What’s on BBC4 TV you might ask. Pretty much what’s on BBC2. There’s not a big difference really, with the selection maybe being a tad bit more highbrow and an accent on repeats of older shite, er, older stuff, that was once broadcast on BBC2. On both BBC2 and BBC4 there’s nothing adventurous, radical, experimental, or ‘new’. Tired old formats, even if they are with new content, rattle around again and again in a TV Groundhog day.
In radical contrast the youth, creative, shouty and new experimental channel BBC3 pushes the boundaries, and of course, has a cult following. Heck, not just for the imported Family Guy and American Dad, either. There are some duds and misfires, but that’s what taking chances is and should be all about. The majority of programming is different and not available anywhere else on the BBC television networks.
But they want to kill BBC3.
They want to take it away.
Notice a pattern here? It’s not the first time that youth oriented broadcasting has had the old fogies of the establishment want it closed down. There is absolutely no difference between the old fogies attack on BBC3 today and the old fogies attack on the offshore radio stations like Radio Caroline and Big L back in the 1960s.
The old fogies hate the youth of the day and hate new, different, or creative programming. They always have. They always will. They never learn from their experience with the old fogies back when they were the youth of the day, but instead they copy them. The abused become the abusers. The hated become the haters. As soon as they become old fogies themselves they instantly hate the youth of the day. They never learn from their experiences. They never break the cycle.
That’s why BBC3 is under attack. And, as with the attacks on offshore radio, they must be resisted by those who care.
They want to turn BBC3 into BBC1+1.
Unbelieveable!
That’s a copy of BBC1 but running an hour later, despite BBC1 closing down most evenings before midnight. Being a copy of BBC1, the new BBC1+1 will be a bit like the relationship between BBC2 and BBC4.
Meanwhile, to attempt to pacify the youth who will now be left with no station providing programming for them, and no outlet for creative and experimental output, we’ve been told that online versions of the station will continue.
And in 1967, they tried to replace all the 24/7 offshore radio stations with a muted 12 hour a day Radio 1.
It wasn’t fair. The youth weren’t happy then either.
England's England 
Yeah well it’s not just the old farts ‘n fogies that are in play when it comes to BBC national TV, is it? I think about some of my all-time fav TV shows that were all killed off and I want to go do some killing of my own, starting with the first smug face that comes strolling outta Beeb House if I was ever close by (all right it’s a bit extreme and I didn’t mean it).
But what a travesty to kill off these great shows:
‘They Think It’s All Over’
‘Bottom’
‘Men Behaving Badly’
I was going to add ‘The League of Gentlemen’ but I think they just stopped by themselves.
LikeLike