PLEDGE TV UK

There is a lot of talk about television in the media at the moment and whilst reading about painful cuts to the BBC and increased responsibility, I've often wondered why the UK doesn't have a Pledge TV station. OK, the licence fee is compulsory but people put their hand in their pockets for Sky on top of that too, so why not? Would you voluntarily pay for the upkeep of a TV station and would it actually be worth watching? My guess is that there wouldn't be enough money generated to deem it worthwhile and that's why it hasn't happened. Let me know your thoughts if you can be bothered.

BBC VALUE FOR MONEY?

On the face of it, the BBC argues value for money with it's digital TV stations but the reality is we only have half of a BBC 3 and half of a BBC4 and it's easy to forget that, especially when the BBC likes to promote that it has 6 UK channels when this is just a technicality.

Why not actually give us full channels that are on all day? Even the cheapest private sector channels manage this with repeats of old shows and music. So why don't the BBC make use of the mountain of cultural classic Television rotting in the archives that has little commercial value and give it a good airing? Why not involve the BFI and create a new daytime schedule on BBC4 with it?

A hybrid BBC music channel wouldn't go amiss either. Why not use BBC3 in the daytime for this? Maybe a collaboration with BBC6 music or a resurrected Top of the Pops would be nice. Ok, before you say they are already stretched to the limit now anyway, don't forget the BBC created these services in the first place and should at least try to fill them.

BBC IS LOSING IT

In this weeks issue of the Radio Times the American market's commercial drama output, is criticised by the fact they produce 13 or 24 part series in order to recoup their investments as a BAD thing. Yeh right! Apparantly BBC Drama doesn't make a penny of money from selling anything over-seas. How stupid is that?

Surely, with the effective large cuts from the now frozen licence fee, the BBC should be looking for more ways to fund itself, possibly through more co-production funding and a higher serial based output it can actually sell, especially overseas, in order to survive and give the public a more cultural and balanced BBC, instead of the quite frankly stuffy attitude it has over making most of it's output in-house to enforce a sense of Britishness that apparently, only the BBC can produce.

As for 13 part shows, Doctor Who or Merlin doesn't creatively suffer from this extended treatment now does it? Obviously, no-one expects a massive 24 episodes from a British series (which in most cases is overkill anyway) at the expense of other quality drama and we all know the UK's TV budgets are a lot smaller than the American market when it comes to these expensive shows but the BBC has a new marketing trick up it's sleeve to cover this one...

Take Doctor Who, which is now receiving the split season treatment. It's supposed to be a creative decision to heighten the drama but it's more likely a ploy to spread the show out over a year without actually producing any more episodes just in case the children that buy all the toys forget what Doctor Who is and stop buying endless plastic Daleks and Toothbrushes and DWA magazine. Sounds like a commercial orientated business decision now doesn't it? Or is it just an excuse to ditch Matt Smith half way through fulfilling his contract and replace him with the quite frankly much better Benedict Cumberbatch?

Ahhh but now there's another problem... Sherlock.

Stephen Moffat probably needs a good rest at the moment as he is faced with the pressure of new Sherlock and Doctor Who. Poor Sherlock, it should never have been a three part series in the first place. A foolish decision which the BBC (who blames Stephen Moffat as apparantly, It would be against his vision to produce anymore.) It is now obviously publicly regretting and a missed opportunity to instal a genuine bohemian style Doctor. How could they go wrong with Sherlock, with Stephen Moffat and Mark Gattis at the helm? The BBC should have shown more confidence and drafted in more writers to help and give us a 13 part season of this high quality drama instead of lining the likes of Graham Norton's pockets with £4 Million quid. Like it or not, in order to survive, the BBC is going to have to invest more money into shows it can sell instead of pretending the commercial market doesn't exist. If we want a cheap chat show we will watch Channel 4.

In the Radio Times there is defense of risky drama shorts that we are supposed to be watching and yet the BBC time and again serves up even more costume drama that's getting the umpteenth wasteful BBC style remake complete with smugness factor. ITV are just as good at making costume drama as the BBC and manage to do it without endlessly repeating their output. Take a leaf out of their book for a change! The BBC needs to defend itself into an impoverished creative cul-de-sac it needs more support that it won't now be getting from the licence fee and they need to introduce some canny business logic so that it can continue to produce it's niche output without turning the BBC into a visual Museum. Oh, and isn't it quite amusing how the more commercial shows like Doctor Who are always served up in the media whenever the licence fee is under threat?

DOOMWATCH RE-ENTRY FORBIDDEN

DOOMWATCH PROJECT SAHARA

DOOMWATCH SEASON 1 EPISODE 7 THE DEVIL'S SWEETS

DOOMWATCH ORIGINAL TITLE SEQUENCE

DOOMWATCH SEASON 3 EPISODE 6 HAIR TRIGGER

DOOMWATCH SEASON 3 EPISODE 4 WAITING FOR A KNIGHTHOOD

Link to good times.

What is Schizo

SHORT STORY - THE NOT PEOPLE by GRANT FOXON

The Not People

THE IRON DOCTOR BW

THE WEB OF FEAR BW

THE ISLANDERS BW