| 
Posts and words
Loading ...
bbc
Mortimer Also by Jo Rice
By Jonathan Calder last year, mid-November, 2 Comments »
Long ago, I heard a book called Mortimer Also
Jackanory? It was a television programme in which someone sat down and read you a story. No animation. No special effects. Just a few illustrations if you were lucky.
“Mortimer Also” concerned a test match umpire and a mouse who lived in his cottage. The umpire did not want anyone to know his eyesight was failing, so the mouse would on his head, peer out through a hole in his panama and yank his hair to signal whether or not to give a close lbw appeal.
I know would be too far-fetched for today’s children. Just imagine: an umpire standing in a test in his home country!
But it was a lovely story and it introduced me to Francis Thompson’s poem “At Lord’s”:
For the field is full of shades as I near the shadowy coast,
And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a ghost,
And I look through my tears on a soundless-clapping host
As the run-stealers flicker to and fro,
To and fro: -
O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago!
One of the eerie things about the Internet is the way it allows you to recover your childhood.
Thanks to the IMDB I can tell you that I heard “Mortimer Also” read on Jackanory by Harry Fowler in May 1969. Fowler had made a good living playing chirpy cockney evacuees in 1940s films, but his acting career never really took off after that.
And thanks to eBay, I now have my open copy of the book. It was written by Jo Rice and illustrated by David Knight.
Extensive research (reading the blurb on the book’s jacket) suggests that Jo Rice was a woman and thus probably not the Jonathan “Jo” Rice who has written many cricket books and is the brother of Sir Tim Rice.
One other point: trawling the further recesses of the Internet reveals that Jackanory repeated “Mortimer Also” in July 1971.
It is notable that this page tell you: “Next week: The Village That Slept with Rosalie Crutchley.”
Children’s television in the early seventies was a lot racier than people imagine.
Jonathan Calder blogs at Liberal England
2 Comments »Andy Zaltzman’s BBC show, “Yes It’s The Ashes”
By Will last year, at the start of July, 2 Comments »
Andy Zaltzman – comic, Bugler, cricket blogger – starts his own BBC radio show tomorrow, at 11am on BBC Radio Five Live. It’s called either “Yes It’s The Ashes” or “Andy Zaltzman’s Alternative Ashes”, I’m not sure which.
He’s slightly lining his underwear about it, but I’m sure it’ll be sharp, different and entertaining – so lend your ears tomorrow morning, or download the podcast shortly afterwards.
Update: Here’s the MP3:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/altashes/altashes_20090704-1313a.mp3
2 Comments »Empire of cricket
By Will last year, mid-June, 1 Comment »
Excellent series on the BBC at the moment. It began with England, and I’m just watching one on the West Indies, which is even better. Try iPlayer for those in the UK; those abroad, erm, download it illegally?
1 Comment »The six billion dollar man
By Will last year, mid-May, 2 Comments »
BBC Panorama, a bit of an institution in Britain, turns its broad-and-rarely-conclusive gaze to Sir Allen Stanford tomorrow night at 20.30BST. It’ll doubtless be available on BBC Iplayer afterwards, which is of no use to those not in Britain, but…anyway. Just passing the info on.
2 Comments »They thought the tall Texan was perhaps a bit brash for their tastes, but solid and, perhaps most importantly, solvent.
In Panorama: The Six Billion Dollar Man, we find out that Sir Allen was not at all as he seemed.
More over, his story appears to be something of a metaphor for what has happened in the wider financial world in recent months – a lack of questions asked at the right time and then, suddenly, reality hits smack between the eyes like a full toss from a fast bowler.
‘Sky to keep TV rights’
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, at the start of August, 14 Comments »
If this is true, then it’s an absolute travesty. Either the ECB or the BBC are to blame, or – and such is the incompetence of both that this is by far the most likely scenario – they’ve managed to bungle things between them.
FYI
The cheapest Sky Sports package costs £34 a month at present, possibly rising to over £40 by the time the next TV deal begins.
TV audiences for Test match cricket have dropped 75% since Sky took over.
14 Comments »Charlotte Green is human after all
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of March, No Comments; be the first!
Even if the name doesn’t strike a chord with you, nor her voice ring any immediate bells, her crisp enunciation marks her out as the ultimate professional. Charlotte Green has been the voice of BBC’s Today Programme for most of my life and, as an announcer, is not known for her gaffes. Until today. Have a listen and read all about it here.
Fat wards off the nasties
By Will 3 years ago, mid-November, No Comments; be the first!
This has nothing whatsoever to do with cricket, but it gives me the opportunity to point out one of my favourite blogs: spEak You’re bRanes. It concentrates solely on ridiculing those who leave notes on message boards, primarily the ridiculously popular ones at the BBC. There are some absolute gems out there, but this surely tops them all:
No Comments »This disturbing comment was submitted by both Becca and Kat. Should women be doing more exercise? Not if they know what’s good for them.
Women are becoming fatter – maybe there is a deep-rooted reason for this. Too many rapists out there, illegal criminals let out of prison, rape law against women in favour of men, one of the reasons why I put on weight, for protection.
Caroline, UKFinally, a use for the word “unrapeable”.
I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue
By Will 3 years ago, mid-November, No Comments; be the first!
Don’t worry. I haven’t turned into Cricket365 with their Addiction To Capitilaising Every Word In Headlines. I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue is my favourite show, on TV or radio, and returns for its fiftieth series on Monday at 6.30pm on BBC Radio 4. It is brilliantly stupid and gets better and better. If you’ve never heard it before, try to catch it tomorrow. You’ll thank me.
This from the Guardian’s Leader tomorrow:
Mrs Trellis of north Wales will no doubt be sitting by her wireless at 6.30pm this evening when the start of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’s 50th series is announced by the show’s bumbling brass theme (based on a tune by Haydn). What follows is guaranteed to be brilliant. It always is. Listening is like being welcomed back into a comfortable club on a wet winter’s night, a cheerful refuge from a dour, serious world outside. There may be people who are tired of its routines, its in-jokes and innuendo – but they are the sort of humourless listeners who write in to the BBC asking for the rules of Mornington Crescent to be explained (200 do every series), who wonder why Samantha hasn’t read out the score in years and probably question the need for the licence fee to fund Humph’s expensive laser display board, too. Everyone else appreciates the show’s relaxed brilliance. Many things contribute to this, starting with Humphrey Littleton, who has chaired the show since it began in 1972, getting funnier and bolder through the years. He does deadpan gags better than anybody else in broadcasting and gets more smut past the BBC, too. Without him the show would not have made it through 10 series, let alone 50, a magnificent score matched only by the even longer-lived Just A Minute. By rights Clue should have stopped being funny years ago. But there is nothing dusty or exhausted about a programme that still asks silly people to do silly things, and gets away with it every time.
And a very late arrival at pharmacists’ ball, would you please welcome Mr and Mrs Bollock-Steroids and their charming – if well-built – daughter Anna.
No Comments »Bong: Trevor McDonald in shock comeback
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, No Comments; be the first!
Unconfirmed rumours from Channel 4 News (no less) that Trevor McDonald, the Trinidad-born newsreader and chum of cricket, is to come out of retirement to front ITV’s pathetic attempt to take on the BBC (again) with News at Ten. Well, I hope he does. No one reads the news quite as laboriously and….with odd pauses as well as long sentences without breaking as Trevvvvvvvor McDonald.
No Comments »A united Middle East, of sorts
By Will 3 years ago, mid-October, No Comments; be the first!
Nice observation from Richard Sambrook on three friends united by journalism and varying degrees of trauma.
No Comments »I was talking to Alan Johnston earlier this week (yes he is as decent and remarkable as he appears). He told me something which keeps playing in my mind. A little while before 9/11 he was one of three BBC correspondents having dinner one night in Cairo. They all had a deep interest in the Middle East and were discussing how events were likely to play out. The other two were Frank Gardner, later shot and badly injured in Saudi Arabia and Caroline Hawley who reported from Baghdad for a number of years until she took a break in Amman on the night a suicide bomber blew up her hotel (she was uninjured). Alan of course was kidnapped in Gaza earlier this year. His story is being told by Panorama next week. Three very talented and commited reporters, friends, who together have experienced the sharpest end of the Middle East.
Sambit Bal on Test Match Special
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of July, 8 Comments »
Pretty cool moment for us today when Sambit Bal, our editor, was invited onto Test Match Special during the tea interval of the 2nd Test at Trent Bridge. Jonathan Agnew knows and likes Cricinfo, but it was nevertheless oddly exciting to hear him be so amazed at how Sambit (and us) manage to produce a site of such breadth and depth. Anyway, it might be online if you fancy a listen – check TMS’s site.
8 Comments »Watching cricket on Ceefax
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of May, 2 Comments »
Remember a screen like this?
Ceefax was the lifeline most tragic cricket fans relied on, and Rod reminds me just what an invaluable tool it was. 341 was always on in our house. “Don’t change the channel, I’m watching the cricket!” I remember sprinting home from school when Mike Atherton and Jack Russell did the unthinkable, and was amazed to see both their names in white at stumps. Ah, great days they were. Ceefax has gone all interactive and flashy, nowadays (does look pretty good though, I admit).
Some geek’s put up the whole Ceefax, live, on t’interweb. Knock yourselves out.
2 Comments »Test Match Special at 50
By Will 3 years ago, mid-May, 6 Comments »
Is it not time for more female voices on TMS? “I hoped Claire Connor might be the one, but I don’t worry too much about not having a female,” said Baxter.
“The audience have to be comfortable with the commentators and most female voices need to be pitched a bit lower. You need an alto, not a soprano. Clare Balding has a perfect voice for radio.” And what advice would he have for his successor?
“I hope he (Baxter presumes it will be a man) doesn’t lose sight of the fact the commentary is the main thing,” he said.
So says Peter Baxter, Test Match Special’s producer since time began. Interesting comments, and not something I’d ever considered. Personally, I find Balding’s voice almost indistinguishable from a man’s. Indeed, listening to her and Willie Carson speaking, it’s difficult to determine who exactly wears the trousers. So to speak.
Anyway, well done TMS. I don’t listen to it these days as we’re glued to the screen, for obvious reasons, but it remains the best of British. But for how long? With Baxter hanging up his microphone, he sounds an ominous warning note to his successor
“Five Live have people who are in charge of things called “station sound†and that rings a few alarm bells. The whole point of TMS is that it doesn’t sound like other commentaries.”
Station sound? I shudder at the thought. There’s every chance that some shallow-sighted media freaks could ruin a British institution, turning it into a brash (and by proxy, dull) service. Come on BBC: leave it alone. Change is not always for the best. There will be quite a few TMS pieces on Cricinfo tomorrow and over the week, starting with Andrew Miller’s interview with Baxter, so keep your mince pies peeled.
Who were your favourite commentators? What do you make of the current crop? Favourite TMS moment? etc. Not that I listen nearly as much as I’d like, but I think Mike Selvey is particularly brilliant and works well with Vic Marks.
6 Comments »Petition to enable ex-pats access to BBC overseas
By Will 3 years ago, mid-April, 4 Comments »
Crafty Leak writes:
It is SHOCKING that the BBC (and I guess ABC in Australia) do not allow an “international” tournament (with half empty cricket grounds!) to be broadcast on-line “outside the UK”! Do they want to help cricket grow as a sport or not?
So what if you are a UK TV license fee payer who lives abroad? You pay for the BBC, then they deny you rights to their services because you are outside the UK – IT’S DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!
There is a campaign on the 10 Downing Street website to allow non-UK users access to BBC services:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BBC-4-Expats/
Check it out and SIGN it! All it involves is entering your passport number – simple really, as the technology is there!
Worth signing. I have friends overseas who are continually frustrated by the lack of access to TMS while still holding their UK passport. I don’t doubt it’s technically possible, but there is no doubt a whole mile-long length of red tape to go through first. So…sign up.
4 Comments »Online radio stations covering the World Cup
By Will 3 years ago, mid-February, 53 Comments »
Adrian pleads:
This may have been addressed previously, however I have noticed that there is
no mention of world cup coverage on the BBC, have TMS lost the radio rights ?
And, if so, who has them in the UK, Talk Sport (lord’elp us!)Before the last Ashes series you were kind enough to post my suggested thread
asking if anyone knew of non UK radio stations that broadcast commentary on the
net; any chance of doing the same again. I am a huge fan of All India Radio’s
coverage, stemming from an enjoyable couple of months there last year, and
recommend it wholeheartedly.
BBC’s TMS site says their next coverage will be the World Cup but, as yet, their schedule hasn’t been published. So if you know of any online radio stations covering it, leave a comment and rock on.
53 Comments » « Previous Entries