Abolish the BBC Y/N

I think I remember those shows from when they were broadcast.

OH GOD HERE COMES ANDREW MARR SAVE ME PBS AMERICA

I've got a persistently annoying rash on my arse that I call Andrew Marr. But tbh it goes a lot deeper than that - I would seriously celebrate his death when it comes tbh. I know that probably sounds deeply unpleasant to outsiders and maybe other UK ppl, but this is what the BBC has done to me. That same peado-golem who got caught whispering "that was good" to Penny Mordaunt and also unwittingly showed his bullying game when he lost his shit under mild duress from Shami Chakrabarti is deffo one of the biggest BBC politico cunts next to Nick Robinson.

I think asking Gordon Brown whether he was on anti-depressants was about as low as I've ever seen an interviewer stoop.

that outside no 10 broadcast he did stanning for Blair/Iraq as well.. what a snivelling piece of shit !

Browsing radio 4. Do I want to listen to this or shoot off my toes and bathe the stumps in acid? pic.twitter.com/NNuqCu0bme

— Louie Stowell (@Louiestowell) February 13, 2019

that program is like being the beef that j petersen eats, but being completely sentient and aware while he digests you and shits you out.

I caught a bit of the moral maze when they were complaining that Hans Christian Anderson had written all the fairy tales and yet Disney kept adding non-white princesses. It was odd.

wtf, what's that about?

i agree with a lot of the criticisms here.

what are people's specific beefs with Sounds? you can think of me as the glenn macdonald of Sounds.. i can tell you what i know and find out if i don't know.

My technical beef with Sounds is that when I was trying to play The Ratline series it wouldn't play the episodes in sequential order, and when each 20 min ep finished I had to manually load the next ep. I can't remember if I had that problem before the revamp. i'm sure it didn't used to be in shuffle mode.

I don't get the point of Sounds. They have this huge archive of audio and it makes both recent radio and archive programmes much harder to find somehow. The search function is terrible and the front page is stacked with stuff nobody wants. It looks nicer but does a worse job than the radio iplayer app did.

yes, good point. the search function is completely dysfunctional.

like if you type the EXACT name of the program you are looking it returns all sorts of other unrelated shit that isn't helpful at all.

Beefs with sounds:

No descriptions of shows

No original broadcast dates on shows - I was recently listing to a good doco about northern soul in japan which talked about the Wigan casino opening 40 years ago this year; its a good job I know a bit of northern souls history so know that 1979 is too late but the original TX date is 2013 and is necessary for placing the narrative in context.

I want to know which station shows were comissioned for - a 3 drama sounds different from a 4 one, and a world service doco is different from a 4 one.

Searching/browsing is terrible. I want to be able to filter by network - witness is a good strand but it dominates the documentaries category

Ok, two of those things seem to have been fixed since I last used sounds.

when I was trying to play The Ratline series it wouldn't play the episodes in sequential order

this works on web, but not in the app. they are working on a fix.

The search function is terrible

yes :( this is in the hands of "the search team" in salford. the most important thing it to match the first few words of the title exactly. there are improvements coming to this but i have no idea when.

the front page is stacked with stuff nobody wants

the manual curation is geared towards under-35s. ;) but the front page is also filled with: algorithmic recommendations and "continue listening" which should be pretty specific to the sorts of things you listen to. the algorithm at the moment is fairly blunt - there is a lot of work being done to make this better. another big difference coming up is "segmentation" - where Sounds can serve up different curations to different audiences. currently everyone sees the same manual curations (similar to iPlayer). but fairly soon you will get a different mix of stuff on the front page if you're, say 60, than if you're 25. it can be tricky to get this stuff right because you don't want to immediately get served up The Archers and Gardener's Question Time the day you turn 35.

No descriptions of shows

No original broadcast dates on shows

Ed if i find Shine Like Tokyo (the doc you mention) in the app it has a full description. at the bottom of that description it says "first broadcast in 2013". it is true that the latter depends on the producer being wise enough to include that in the description - it's not a field that automatically gets pulled in in a structured way (though it does on web). others have complained about this too. i'll see what the plans are on that.

Searching/browsing is terrible. I want to be able to filter by network - witness is a good strand but it dominates the documentaries category

weirdly (to me) the categories at the bottom are more popular than the lovingly curated collections above them. even though they're just a bone-simple reverse chronological firehose of stuff that's been tagged with a particular genre. it's weird. so there are plans afoot to make those categories better.

one thing that bugs the shit out of me is that upcoming episodes, that have not been broadcast yet, don't show you their descriptions - it's greyed out.

the people who designed it started from the principle that only playable audio should be accessible. if something wasn't playable it just wouldn't show up. including future episodes. at launch there weren't even schedules. they have backtracked on that a little but you can still see that principle at work.

I think I remember those shows from when they were broadcast.

― Stephen Yakkety-Yaxley-Rosbif (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 13 February 2019 20:58

the 80s one I assume and not the 70s?

Mark S (who also inspired my Oor Neechy d/n) told me that he had the book with the transcriptions of the series. So I got one cheap on ebay.

btw did you know Bryan Magee was still alive?

this statement seems... ill-advised

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/14/bbc-attacked-for-failure-to-provide-abortion-advice

All part of the pathological obsession with being 'fair and balanced'.

NHS comeback was measured and otm but could have done with more spittle-flecked invective about what gormless fuck decided that free access to legal abortions is the "controversial" side of this "argument"

seriously hope somebody loses their job over this

Good evening!

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/feb/15/bbc-this-week-to-end-after-16-years-as-andrew-neil-steps-down

https://www.clashmusic.com/sites/default/files/field/image/bobby-gillespie.jpg

His little setpiece speech about Churchill at the start of last night's show was nauseating - he's such a boilerplate West of Scotland Unionist Orange cunt.

... and Andrew Neil's almost as bad.

I would keep the show but just change everything about it.

whoever thought it would be a good idea to inject some humour into the show, with the comedic talents of portillo/postman twat really deserve a good shoeing.

Can someone turn that pic of Boaby into an animated gif where he's nodding and giving a thumbs up?

(xp) That would be Andrew Neil.

is Fraser Nelson going to be his replacement? the BBC fucking loves him.

Wallcome taw this weeg's odition of Thus Weeg, I'm Freezer Nolson.

Isn't he that shit comedian?

he is about as funny as most comedians with the added bonus of having a mystery daft accent that is NOT scottish, not fucking anything tbf!

Oti Mabuse, Gillian Smart, Mishal Husain, Kawser Quamer and Alina Jenkins are the only reasons I wouldn't say television should be abolished altogether.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

All Britain tensely awaits the verdict.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Cheers break out in certain pubs in W1.

pic.twitter.com/zcNZpxboiV

— Peter Hampson (@IvansMeads) March 31, 2019

Mentioning Orwell automatically means I'm sceptical of that post but there might be interesting bits of detail that explain, and it does name names.

shouting at the sky, Kuenssbergs gonna Kuenssberg etc, and also I'm 2 days late, but I am not liking the wording in the bottom section of this at all
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49972097

"a fair hearing from the EU ... just doesn't appear to have happened"
"Sources say the EU ought to listen 'to the people who won the referendum, not the people who lost'"

accurate, impartial, independent and fair ™

while I'm happy to be subsidising simpering CCHQ fanfic, maybe next time they ought to not make such a fuss when someone says the Klan man is possibly a bit racist.

So did they do good last night? Fiona Bruce also seemed ok? Wonder if there was more care or scrutiny with the QT special last night

corbyn’s manifesto has radicalised them

QT was good last night entirely because it wasn't at all like QT, we will be back to the usual rigmarole next week.

Facebook Tories moaning like fuck about it, looking forward to being told in the pub

Just watched it (skipped Sturgeon). Thought Fiona Bruce did a great job and I felt like everyone was properly held to account with an interesting range of policy questions.

(Lol at that fucking Morales melt tho')

Think there will be a lot of complaints sent in to the been about it from Tories. Don't know what a Lib Dem will do beyond hide under the sofa

they have been spoilt by years of a version of laughable public scrutiny in bbc studios that usually involves a back massage and a pre-broadcast agreement on what questions will be asked. They don't like it up 'em!