I know that some you have little time for the BBC, a view I don't share, however, lately they have not been as good but this evening, the broadcast of the Rememberance programme imo has been excellent and has restored some of my faith.
Totally agree it's been excellent and as a Veteran Submariner it is a much appreciate service❤️
On Rememberance Sunday my Dad would always, whatever the weather, find something to do in the garden. At eleven he just stood there with a thousand mile gaze on his face. I knew he was seeing things he would rather not have seen and which he would certainly never speak about.
After he died I found the diary he had written on his jaunt through Western Europe (1944-45) and I got some very slight idea of the kind of thing he and his mates had to go through so that we could enjoy the freedoms we have today.
Genuinely feel we're very lucky to have the BBC. Surprised as to how some people feel otherwise.
Quote from: KJS on November 09, 2024, 10:29:49 PMTotally agree it's been excellent and as a Veteran Submariner it is a much appreciate service❤️
Nice one Deeps!
Skimmers rule😉🇬🇧⚓️
Quote from: hopper on November 10, 2024, 01:31:56 AMGenuinely feel we're very lucky to have the BBC. Surprised as to how some people feel otherwise.
Some things that the BBC do are excellent. The Remembrance Sunday stuff is top notch, as was the D Day coverage. Some of their programming is educational or of great public interest or very entertaining. I personally watch their breakfast offerings in preference to ITV as I find the presenters to be pretty well informed and decent interviewers, especially with politicians who have a message to get across while trying not to answer the awkward questions. Pointless is excellent. Who Do You Think You Are can be fascinating, though the ignorance of some of their subjects about historical events must be put on for the camera (I hope). I enjoy MasterChef, though not so much the celebrity and professional versions. I even like the Sewing Bee, even though I have zero interest in sewing. Go figure.
I also appreciate that just because I do not like a particular programme, it does not make it a bad programme. I find Panorama to be irksome and irrelevant and usually with a clear political agenda which skews it's content, for example, but others will probably disagree. I find the constant advertising of the Ru Paul Drag Race to be frankly baffling, why they do not try to push other BBC 3 offerings with the same gusto is a mystery to me. Maybe Ru Paul gets better ratings than Our War, for example, but possibly Our War would get better ratings if it was pushed as relentlessly (or even pushed at all). Who knows?
However, I do not think the BBC is above criticism. We pay for it. If the BBC sees fit to use my licence fee to pay for BBC Parliament or Doctor Who or Ru Paul, I think I should be entitled to say if I think it is a waste of my money or not. If I am annoyed that the vastly overpaid (in my opinion) Gary Lineker is giving scant attention to the exploits of my favourite team, while slobbering over the 0-0 bore fest between Man City and Spurs, highlighting and analysing every tackle and shirt tug, I feel entitled to say so. Just because I think it is bad, I recognise that others are entitled to feel the opposite. The true litmus test, of course, would be for the BBC to scrap the licence fee and instead take on advertising, or rather paid advertising as they already heavily advertise between programmes anyway (ie adverts for programmes on iplayer and BBC Sounds). People could then vote for what is good or not by the viewing figures or by joining a subscription service (which I might well do).
Hopefully this helps explain my position to you.
Quote from: cmg on November 10, 2024, 12:39:31 AMOn Rememberance Sunday my Dad would always, whatever the weather, find something to do in the garden. At eleven he just stood there with a thousand mile gaze on his face. I knew he was seeing things he would rather not have seen and which he would certainly never speak about.
After he died I found the diary he had written on his jaunt through Western Europe (1944-45) and I got some very slight idea of the kind of thing he and his mates had to go through so that we could enjoy the freedoms we have today.
My dad was a signalman in the Royal Marines, he went through a terrible time on D-day, he was on landing craft and saw his mate on another craft have his head shot clean off his body. My dad would never say a word, I know he was mentioned in dispatches, I don't know what for, I understand it means he done something good, but again never a word.
Quote from: Rupert on November 10, 2024, 09:54:24 AMQuote from: hopper on November 10, 2024, 01:31:56 AMGenuinely feel we're very lucky to have the BBC. Surprised as to how some people feel otherwise.
Some things that the BBC do are excellent. The Remembrance Sunday stuff is top notch, as was the D Day coverage. Some of their programming is educational or of great public interest or very entertaining. I personally watch their breakfast offerings in preference to ITV as I find the presenters to be pretty well informed and decent interviewers, especially with politicians who have a message to get across while trying not to answer the awkward questions. Pointless is excellent. Who Do You Think You Are can be fascinating, though the ignorance of some of their subjects about historical events must be put on for the camera (I hope). I enjoy MasterChef, though not so much the celebrity and professional versions. I even like the Sewing Bee, even though I have zero interest in sewing. Go figure.
I also appreciate that just because I do not like a particular programme, it does not make it a bad programme. I find Panorama to be irksome and irrelevant and usually with a clear political agenda which skews it's content, for example, but others will probably disagree. I find the constant advertising of the Ru Paul Drag Race to be frankly baffling, why they do not try to push other BBC 3 offerings with the same gusto is a mystery to me. Maybe Ru Paul gets better ratings than Our War, for example, but possibly Our War would get better ratings if it was pushed as relentlessly (or even pushed at all). Who knows?
However, I do not think the BBC is above criticism. We pay for it. If the BBC sees fit to use my licence fee to pay for BBC Parliament or Doctor Who or Ru Paul, I think I should be entitled to say if I think it is a waste of my money or not. If I am annoyed that the vastly overpaid (in my opinion) Gary Lineker is giving scant attention to the exploits of my favourite team, while slobbering over the 0-0 bore fest between Man City and Spurs, highlighting and analysing every tackle and shirt tug, I feel entitled to say so. Just because I think it is bad, I recognise that others are entitled to feel the opposite. The true litmus test, of course, would be for the BBC to scrap the licence fee and instead take on advertising, or rather paid advertising as they already heavily advertise between programmes anyway (ie adverts for programmes on iplayer and BBC Sounds). People could then vote for what is good or not by the viewing figures or by joining a subscription service (which I might well do).
Hopefully this helps explain my position to you.
I agree with everything you say even though our choice of viewing might vary slightly. Probably my biggest gripe is that programmes labelled as 'news' quickly move into 'documentary' mode, with a political bias. So you end up hearing all about Gaza suffering for ten or fifteen minutes but with little information about what is happening in the UK. As for Gary Lineker, I always feel as if I am intruding on a session that he is having with his mates, a meeting of his mutual appreciation society.
I am not going to bother to debate the waste of money the BBC has become on these pages. But thankfully they can do these traditional things well.
Quote from: Lighthouse on November 10, 2024, 12:20:49 PMI am not going to bother to debate the waste of money the BBC has become on these pages. But thankfully they can do these traditional things well.
Have to agree with that Lighthouse. They waste our money and we pay for them
However, the Remembrance Service last night was back to their best
My son flies as an Observer in a Royal Navy Merlin Helicopter. His great grandfather was a DFC & Bar in the RFC in the First World War. Great Grandfather knew Lawrence of Arabia, fought against the Turks, fought with the White Russians against the Bolsheviks, was too old for the Second World War so he worked with Barnes Wallace on the Bouncing Bomb.
Never talked much about it until the very end of his life.
Don't make 'em like that any more!
I attended the local village war memorial parade this morning followed by a church service. A brilliant piper set the scene.
We should never forget the sacrifice of those who died so as we could be here free today.
https://youtu.be/ofhao4SHXGo?si=RVeGZNc9BKo1ZGV3
Spent the day in the city. 15 year colour sarjeant with 1st battalion the royal green jackets and then 2 Rifles. Filling rather awfully today!! ::wine::
My dad fought in north Africa under Montgomery and in Italy at Monte Cassio, and in Germany.
He was traumatized by his experiences, and would wake up screaming about them in the early days of their marriage, my mum told me.
He himself, spoke movingly when he was drunk, the only time he spoke about it, telling of not being granted compassionate leave for the funeral when his own dad was killed by a Doodlebug rocket which hit the railway bridge at Tulse Hill when his dad was coming home from work, and how he saw his mates blown up.
That generation suffered in the the fight against forces that wanted to overwhelm our democracy with their authoritarian, racist and eugenic ideas - i.e. killing the mentally ill and disabled - anyone deemed 'weak', including children.
My parents worked for the Labour Party after the war, and it was that generation who voted out the great war leader, Churchill, and voted in Labour:
who went on to create the NHS and the Welfare State, a system that was intended to prevent the terrible poverty, that had blighted my parents' generation's lives before the war -
care from the 'cradle to the grave'.
So it feels terrible, and an absolute insult, to my parents, and those who suffered so much to defeat Fascism, to see these ideas now being undermined by forces that currently threaten our society - forces led by the rich and powerful.
WE must never forget that generation's sacrifice, nor the terrible destruction caused to European society by the evil forces they were fighting against.
I can only echo the comments that the standards the BBC achieve on commemorative occasions.
Agree with Lighthouse.
The good stuff is now such a small percentage, they should judst reduce the hours broadcast to that. Get rid of dancing, game shows and just not funny comedians etc. Fix their news which used to be top drawer and now is just tory propoganda too often.
Quote from: jarv on November 11, 2024, 10:20:34 AMAgree with Lighthouse.
The good stuff is now such a small percentage, they should judst reduce the hours broadcast to that. Get rid of dancing, game shows and just not funny comedians etc. Fix their news which used to be top drawer and now is just tory propoganda too often.
Feel that is a bit unfair, what about the few million people that love the "dancing" (I'm not one of them), also what's not funny to you can be very funny to others. Game shows are very popular.
It has to be open to all.
Appreciate everyone's viewpoints, and should go without saying - they're all equally valid. My one main response to some of the critiques made is that people seem annoyed that there is content they don't like or see value in promoted; but isn't that to be expected and normal on a platform that is essentially a pluralism and to meet the differing needs of a wide audience. I'm personally really not into RuPaul's drag race either, but I don't mind it being promoted on iPlayer, as other people clearly are.
What I value in the BBC is that I think they do a pretty good job in catering to these different audiences, and there tends to be something for everyone. There are definitely some programmes where I don't agree with the political line of questioning or panelling personally, and that is frustrating - but I also see people with the opposite political views to me also being critical. As it's a state-funded company they're in a bit of a no-win scenario there.
Quote from: RaySmith on November 11, 2024, 09:11:57 AM...So it feels terrible, and an absolute insult, to my parents, and those who suffered so much to defeat Fascism, to see these ideas now being undermined by forces that currently threaten our society - forces led by the rich and powerful.
WE must never forget that generation's sacrifice, nor the terrible destruction caused to European society by the evil forces they were fighting against.
Totally agree.
Unusually, the Second World War was fought, by the Allies, on the agreed basis of Unconditional Surrender i.e the deal was 'we stop killing Nazis when you stop being Nazis.' Not, 'keep your heads down for a few decades and then you can give it another whirl.'
It's so true what a few said on here about their dads not talking about their experiences , my dad was the same he lost two brothers one on the Burma railroad and the other in the RAF but how he died I'll never know. I'm named after one of them .im current overseas but took time out yesterday at the equivelant 11:00 am to stand quietly for a couple of mins . It's become more poignant in our country what they fought for , because of how it is now . I'm old and my god I so hope it never happens again .
Same here, my father never spoke of what happened to him, he was captured in the battle of Calais, part of 3 RTR, trying to stop the german armour reaching Dunkirk. He spent the rest of the war in a Stalag (XXB) and was on The March.
Following his passing I found a diary he made, talking about that March and the horrors endured.
Rememberance Day must never be forgotten or dismissed, my children are fully aware of what happened, and, I hope, my grandchildren will be too.
Wherever I am in the world at 11AM on 11/11. I stop what I'm doing and pay my respects both to my father and all those other brave souls that fought for the freedoms we have today. Good that the BBC also respects their memory.
Leno carried the reef on Monday night, Villa's keeper had a poppy on his shirt. I do wonder what overseas players feel about this especially the German players and more recently Argentinian players.