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Any fans of BBC4 here?

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  • 17-10-2011 5:03pm
    #1
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭


    Now that 50% of the Television "hardcore" is banned there is some space for discussion of intelligent non American shows programmes that run in seasons series. ;)

    Shock and Awe - the Story of Electricity with Professor Jim Al-Khalili is running at the moment, the latest in a run of documentaries in the "Story of/Secret History of" type. Al-Khalili is an excellent presenter able to tell an engaging story without dumbing down.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUHMRxrGjsI


    BBC4 is of course the home to Wallender, Spiral and The Killing, the kind of drama series that should arguably be on BBC2 at 9 pm but there is no place for them at prime time when stuff like the Apprentice gets top billing.

    Paul Merton, Mathew Sweet and Mark Gatiss have made some top class series about cinema esp the early decades and particular sub genres.

    Its definitely my favourite channel.


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    #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    I'm a big fan of BBC4 too Mike, - its about the only channel other than the Irish ones that I watch regularly (out of dozens of UPC's mostly American tripe). Not into the dramas much though, but the documentaries are always worth checking out.


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    #3
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    I was starting to think I was on my own! :)

    Tells me something about the forum demographic I guess.


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    #4
    Minstrel27
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,818 ✭✭✭Minstrel27


    I am watching that programme on BBC HD. Fascinating viewing.


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    #5
    Dozen Wicked Words
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,325 ✭✭✭✭Dozen Wicked Words


    I enjoyed the History of Ceramics, quite sad seein the old Spode factory empty.

    Hoping Holy Flying Circus, the Comedy/Drama based on the Life of Brian is going to be good.


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    #6
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    I glimpsed a preview comment (just one sentence in an article on Terry Jones) in the Guardian which said it was brilliant or words to that effect. Its on Saturday at 10.30 pm (after Life of Brian)


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    #7
    Dozen Wicked Words
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,325 ✭✭✭✭Dozen Wicked Words


    mike65 wrote: »
    I glimpsed a preview comment (just one sentence in an article on Terry Jones) in the Guardian which said it was brilliant or words to that effect. Its on Saturday at 10.30 pm (after Life of Brian)

    I thought it was on tomorrow.

    edit: Sorry, the drama is on tomorrow, sans film.


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    #8
    Mr.Nice Guy
    Registered Users Posts: 45,535 ✭✭✭✭Mr.Nice Guy


    Great channel. They produce excellent educational programmes and usually every week there's a very interesting foreign film shown too. They just need to get Charlie Brooker back on there.

    'It is better to walk alone in the right direction than follow the herd walking in the wrong direction.'



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    #9
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    dooferoaks wrote: »
    I thought it was on tomorrow.

    edit: Sorry, the drama is on tomorrow, sans film.

    Ah right so its on twice in four days (typical BBC4!)


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    #10
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    Tonight on BBC4 at 9 pm.

    Holy Flying Circus

    Comedy drama, based on the controversy that surrounded Monty Python's Life of Brian on its release in 1979. As a campaign to ban the film gathered momentum, John Cleese and Michael Palin defended their work by participating in a live TV debate against Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark - but the programme did not go according to plan. Darren Boyd and Charles Edwards star alongside Steve Punt, Rufus Jones, Tom Fisher, Phil Nichol and Stephen Fry.

    Followed by the original TV debate from 1979 which is priceless TV let me say. And brilliantly parodied by Not the Nine O' Clock News

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asUyK6JWt9U


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    #11
    Minstrel27
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,818 ✭✭✭Minstrel27


    Simulcast of Holy Flying Circus on BBC HD also

    edit: it will be a shame when BBC HD becomes BBC 2 HD because stuff like this will miss out.


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    #12
    Brian CivilEng
    Registered Users Posts: 1,016 ✭✭✭Brian CivilEng


    Mitch Benn said it best, everything on BBC4.

    I really enjoy this channel. Jim Al-khalili's Shock and Awe, Dirk Gentley, last year's electric dreams season. Every week there is something good to watch.


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    #13
    Wertz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,909 ✭✭✭✭Wertz


    Damnit mike...forgot shock and awe was on after watching it the other weeks.
    The presenter's show about chemistry a month or more back was excellent too.
    ...and the story of maths.
    Really wish there'd been these types of docs when I was in school...

    I used never watch 4 until I got rid of sky package... some night's it's a bit snoozy and I don't like the way it doesn't start until 7pm. Also if you miss something they rarely repeat (except later the same evening)... not being bale to get repeats on the iPlayer is maddening sometimes...

    Show on about monty python in a minute...


    [edit] Double damn....faster than the speed of light on BBC2 at same time...have to opt for that.


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    #14
    EddyB
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭EddyB


    YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!!
    agree 100% with every comment.
    I have also discovered some classic old series posted on YouTube.
    The quality is generally good and for the aged geeks amongst can i suggest the original 'SURVIVORS' series from BBC to start with. Great Stuff!


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    #15
    120_Minutes
    Registered Users Posts: 4,706 ✭✭✭120_Minutes


    "the great thing about bbc 4 is nobody gives a ****!"


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    #16
    actua11
    Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭actua11


    mike65 wrote: »
    BBC4 is of course the home to Wallender, Spiral and The Killing

    Really top quality drama series, simply great to watch. Problem is shows like Wallender probably wouldn't get an airing on BBC2/HD being 1.5 hours long and subtitled, at least not at as good a timeslot. I've read that BBC4 itself is in danger of falling to cost cutting measures altogether. Not likely but still, BBC4 seems the only suitable outlet for such shows and if it were to go due cutbacks, them and many other non-mainstream shows would never be picked up either here or the UK.

    Long live BBC4 I say!


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    #17
    Brian CivilEng
    Registered Users Posts: 1,016 ✭✭✭Brian CivilEng


    The Joy of Stats. Need I say more?


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    #18
    The Scientician
    Registered Users Posts: 1,724 ✭✭✭The Scientician


    Their archival music shows on Friday nights are unreal. And their History of X, where X is something seemingly mundane, documentaries are faskinating. If I could only have two channels I'd go with it and TG4.


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    #19
    Tomk1
    Registered Users Posts: 776 ✭✭✭Tomk1


    Agree great channel.


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    #20
    darkdubh
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,628 ✭✭✭darkdubh


    Fantastic channel.They've shown somen great music docs like synth Britannia and one about krautrock.


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    #21
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    I didn't even know there was a BBC4, but in my defense I haven't watched digital in a long time.


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    #22
    Sesudra
    Registered Users Posts: 459 ✭✭Sesudra


    Love BBC4, always watch Only Connect and love the documentaries it shows, they had a great one about witch trials on a few weeks back


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    #23
    flikflak
    Registered Users Posts: 981 ✭✭✭flikflak


    Sesudra wrote: »
    Love BBC4, always watch Only Connect and love the documentaries it shows, they had a great one about witch trials on a few weeks back

    Yes, I was flicking around through the majority of rubbish that is on and spotted this. It was on quite late though so I +`d it.

    I found it really interesting and its good that shows like this have a home. I just have to remember its there as its quite a way up through the Sky channels!


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    #24
    Wertz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,909 ✭✭✭✭Wertz


    Is it on the sky EPG now? Reason I used miss it when I had a package was it was on the "other channels" thing along with the ITVs and regionals...since ditching the viewing card it's on ch 116 which is handy.


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    #25
    Dozen Wicked Words
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,325 ✭✭✭✭Dozen Wicked Words


    Wertz wrote: »
    Is it on the sky EPG now? Reason I used miss it when I had a package was it was on the "other channels" thing along with the ITVs and regionals...since ditching the viewing card it's on ch 116 which is handy.

    on 230


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    #26
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users Posts: 23,974 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    actua11 wrote: »
    Really top quality drama series, simply great to watch. Problem is shows like Wallender probably wouldn't get an airing on BBC2/HD being 1.5 hours long and subtitled, at least not at as good a timeslot. I've read that BBC4 itself is in danger of falling to cost cutting measures altogether. Not likely but still, BBC4 seems the only suitable outlet for such shows and if it were to go due cutbacks, them and many other non-mainstream shows would never be picked up either here or the UK.

    Long live BBC4 I say!

    The Swedes seem to have two Wallanders. I watched one a couple of weeks ago, and was a couple of minutes into it, wondering where the main character was, only to realise that the big fella who was on-screen was actually him, and completely different to the guy who played him in the series that was shown a few weeks earlier.

    It seems that the Wallanders with the big fella in them are the ones that Kenneth Branagh did English language versions of for the BBC later.

    The formulaic US crime series seem even more lightweight after watching stuff from mainland Europe.


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    #27
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    The one you was watching starred Rolf Lassgård and was adapted from the Henning Mankell novels (there were 9 of them as stand alone TV movies), the better known TV series with Krister Henriksson was original screenplays bar three stories.


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    #28
    Wertz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,909 ✭✭✭✭Wertz


    Ah I just figured out that Shock and Awe is on thursday not tuesday... really interesting finale tonight...learned more in an hour than I did in months of LC physics in concepts I could actually grasp.

    This show about the national grid is very good too. Some great archive footage.


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    #29
    MayoForSam
    Registered Users Posts: 2,264 ✭✭✭MayoForSam


    Just watching Holy Flying Circus, great performances all round and very funny to boot. A must-see if you're a Python fan. Politically correct - not!

    Quote from one of the fictional BBC heads halfway though in response to a supposed email complaint from a member of the public, "You know what I like about BBC4 - nobody gives a f*ck!" - long may it last.


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    #30
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    A couple of good Halloween programmes tonight including the Psychoville Halloween special.

    Oh and the Killing series 2 starts soon.


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    #31
    dr.bollocko
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 35,943 Mod ✭✭✭✭dr.bollocko


    I like their documentaries.

    They manage to make it sound like the most boring thing in history and then it turns out to be incredibly intriguing.


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