BH at BH
There will be a special edition of Broadcasting House this weekend to mark the first 10 years of the programme. For the first time, Broadcasting House will come live from the Radio Theatre in... er... Broadcasting House.
The BH programme has only come from the famous building itself once or twice... right at the beginning. The name was chosen by the as a joke, because the production team was moved out of the beloved BH building just as BH-the-programme started. Being always slightly behind the curve has long been a feature of the programme and aside from the mail arriving on our desks in Television Centre a couple of weeks late for 10 years, it has not caused too many problems.
The original idea was the programme should be 'not the Today programme' and since launch we have tried to subvert the some of the traditional rules of news and current affairs. The Donald Rumsfeld Soundbite of the Week (we celebrated his retirement here), is one example. Our Sony Award nominated Quiz, and a (which you can listen to here) are other successful examples. We even made a tape of Rumfeld soundbites for the then NATO Secretary General, George Robertson, to give to the man himself.
We have also got into trouble. Our colleagues on Today have hopefully forgotten the time we bugged their meeting room (they were not there when we did it, honest). We provoked the ire of the press when, in an attempt to mock the emerging continuous TV news channels reporting of Royal stories, we put a reporter outside Clarence House to report regularly during the programme that nothing was happening during the Queen Mother 'being 99'. It was disrespectful apparently. We also celebrated the arrival the Al Jazeera's English language service by getting Charlotte Green to read the shipping forecast in Arabic (which you can listen to here). Listeners complained it was frightening.
Over the years we have hopefully shown that on a Sunday morning the Radio 4 listener can take a mix of the lateral, wry and self-deprecating with serious journalism and sometimes uncomfortable journalism in the best traditions of ±«Óătv News. So what can you expect this weekend. Maybe something on the benefits of self indulgence?
Comment number 1.
At 20th Apr 2008, alexswanson wrote:"we have tried to subvert the some of the traditional rules of news and current affairs. The Donald Rumsfeld Soundbite of the Week (we celebrated his retirement here), is one example. "
Since when has being gratuitously nasty to right-wing politicians been subversive at the ±«Óătv?
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Comment number 2.
At 20th Apr 2008, griff wrote:Just listened to my first ever BH and what a surprise!
It was the longest 14 minutes (could not stand anymore) of mindless self-congratulating unfunny silly sound effect filled drivel I have ever listened to.
I am having difficulty understanding how the ±«Óătv can spend license fee money on producing such nauseatingly embarrassing drivel.
It's back to The Andrew Marr Show for me; I just hope you enjoyed your ±«Óătv license fee paid for champagne party.
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Comment number 3.
At 20th Apr 2008, Rob Fenwick wrote:BH gets better and better - I usually listen to the Podcast on the midweek commute. Fresh, irreverent, witty - keep it up.
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Comment number 4.
At 20th Apr 2008, conalma wrote:I just hate the 'review of the papers'.
Why? Well, it's not a review. Instead your guests take a news story and bang on about it. There is so much bad print journalism on a Sunday. This would be an opportunity to subject it to a much needed critique, in the BH tradition. I accept you may need to rethink your guest list.
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Comment number 5.
At 21st Apr 2008, davpwal wrote:When o when are the ±«Óătv going to listen to the majority of it`s viewers and REDUCE the volume of background "music" in situations such as the unholy row before the news bulletins and in nature programs where it totally obliterates the spoken word
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Comment number 6.
At 25th Apr 2008, Chad H wrote:an attempt to mock the emerging continuous TV news channels reporting of Royal stories, we put a reporter outside Clarence House to report regularly during the programme that nothing was happening during the Queen Mother 'being 99'.
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Class! I wish I could have seen that!
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Comment number 7.
At 26th Apr 2008, sidevalve wrote:As you presumably have a large network of correspondents in Germany, I am sure you will know that 'BH' is the German abbreviation for 'bra'...
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Comment number 8.
At 11th May 2008, dennisjunior1 wrote:Broadcasting House is a excellent
programme!!!
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Comment number 9.
At 25th Jul 2008, greyDalesman wrote:I usually enjoy BH, but the programme from the Latitude was not up to standard.
Peter Rippon has just been on "Feedback" and I cringed listening to him trying to justify what was a poor show with guests using bad language at 9am on a Sunday morning.
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Comment number 10.
At 25th Jul 2008, dennisjunior1 wrote:Happy Belated Birthday message!!!!
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Comment number 11.
At 27th Jul 2008, jimthought wrote:It is one thing for the ±«Óătv not to carry out viewers requests. It is another to ignore them completely.
The least the ±«Óătv could do is to explain why it does not make requested changes.
Look at “davpwal 21 April 2008”. When is the ±«Óătv going to stop the DRUMS, DRUMS, DRUMS?
Then look at the complaints, at present, about the ghastly presentation of the Proms. Is there anyone in ±«Óătv management who will condescend to explain?
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Comment number 12.
At 2nd Aug 2008, jimthought wrote:It seems that ±«Óătv managers have decided that they can ignore criticisms if they provide blogs in which viewers can blow off steam.
Wrong! I think.
Viewers will soon start to look elsewhere.
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Comment number 13.
At 10th Aug 2008, jimthought wrote:Can anyone tell me why the ±«Óătv, and ITV, have drums beating behind the news and other programs? Alternatively where can this information can be found?
jimthought
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