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BBC The High Art of the Low Countries. Last year, I watched this on BBC World Service, now on 1080p HD download. :tup

Now I love the BBC, but BBC 1 & 2 television are a load of rubbish. My cable subscription gives me access to both in HD, but the programming is awful. How many antiques shows can you schedule on a single afternoon/evening? The BBC is or used to be held in such high esteem, but I get the feeling that the most interesting programs are being broadcast on BBC 3 & 4. An upgrade in my subscription could get me BBC 3 & 4 HD as well, but I'm used to watching downloads as I please. Was this originally broadcast on BBC 3 or 4 in the UK? I'd like to think it was.

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BBC4 a couple of years ago. I watched it a few months back (it was stored on my recorder-box-thingy). Really enjoyed it. See if you can find a programme on Turner from around the same time - ties him in with the scientific discoveries and industrial developments of the time. Superb programme - got me reading some scientific history, well outside my usual area.

BBC4 is what BBC2 used to be. The need to compete with commercial and non-terrestrial TV has led 1+2 into a race for viewers (quizzes, baking programmes, endless 'Who is the Greatest?' competitions). You get good non-mainstream stuff every now and then - and they still do extremely well with nature programmes. But in general they respond to the marketplace which, given the threat to the licence fee, they are going to have to do for survival, once they lose it.

The idea that there are things that need to be protected from market forces in order to preserve diversity is regarded as dangerously left-wing by the people who finance the political ambitions of the leaders who make the decisions on these matters. Until things went haywire in his empire, Rupert Murdoch was putting intense pressure on our government to demolish the BBC as we know it. There are others who would like to move in and asset strip it.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see BBC4 axed in the not too distant future.

Interesting looking BBC4 series starting this Friday:

The Sound of Song

The Recording Revolution: Episode 1 of 3
Songs are the soundtrack of our lives and it takes a kind of genius to create a true pop masterpiece. But, as Neil Brand argues, there is more to consider in the story of what makes a great song. Neil looks at every moment in the life cycle of a song - how they are written, performed, recorded and the changing ways we have listened to them. He reveals how it is the wonderful alchemy of all of these elements that makes songs so special to us.
To open the series, Neil investigates how songs were recorded for the first time, the listening revolution in the home that followed and the birth of a new style of singing that came with the arrival of the microphone - crooning. He also looks at the songwriting genius of Irving Berlin and the interpretative power of singers Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04y4qpt

It's not yet the end of the world as we know it.

Edited by A Lark Ascending
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Utterly gripped by The Good Wife now. The individual court room dramas suffer a bit from being rushed to fit in a 45 minute episode. But the evolving back stories have you anticipating the next episode. I like the way it keeps you unsure who the baddies really are. 6 away from completing series 1 - this should keep me busy for much of the year.

Also more of 'Spiral', set in a much less manicured world. Paris didn't look like this when I did the tourist spots on a day in October!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Better Call Saul. . . first episode was a bit underwhelming but the second made up for that.

The first episode did end on a high, though, with Tuco Salamanca. There was no need to have as much adrenaline flowing as in Breaking Bad's first season opener. Solid episode.

I'll watch episode two later this morning.

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