Amusing anecdotes & random ramblings
Posts tagged BBC
Now we know who The Stig is. *yawn*
Sep 1st
Ob. disclaimer – these views are mine alone, and nobody else’s
I happened to be in a doctors’ waiting room when Sky News excitedly flashed that they had footage of the Real Stig. People actually looked up to see some handsome chap walk away from the High Court. Then they said “Ben who?”, and went back to their business.
Obviously, I’m not Ben Collins – or Stig 3.0 for that matter – but I’m perplexed as to how many people would want to buy The Stig’s Autobiography, now we know it’s a racing driver who nobody’s really heard of. I can understand he wants to make some money out of being “The Stig” – but surely the money’s in staying gainfully employed by the BBC and BBC Worldwide to walk around in a racing helmet, as opposed to 10 seconds of brief public exposure before he realises that nobody really cares who The Stig is. The fun is in the facade.
Working for the BBC….
Aug 16th
means a few surprises from time to time. Like telling people that it’s not a place where they shower you with money while you hang out backstage with Matt Smith or even Huw Edwards, for instance. Although there are a few fantastic non-financial bonuses, of course – like working on election night. Really must blog about that one day.
Anyway, it also makes for the occasional surprise in the rest of your life – like this ad I spotted on my Facebook page, basically begging for a job.
Suffice to say that most of the people that I know who are in a position to hire someone at the BBC don’t have Facebook accounts, as far as I know. Although I dare say the person who placed that advert would find such non-social-media people to be freaks of the highest order…
The Internet. It's full of chimpanzees.
Jan 29th
It’s amazing what you can cut together with rushes of interviews…
(The BBC documentary that was actually made partly from these rushes is The Virtual Revolution, presented by the divine Dr. Aleks Krotoski, Saturdays at 8.30pm on BBC Two)
Incidentally, it’s nice to know that I have finally achieved my ambition to have my name listed on a BBC network programme’s credits. Even if it’s only my netname, and it’s only listed on the website…
Suction man, suction man, does whatever a suction can…
Jul 24th
In a show that is in no way an attempt to recreate elements of Mythbusters, a presenter of the BBC’s Bang Goes The Theory climbed one of the BBC office buildings today using the power of nothing but suction:
Can you hear the people sing?
Dec 12th
As I speak, there is the glorious sound of a gospel choir working their way through a bunch of classic hymns and not-so-classic modern pop tunes.
This would be great, if it was not Friday at 4pm, they were on the ground floor of the building I work in and only the bottom two floors (those belonging to BBC Worldwide) are enjoying the party, complete with mince pies, wine, DJ and glitterball. In the meantime, the wage slaves up above have to – in theory – keep working.
It wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t arrived back at the BBC just when the Christmas party limit was slashed, so my “departmental” Christmas party last week was at a bar, and consisted of some free drink – and far too late – some very unChristmassy canapes. Although I’m lucky I got to go to one at all, I suppose…
Then again, my first BBC Worldwide Christmas party was quite an eye-opener. I’d only been working for a week, and got shepherded to the party at Heaven, which included girls dancing in cages, and ice sculptures where you could drink vodka from an ice woman’s breast. This was 1997, mind you…
BBC 'World' News…
Oct 8th
After flicking through the various US TV channels, I was surprised to stumble across an edition of BBC World News on a free-to-air analogue terrestrial TV station. This would be the equivalent of being able to watch an American news programme on Channel Five, so I was somewhat amazed to find this. Then watched in horror as the rest of the programme unfurled.
In the UK, we’re told that BBC World News provides an unbiased global perspective of the news. But the main items on BBC World News last night were:
- UK stock market falling
- US presidential debate, with the ubiquitous Matt Frei
- a couple of small pieces about anti-government riots in Peru and Thailand
- The “And finally”… piece about a Chinese art exhibition in Chelsea
In other words, it was almost like watching a standard BBC News broadcast, with slightly less emphasis on UK events. I can’t help thinking that if you live in Cleveland, Calcutta or Canberra, these bits of news will be fantastically irrelevant. Especially learning about an art exhibition in Chelsea, for goodness’ sake. Even when being global, the BBC’s still very London-parochial.
Stephen Fry on the iPlayer and the digital arms race
May 8th
By any stretch of the imagination, Stephen Fry is one of the very few people who totally understands and gets the digital revolution ™, and also has the eyes and ears of most of the population. More importantly, people like him and he is inherently likeable.
So it’s interesting that in a recent speech on the future of the BBC, he apparently declared that:
- the BBC should not be ghettoized
- he regularly breaks the digital lock on the BBC’s iPlayer
- the very existence of the iPlayer is making a lot of enemies for the BBC
It would be very interesting to find out whether he thinks the iPlayer lock should be beefed up (thus perpetuating the digital arms race), or whether he (as a rights provider of some considerable length) would be prepared to let his content loose online. Or whether it should be shut down entirely.
Am I to blame for Ashley Highfield's departure? ;)
Apr 14th
The first and last time I bumped into Ashley Highfield (former head new media honcho at the BBC), it was early on a Wednesday morning and I was a wee bit hungover.
So when I meandered over to my designated table for a day of brainstorming, I was a little astonished to find Ashley Highfield sitting there, prodding around with some digital device or whatever. I said Hello, and mentioned that I indirectly worked for him at BBC Wales as a content producer. He grunted, said Hello, and then made his excuses and left.
Fast-forward about half a decade, and I’m back at the BBC, in the heart of the Media Village. I don’t work indirectly for Highfield at all any more, but he must have seen me lurking around the corridors of power, because less than two weeks later, his resignation has been announced…
If you’d like other fascinating stories about how I indirectly caused Kurt Cobain’s suicide and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s death, please ask. 
(This is a very tongue-in-cheek post, brought to you in a desperate attempt to see if opportunistic blogging will raise viewing figures. Just, y’know, to see…)
Do the BBC understand how online polls work?
Sep 21st
In the current broo-hah surrounding the BBC and “faked” competitions and votes, apparently Richard Marston (the former Blue Peter editor) was sacked because he was advised that the poll to name the Blue Peter cat had been rigged by outside voting, and therefore decided to choose the top result before the online rigging started.
If this is true, then this is frankly amazing. Online votes of all levels have been deliberately rigged by outside parties since the dawn of the Internet, from naming a cat to voting in a UK political election. Surely if you had evidence that a vote had been rigged, you’d take steps to counteract that rigging, and deal with the result – or make it clear that the vote will only influence the decision, not decide it outright.
If this is what happened with Mr. Marston and he’s been sacked as a result of taking a proactive effort to restore balance, that’s positively wrong.
But it’s oh-so-British, isn’t it? To flog yourself silly and beg for forgiveness from a public who either don’t care or are just laughing in the street.