Things I love about British media

[abendgules]

Britain has some of the best and the absolute worst media imaginable.

British TV and radio (particularly BBC - I'm a faithful listener) has two flavours of quizzes and game shows: ones where the score is crucial (MasterMind, University Challenge, Question of Sport) and ones where the score is completely irrelevant- they issue scores, but the point of the game is to be witty, and to showcase the ad lib skills of comics.

In the studios, they just let the comics and guests run off at the mouth, and then edit as needed - so keeping track of the score is a bit pointless.

What is great about the latter is that most of them are based on current affairs - the appetite for harsh, sarcastic humour about politicians and news items is almost bottomless.

So you can choose from 'Have I got News for you', 'Mock the Week', the radio-based News Quiz (which we went to hear recorded last week, w00t!)...

or just listen to Jeremy Paxman (journalist and anchorman) grilling someone on BBC2's Newsnight. He's absolutely merciless and calls interviewees on their waffling answers fearlessly. He makes us gasp regularly when he puts questions to someone that are so  bald you could play snooker with them.

I think it's part of the English fondness for wordplay and playing with language that gives so much scope for comics here. It's like 'This Hour has 20 minutes' but cranked up to a sharpness that would make CBC cringe.

There are also shamelessly silly games, again often based on wordplay - 'Just a minute', 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue', 'Real Genius' are just a few on radio. Some move to TV, like 'Room 101', where celebrities 'exile' things that they hate to Room 101 (leaving Orwell doubtless spinning in his grave).

The downside is the inanity of the bottomfeeding level of British tabloids and celeb magazines.

I cannot picture a show called 'Wife Swap' airing in the US/Canada, or worse, 'Celebrity Wife Swap' (apparently it has, but it's called 'The Swap'). The utter mindlessness of the 'celeb mags' and the free papers in London could drive you to drink.

Comments

[eleyne-de-c.livejournal.com]

Well we have American versions of Wife Swap on the tele here - more than one I think but I avoid like the plague.

I always remember once when Clive Anderson (of whose line is it anyway fame) was interviewing Jeffrey Archer on his show and he begun the interview "Is there no beginning to your talent?".

[shaunacarrick.livejournal.com]

There is, sadly, a show called 'Wife Swap' that airs in the US on one of the myriad of cable channels. At least once, that I am aware of, and possibly more than that, SCA members have been approached by this show to participate in a swap. The Board even weighed in on this one, saying that they would not approve of any use of the SCA name or corporate information with the program - basically not allowing the SCA to be officially linked to the program.

[nusbacher.livejournal.com]

Last night I had a very positive half-hour watching Mock the Week out-takes on iPlayer. Have I Got News for You always makes me smile, but Mock the Week is just laugh-out-loud stuff. Part of it, I think, is the BBC's stable of all-purpose wits like Hugh Dennis: people who are probably unknown by sight but who are able to add so much value to so many different sorts of radio and TV programming.

Oh, and don't forget the parliamentary sketchwriters! A quarter-page of broadsheet newspaper devoted to bitchiness!

[pogbody.livejournal.com]

These are some of my favourite programmes. I love the general irreverence that runs through them. Interestingly enough as a comparison, I used to watch a live Saturday night Sketch show on Italian TV where a team of comedians would dress up and mimic the celebs and politicians du jour and mock them mercilessly. This style of satire was very different. Much less word-play and much more biting and almost cruel (but also screamingly funny) potrayal of their defects and short-comings. Absolutely nothing and no-one was sacred. It was quite extreme in some cases.

I find it fascinating to compare the different forms that satire takes in different cultures.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

I have a fondness for QI; not only does it make me laugh, I often learn something.

[bend-gules.livejournal.com]

Whoops, forgot QI! Yes, we're devotees too.
'Course, I'd listen to Stephen Fry read just about anything.

He narrates a children's show called Pocoyo on channel 5, aimed at very young kids - very Japanese in style - possibly claymation or something similar. Very sweet.

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

Which radio shows would you recommend to someone who doesn't live in the UK and hence is not up to date on politics and what's been on TV? I'm always looking for new podcasts :)

[bend-gules.livejournal.com]

I'm a BBC4 junkie. :-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/station/radio4/
While I've been running, I've been following

- From our own correspondent (short reports from around the world)
- Material world (science stuff)
- More or less (examining use of stats in the news)
- Andrew Marr's start the week (4 figures in the news, often including authors, who *talk to each other* as well as to Mr. Marr - very thoughtful stuff)
- In our time is ok, but a bit ponderous: maybe it's just that you can't cover the interesting (to me) bits of medieval thought in just 45 minutes
- Radio4 choice has some gems

Not all shows are available all the time - they're seasonal - so 'from our own correspondent' is on right now, but 'more or less' is in the off-season. But you can set up an RSS feed to pick it up when it comes back.

and the Guardian Science podcast
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/science

I don't know if these will be accessible outside UK - not all the BBC and guardian services are.

[thorngrove.livejournal.com]

Oh I totally agree with you about this! Unfortunately there was such a climb in the latter type of program I gave up on TV.

[suelet.livejournal.com]

Every once in a while I miss Television...then I see what crap is "available" and think...nah.