Are you a friend of the BBC?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i dunno i dunno nuthin no more

i was deluded - thinking the BBC was my friend ... it is no one's friend .... it is disloyal [i am old it wants young] it is inauthentic [it is so self interested it is no longer a beacon of home - literally sailing up the channel after a rough Atlantic crossing and hearing the BBC for the first time in six weeks was a coming home ... not now] dissembling [they do not mean that gush and twitterchatter it is a device] it is debased [it mistakes crap for accessibility] it dominates [does not activlley listen or engage with the punters far too risky for them and rather arrogantly pursues its own will] it is cowardly and ineffective under fire [it should have never lost at Hutton as Butler and no doubt Chilcott will make clear ... it collapsed and toadied] in short it hasn't a clue when it comes to friendship ... just like Tesco really

[handsomefortune]

i hope the license payer doesnt have to pay for a billion pound rebranding though!

[french frank]

It's a bit (if I may introduce an analogy) like loyally supporting a political party. There are times when it's very difficult and you have to hang on to what you feel are the principles - which aren't altered by the (in [Sir] Robin Day's memorable phrase) 'here today and, if I may say so, gone tomorrow' politicians.

So the BBC.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's a bit (if I may introduce an analogy) like loyally supporting a political party. There are times when it's very difficult and you have to hang on to what you feel are the principles - which aren't altered by the (in [Sir] Robin Day's memorable phrase) 'here today and, if I may say so, gone tomorrow' politicians.

So the BBC.

Y....ess

[handsomefortune]

well in that case, i'd like the trust, dg, and any 'betweenies' like that whopping elitist (in the murdochian interpretation) r4 wrecker, mr young + cronies, and r3s mr wrong to go tommorrow, (preferably today in fact). don't feel that you have to wait till 'after the olympics' chaps - awf you go to 'new challenges, and pastures' in dubai etc and try spout your 'anti elitism' twoddle there. perhaps find that you quickly wake up in a bin liner in the out of town dumpster, all alone. (oh the very thought, cheered me up no end .......which perhaps makes me as loathesome as they are)?

[aeolium]

It's a bit (if I may introduce an analogy) like loyally supporting a political party. There are times when it's very difficult and you have to hang on to what you feel are the principles - which aren't altered by the (in [Sir] Robin Day's memorable phrase) 'here today and, if I may say so, gone tomorrow' politicians.

So the BBC.

I think of the BBC as an institution, rather like today's political parties, which has ossified into permanent decline. It resembles Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's memorable film Sunset Boulevard, a seemingly magnificent relic still confident in the power of her faded charms which are in fact just a memory. Just as Desmond murdered a screenwriter, the BBC has effectively killed good writing and programming with its relentless mediocrity and hype.

[Serial_Apologist]

well in that case, i'd like the trust, dg, and any 'betweenies' like that whopping elitist (in the murdochian interpretation) r4 wrecker, mr young + cronies, and r3s mr wrong to go tommorrow, (preferably today in fact). don't feel that you have to wait till 'after the olympics' chaps - awf you go to 'new challenges, and pastures' in dubai etc and try spout your 'anti elitism' twoddle there. perhaps find that you quickly wake up in a bin liner in the out of town dumpster, all alone. (oh the very thought, cheered me up no end .......which perhaps makes me as loathesome as they are)?

Better still a Bin Larder, where he could be chopped up into little barely recognised bits, like bleeding chunks (so-to-speak), to be recycled back into the eternal bottomless pit of supply and demand.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think of the BBC as an institution, rather like today's political parties, which has ossified into permanent decline. It resembles Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's memorable film Sunset Boulevard, a seemingly magnificent relic still confident in the power of her faded charms which are in fact just a memory. Just as Desmond murdered a screenwriter, the BBC has effectively killed good writing and programming with its relentless mediocrity and hype.

Great analogy, aeolium!

[Stunsworth]

Just as Desmond murdered a screenwriter, the BBC has effectively killed good writing and programming with its relentless mediocrity and hype.

A good soundbite. Did you watch the Mary Beard programme on Rome last night? It was excellent.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i would urge them all at the BBC Directorate to go and develop the Bahrain Broadcasting Service ... Yates of the Yard can help them settle in nicely and it is much warmer than Salford and they like Pepsi there i believe

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Did you watch the Mary Beard programme on Rome last night? It was excellent.

Well, yes I did, and yes it was - and very good value for part of my 40p!

BUT having seen Prof Beard on previous programmes on BBC4, she did seem uncomfortably "sillier" here. Almost as if one of the twelve-year-olds had taken her aside and said, "It's one of the proper Channels this time, Mary, love: 'batty-Prof'-it up, could you; we don't want to put them off?"

[aeolium]

A good soundbite. Did you watch the Mary Beard programme on Rome last night? It was excellent.

Yes, I started to but turned off as the presentation was unbelievably irritating and patronising in its silliness. The presenter seemed to be on the screen during virtually every shot and seemed desperate to make the Romans seem 'just like us', although they were surely very different

[french frank]

Rupert Sawyer's application to Lord Patten for the post of BBC Director-General:

"Quality and value for money

I firmly believe the final word on scheduling should be with the viewers – if they don't like Songs of Praise, we'll denounce religion and axe it, if they don't listen to Radio 3, we'd sell its record collection to Classic FM.

"But how can you ensure that people get what they want, Rupert?" I hear you ask.

Simple. After the broadcasting of every show, we have a premium-rate phone vote asking if you want more. If the answer is yes, we make it, if it's no, we kill it. There are no golden geese or ring-fenced raccoons – every show fights for its right to exist after every broadcast.

Not only will this ensure the programme makers, and their conscripted colleagues put a bit of elbow grease into their productions, but also there's another added plus…

All revenue generated by the relentless phone votes (50p a pop to save your favourite show) will be ploughed back into the business. I predict that within weeks we could halve the licence fee, and long before the end of the BBC charter we could abolish the TV tax altogether.

Who can ask for better value for money than the BBC for free? No one. Case closed."

Well, that should clinch it . Bye bye, Sooty, bye bye ...

[Stunsworth]

The presenter seemed to be on the screen during virtually every shot and seemed desperate to make the Romans seem 'just like us', although they were surely very different

Later in the program she did explain why Roman society was very different from out own - in particular people became Roman citizens and how they were expected to assimilate totally once they did, but you wouldn't have seen that of course.

I have to say I find the constant negativity here wearysome, and I think it's time to turn to pastures new.

[aeolium]

I have to say I find the constant negativity here wearysome, and I think it's time to turn to pastures new.

That's up to you. I was only expressing my own reaction to the programme and particularly its presentation, a reaction you would presumably want to be as honest as your own. Far from there being constant negativity, quite a number of posters have expressed their positive opinions of the BBC in this thread, opinions I respect even while I do not agree with them. Surely this would be a very dull forum if everyone thought the same way.