growing up or growing old

[pipme]

Product of the TV age !!

Some of us grew up with the old radio ... 'in town tonight'.... 'Dick Barton' and best of all 'journey into space' with Andrew Faulds etc
'The Archers' et all !!
Not a bad time really .... sad to see people tend to feel that the TV license fee should disappear .... Sorry but I think the Beeb is irreplaceable .. friends from abroad love the lack of adverts .... when driving it is so good to arrive at the radio4 oasis .... just listen to the silences between the measured dialogue ... we do not need jingles and announcers spouting at ridiculous rates ...... Cheap, and mostly quality !!
Thank you !!
P

 

[IanDB]

And a few more from memory lane - earliest recollections are of Muffin the Mule but, for all time greats, what about Space Patrol with Captain Larry Dart? (Don't forget the Martian hotdogs!) Never really got into Fireball XL5 for some reason. Troy Tempest and Supercar (I think that was right). And then came Thunderbirds - never been beaten.

As far as the radio was concerned apart from "Listen With Mother" with Daphne whotsername that was about it. Now guess my age!

 

[AdamW]

I've got nothing against the licence fee. It is great to get non-commercial TV, and the BBC is still held as one of the greatest producers of comedy, drama and documentaries in the world. Just as UK viewers tune in to watch Friends, Frasier and other US shows, small (but growing) sectors of the American public tune in to watch "Coupling" and various other ones. In fact, the American remakes of Red Dwarf and Coupling both failed because the viewing public wanted to continue watching the originals!

 

[AdamW]

Troy Tempest and Supercar

Troy Tempest was in Stingray!

They started repeating Thunderbrids and Stingray when I was 11. Every Friday I would get home from school and hope that my Mum would be late with the dinner because then I could watch the whole show.

 

[2scoops0406]

Anyhoos

I remember Cptn. Pugwash..... Master Bates, Seaman Staines & Roger the cabin boy!!!!!

How the BBC were fooled into broadcasting this at 5.55pm, I don't know!!

No wonder my perv of a Grandad was laughing.....

I am sorry to say that the above is all urban myth and has been subject of a successful libel action by the programmes creator. A good urban myth though!

 

[pipme]

I wonder if people realise that if the beeb went commercial and the license fee abolished... the available advertising revenue would then have to be spread even thinner resulting in less dosh all round to spend on the production of decent programs ... Some would say that the beeb maintains the balance and in fact helps the independents survice.

P

 

[kendor]

And we musn't forget Ollie Beak and Fred Barker with Wally Whyton and Muriel Young

 

[kendor]

I wonder if people realise that if the beeb went commercial and the license fee abolished... the available advertising revenue would then have to be spread even thinner resulting in less dosh all round to spend on the production of decent programs ... Some would say that the beeb maintains the balance and in fact helps the independents survice.

P

If truth be known, Any extra revenue earned by the beeb would be unlikely to go into programme making as there are so many accountants,advisers,and the such drawing extravagant salaries that the money doesn't filter down to the people that make the programmes! In fact that is where most cutbacks happen, if the beeb was properly streamlined and the wastage was removed the licence fee would be a mere shadow of what it is today. "Producer Choice" had a lot to answer for.

 

[2scoops0406]

Might be contentious, but I still believe that the Beeb offers the best programmes around, despite having a choice of around 200 channels, I still find that I mainly watch B1,2 and ITV. Plus I personally find that the beebs reporting is generally unbiased, if that needles the present incumbant government, then so much the better, they are there to be needled, that, in my book is democracy.

 

[pipme]

When you all get a little older, if not already, you will appreciate Radio 4.

I bet those old ETs' out there tune in too ..... And reason they keep away ? screaming, babble-adio I expect.

P

 

[AdamW]

I too have Sky... 202 channels for £20odd a month (I don't get the sport, much to the annoyance of my football-loving friends!). Compared with the licence fee of roughly £10 a month, for essentially 5 channels (BBC1-4 and News24 - yes, even if you haven't gone over to digital yet, you are still paying for them). BBC definitely get a lot of watching from me and I don't begrudge them a licence fee. Especially seeing as all of the "Sky" channels seem to exceed the allowed limits for minutes of adverts per hour.

Just look at everything else that has been fully-privatised. No way do I want my TV viewing to go that way! 42 different companies, all doing badly. Then Richard Branson stepping in with "Virgin TV" (and not the one that costs £10 a night on Sky... apparently) and after a year we all say "I thought this was meant to give us more choice and better service?!"

 

[2scoops0406]

This did make me feel old. When at uni' in Bristol, we often used to climb up the Cabot tower, and have a good old scan around Bristol city, lark about, generally get up to no good. I never once thought that, aarrghh , that's quite a long way down, what would happen if the railing gave way, etc etc, even climbing up the stairs, was merely an inconvienience for a great view....

This weekend, took the kids to Ashridge park, where there is a tower of, I think, similar proportions to the Cabot tower. Eldest wanted to see the view from the top, so oblidgingly, agree to go. Well he just raced up the stairs, I couldn't keep up, also the thought of what would happen at the top filled me with dread, phrases like "don't go near the edge", "wait for me", "don't bash the railings" echoed up the tower. When I got to the top, I was consumed with vertigo, I have never suffered from this before, I've even been up the CN tower in Toronto, but here, my head swam, my stomach churned, I had to pin my back to the tower whilst feebly requesting to my son that it was time to go down now. So what is it, growing old, or growing soft? Personally I think I've been working in London too long, and have become a complete soft southern etc etc.

 

[pipme]

Went up tower on Penang Isl Malaysia .... windows in observation room leaned out at the top .... Verrrti - bludy - go back down quik !!

Then outside lift pod in Suanapore, just like movie 'Towering Inferno' ..help !!

Eduardo ... my pix in //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11647 may bring back some mems then !!

P

 

[2scoops0406]

Yeah, saw the pic this morning, used to be quite a common sight, concorde over Brissel! Didn't get to see the Severn "suspension" bridge very often though, lack of transport!

 

[AdamW]

This did make me feel old. When at uni' in Bristol, we often used to climb up the Cabot tower, and have a good old scan around Bristol city,

Lucky! I studied at Imperial, where we had the Queen's Tower (nothing to do with the band Queen starting at the college of course!), but it was closed off. The legend went that if you leap from the top of the tower then you are granted a First, posthumously. Apparently some people had taken up this challenge so they closed it to everyone apart from on odd occasions where you could pay a load of dosh for a trip up the tower.

Soft because you live in London?! Where do you think the Kray's and all the other east-end mobsters came from? I doubt anyone would have called them soft... well, they would be unlikely to have told the tale! Also we have Canary Wharf (or is it more correct to call it 1 Canada Square?), tallest building in the UK and I think in Europe too. Pretty disappointing sight, I thought it would be taller.