire BBC group. The TV element costs about £1.8bn, which attracts 22bn hours of viewing. About 9p an hour, and the same as ITV.
To meet the terms of its charter, the BBC has to provide education, regional / local content, minority languages, World Service. All part of the £6bn.
It’s not perfect by any means, but for me the BBC is still the best broadcaster in the world.
I’m happy to pay the licence fee if it means I don’t have to watch even one more advert. Some channels (5, TLC, ITVX, etc.) are now practically unwatchable due to the number and size of the ad breaks, and the general witlessness of the ads themselves.
And quality-wise, the Beeb is still streets ahead of the competition: the picture quality is top-notch, its presentation and organisation – iPlayer, the red button – is slick, and what other channel would show, say, Countryfile, The Repair Shop, and the like at prime time?
People rightly praise big US shows like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, but having lived in North America a while back, I can safely say that *at that time* the other 95-99% of US TV was absolute dross, and watching it in general was a nightmare: the ads were relentless and awful (I particularly recall the medical ads that by law had to vocally explain, at length, all the side effects – say hello to the eye drops, IIRC, “that may cause permanent blindness”. Erm, no thanks), and the news shows were seemingly made for viewers with the attention span and intelligence of a gnat, and no awareness of other countries in the world. Films were often heavily censored for nudity and language (but bloody violence was OK) and even shortened to fit the very rigid time slots. And despite the US being the centre of the porn world, there was a weird puritan streak that meant anything even a bit edgy was avoided by the mainstream broadcasters. (Given the competition from streamers, maybe things are better now, I don’t know.)
Yes, the BBC could be improved – a few more quality dramas, say, maybe funded by not paying radio DJs eye-watering sums for just talking and pressing Play to cue some music – but I hope it continues for a long while yet.
100% agree.
I do think the shiny floor format of the less challenging celeb driven game shows like BB have had their day, but “clever” shows like Only Connect and Pointless are to be cherished. The BBC are really good at that kind of thing – not to mention the radio shows too.
I don’t understand the pummeling Have I Got News For You gets, because I think it remains a very funny programme, But then again, I’m getting on a bit. I think younger audiences and guests view Hislop and Merton in the same way that we viewed Frank Muir, Arthur Askey and Barry Cryer. Our parents knew these people very well whereas we grew up watching them on TV in their twilight years. We often didn’t understand their references. For example, does anyone under 40 really get why Hislop’s occasional impression of Jimi Somerville is funny? Or pick up on Merton’s Tony Hancock quotes? It really doesn’t matter at all. I enjoyed my parents laughing at mysterious catchphrases.
Hislop’s impression of Jimi Somerville? Blimey. Can’t recall that but mind fairly boggles. You’re right – to anyone under 30, they must be absolute dinosaurs but many of us regard them as contemporaries. I did notice Merton’s absolute disgust when Gove was his teammate recently, scowling and silent at Gove’s oleaginous and smug demeanour
I remember going to a taping of it, back in 2002 or 2003 when I was working on a magazine at IPC nearby. Stanley Johnson and Claudia Winkleman were the guest panellists. We went up for a beer with them all after the recording and Claudia nicked a Marlboro Light off me. I remember Merton was very courteous, sinking pint after pint of Guinness and very seriously discussing his performance that evening. Hislop couldn’t have been nicer – he even wrote me an unsolicited letter a few days later, following up on a conversation about journalism.
They were showing old episodes of Call My Bluff on Beeb 4 (I think?) recently and I felt that now I’m just the right age to enjoy the pace as well as the chumminess of the the three regulars. Didn’t hurt that among the regular guests were most of my seventies crushes..
HIGNFY is one of the most watched shows on the BBC. It pulls in around 5m, which means it’s doing better than the soaps and more or less everything on ITV (other than finals of shows like I’m A Celebrity). It’s cheap to make; the main downside is its very short shelf life. Still makes me laugh most weeks.
I’ve never watched “Live At The Apollo” but it’s obviously not a good thing that comedians will henceforth be more limited in their Television exposure opportunities.
As for the other two shows in the OP headline, I don’t really care.