BBC's Christmas comedy crisis: Why festive TV line-ups are losing their charm
We live in strange times. We're supposed to believe that a car dressed in a doily is award-winning art. That unrecognisable perma-pouting nonentities and auto-tuned wannabes are unmissable talents. And that each fresh crop of bungling political pygmies know what they're doing. Then there's the BBC. Is it still fit for purpose? Or is Britain's senior broadcaster, in the words Sir Keir Starmer used to describe the civil service, comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline?..
Christmas TV used to feel special, thanks to a long, distinguished list of comedians and comedies that encompasses Morecambe & Wise, The Two Ronnies, Only Fools & Horses, One Foot In The Grave, The Stanley Baxter Show, The Royle Family...and many more.
Sadly, this year's Yuletide line-up comes with a distinct whiff of "Will this do?"
Then there's the BBC. Is it still fit for purpose? No - obviously not and this has been the case for several decades.
Festive TV lost its charm many years ago, but Keir Starmer appears to have no intention of allowing the BBC to fade away in the tepid bath of managed decline. Taxpayer-supported state broadcaster is far more likely, possibly something even more grand, although his fresh crop of bungling political pygmies could even bungle that. Let us hope so.
Festive TV lost its charm many years ago, but Keir Starmer appears to have no intention of allowing the BBC to fade away in the tepid bath of managed decline. Taxpayer-supported state broadcaster is far more likely, possibly something even more grand, although his fresh crop of bungling political pygmies could even bungle that. Let us hope so.
10 comments:
The day my tele was burgled was the day I was freed from slavery imho. Never bought one again.
I'm all in favour of defunding the BBC as the licence fee tends to insulate the organisation from public reaction. Having said that, the commercial channels are also dire, but at least they are concerned about the numbers of people watching as their advertising revenue depends upon it.
Much is currently being made of the Security Services internship restricted to applicants from a “Black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority” background, but the BBC has been running this sort of thing for years - as my own offspring found to their bitter disappointment.
The official justification in both cases states that the interns will not be subsequently given jobs but will have to apply everyone else; however, experience suggests that this enables the management to select them for permanent positions on the - entirely legal - grounds that they have prior experience.
The resulting melting-pot, however desirable from a DEI viewpoint, is hardly conducive to creating universal comedy which draws on common experience, knowledge and values to appeal to the majority of the national population; instead it has created a morass where everyone seems to have a cultural axe to grind.
(It can be done - I’d cite as genius the sketch characters in ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ who work precisely because they are entirely relatable across cultures (a Jewish friend literally cried with laughter at the one with the competitive mothers boasting about their adult sons) - but the BBC has far too often headed in the other direction by trying to make comedy culture-specific or shoe-horn in an element of didacticism.)
James - if ours break down, I can't see us replacing them, we watch almost nothing and don't have a licence anyway.
DJ - yes, at least commercial channels are self-supported by ads. They may be rubbish, but so is much much of our entertainment. If audiences were more discerning, the output would be too.
Macheath - the BBC seems to believe there should be an element of didacticism in its output, but it is quite narrow and far from immune to blatant bias. Hints from former insiders suggest it is aggressively enforced
too.
Linking a selective internship with prior experience sounds illegal, but who is able to establish that in court?
Festive TV was a one-off, the best jokes and routines saved up and presented on a special occasion which was anticipated by swathes of the population and was not to be repeated.
That's gone now. Technology did for it. They were "classics" like an old joke is a classic. The idea of a "BBC Christmas" is about as appealing as a wet Tuesday in a Tesco car park.
Sam - another aspect is that famous performers tend to be quite predictable in that even their jokes tend to be variations on a familiar theme. This seems more obvious than it did at the time, maybe because we now have such a vast range of alternatives.
Will anything ever equal the Eric and Ern sketch with Mr Andrew Preview?
dearieme - I've just checked, Mr Andrew Preview is no longer with us as well as Eric and Ern. All fading away.
There is a wiff of Basil Fawlty.
Don't mention Christ. I mentioned him once, but I think I got away with it all right.
Even the King's speech will be a predictable drone.
But I am so looking forward to the HIGNFY Festive Season Special. One hour of concentrated smug with some bored nepotic (just made that word up) technician pushing the Sidesplitting Studio Laughter button for 2 seconds every time someone completes a sentence. You can always count the Trump references as part of some game.
Doonhamer -"Don't mention Christ. I mentioned him once, but I think I got away with it all right."
Ha ha, that's Welby. Is HIGNFY still on? I'm surprised people don't tire of the smuggy atmosphere.
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