0:00:10 > 0:00:13Good afternoon and welcome to Points Of View.
0:00:13 > 0:00:14Let's have a bit of a laugh, shall we?
0:00:14 > 0:00:18It remains to be seen whether any comedies on the BBC can deliver that.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23BBC One is the most popular and best-funded BBC channel so its
0:00:23 > 0:00:27latest offering Me And Mrs Jones you'd think would do the trick.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32- See. There's nothing wrong with a hug.- Only poo heads hug.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Oh, Jess, please don't say poo heads.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Mrs Jones, can you not use the word poo on school property?
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Ah, so perhaps we have to spread the net a little wider then.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56BBC Three has quite a reputation for comedy,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59spawning Gavin & Stacey and schooling Russell Howard.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01So, what of its newly-hatched Cuckoo?
0:01:01 > 0:01:05If you truly contain the spirit of our beloved Deborah,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08then please drink from the left saucer.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12And if you do not, then drink of the right.
0:01:12 > 0:01:13And this will prove what?
0:01:13 > 0:01:16- It's a scientific test, Ken. - It's not, Cuckoo.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19It's a wholly random experiment. The cat can't read.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21Yeah, but Deborah could.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32Cuckoo apparently nesting down nicely then
0:01:32 > 0:01:37and surely Jo Brand is on to a winner with Getting On on BBC Four.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40It won a recommission on a cash-strapped channel,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42which is a feat in itself.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Someone felt it was worth the investment.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46Let's have a crack, it can't be that difficult.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Well, I haven't been to a training session, Kim.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53- I'm quite good on the DS.- Can we move it up. That's good.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55Excellent.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Kim, make sure she doesn't fall forward.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Kim, Kim, stop! Now. Can you not get it back down?
0:02:02 > 0:02:06No, Kim, you're going to squash her now. Kim, the knees...
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Can you not make the whole thing come down flat?
0:02:41 > 0:02:46Plenty of evidence then that comedy can be a very hit and miss business.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49So to even out the vagaries of public taste
0:02:49 > 0:02:53and quality of comedic talent, does the BBC comedy department
0:02:53 > 0:02:57have what a certain character used to call a cunning plan?
0:02:57 > 0:03:00I e-mailed Points Of View because me and Ben were having
0:03:00 > 0:03:03a discussion about sitcoms, there's not as many sitcoms as there was.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12We would like to see more sitcoms being brought to the BBC
0:03:12 > 0:03:18and new ones and new material, new faces just to give new viewers
0:03:18 > 0:03:21a chance to see what other people can do and what they can write.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24The things I miss is shows like Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Uno, dos, tres!
0:03:26 > 0:03:29It's not that we're saying we don't like this shows that are on now.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33We'd like to see more new material, speaking as people who love comedy.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35There's nothing wrong with my casual clothes.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37Come on, your trousers were so short,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40when you crossed your legs you could see your knees.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43There's very little difference,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46I think, between sitcom in the 1980s and now.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50It's still the values of physical comedy, laugh-out-loud moments and set pieces.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52Chris is having an affair.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54VICTOR LAUGHS LOUDLY
0:03:54 > 0:03:57We haven't got many of those long-running television shows
0:03:57 > 0:03:59where people can cut their teeth any more.
0:03:59 > 0:04:00That's a challenge.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Would you tell Barbara it's Margo, please, Tom?
0:04:03 > 0:04:08Barbara, that's Margo over there.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Before, it was trained actors who went to drama schools
0:04:12 > 0:04:15and worked in the theatre before but now you see people like Miranda
0:04:15 > 0:04:21and Jack Whitehall, who are stand-up comedians, taking sitcoms to TV.
0:04:21 > 0:04:26Most of our comedy is about individual oddballs.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30And so I think that started with Fawlty Towers where John Cleese
0:04:30 > 0:04:35was writing a version, probably of himself, and that has carried on now.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39British comedy is often about single people like Miranda.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Miranda could be the only person who writes Miranda.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46If you are watching with other family members, ignore them. It's me and you. Saucy!
0:04:46 > 0:04:50I would be interested in finding out how to bring forward our ideas
0:04:50 > 0:04:54to the BBC and I'm sure other people would who are interested in comedy.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57We have this fantastic thing called The Writers Room which
0:04:57 > 0:04:58I urge anyone...
0:04:58 > 0:05:00It's like a hidden treasure the BBC has.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Go on the website, and if you have an idea, a funny joke, a line,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06contact The Writers Room
0:05:06 > 0:05:10because they will read every single syllable you write and a lot
0:05:10 > 0:05:13of it comes through to us at the comedy department and we are working
0:05:13 > 0:05:16with any number of writers who have come through The Writers Room.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18Off on our travels now
0:05:18 > 0:05:22and a surprise hit for BBC2 this autumn has been Welcome To India.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26No glossy travelogue, this. Mumbai's six-star hotels have been
0:05:26 > 0:05:30sidestepped to get down and dirty with the street dwellers.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34This series profiles the literal depths the locals are forced to
0:05:34 > 0:05:36sink to in order to scrape a living.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Working flat out for 20 minutes he dredges enough sludge to fill
0:05:42 > 0:05:44six bags.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Newsman Huw Edwards hasn't had nearly so far to travel to
0:06:26 > 0:06:30profile his homeland for BBC2 in the Story Of Wales.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35This is a very Welsh experience, isn't it? For me, at any rate.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Coming to the seaside without the sunshine.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40The annual Sunday school trip comes to mind.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44I think it's fair to say that people in Wales in the 1950s
0:06:44 > 0:06:49and early '60s had a rather limited notion of leisure.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Happy customers there.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Widening out from Huw and Wales to the entire British Isles
0:07:23 > 0:07:24and Ian Hislop.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28He's been on a three-week historical hunt for the heritage
0:07:28 > 0:07:33of the stiff upper lip and it transpires our national stoicism has not
0:07:33 > 0:07:35been around for nearly as long as we thought.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Forster had been to public school an experience he hated.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43He wrote in later life in an essay on the English character that the
0:07:43 > 0:07:46educational system was adept at producing Englishman with
0:07:46 > 0:07:50well-developed bodies, fairly developed minds
0:07:50 > 0:07:52and undeveloped hearts.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Forster didn't believe the English were innately unfeeling it was
0:07:56 > 0:08:01just that they had been taught to, as he put it, bottle up their emotions.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29Praise indeed but make sure you don't crack a smile, Ian.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32I am thrilled by the reaction to the programme.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36What I hoped to do was to try and do a bit of British social history
0:08:36 > 0:08:38but from a slightly different angle.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41It's incredibly rich in stories and anecdotes and footage
0:08:41 > 0:08:42and all of that context
0:08:42 > 0:08:46of the last couple of hundred years but to try
0:08:46 > 0:08:48and do it as a tale of the way we felt.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51What I hoped it would be, both a national story
0:08:51 > 0:08:54and a personal story, a history of British emotion
0:08:54 > 0:08:58but also a history of my own - and what do I think about that?
0:08:58 > 0:09:01I didn't want to do a harrumphing essay.
0:09:01 > 0:09:02I just wanted to ask the question,
0:09:02 > 0:09:09where did we get the stiff upper lip, how did it change and do we need it?
0:09:09 > 0:09:12Whilst we are in a nostalgic mood, a much loved BBC service
0:09:12 > 0:09:15is about to be consigned to history but rather than gliding into a
0:09:15 > 0:09:20graceful retirement, the Ceefax text service has limped into a corner
0:09:20 > 0:09:25and been eclipsed by its shiny digital replacement, the red button.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39Ceefax always was, and probably still is,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42a great way to get up-to-date news.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45And it was the way to get your football team's
0:09:45 > 0:09:48scores on a Saturday if you couldn't get to the game.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51And it was really quick way to find out what's
0:09:51 > 0:09:54going on in the world for people who didn't have a lot of time
0:09:54 > 0:09:57to read the newspapers or wait for the TV bulletins.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02In its heyday, Ceefax was attracting a audience of 20 million
0:10:02 > 0:10:07people a week and that was 24 hours a day,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10365 days a year service.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13There's the question of miniature Ceefax operations
0:10:13 > 0:10:17by feeding in groups of pages of a purely local interest.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20For people who valued the brevity and clarity of those Ceefax
0:10:20 > 0:10:24stories with their four simple paragraphs, the up-to-dateness and
0:10:24 > 0:10:27the fact you could get it any time of the night or day, that is still
0:10:27 > 0:10:30there on the digital text service which lives behind the red button.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34If you press the red button on your remote you will get digital
0:10:34 > 0:10:37text with news, sports and weather headlines.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42We've had, throughout the past year, a whole stream of e-mails and
0:10:42 > 0:10:46feedback about the service and a lot of people will be sad to see it go.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49We've even had a few poems.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Oh, Ceefax, for 29 years you've been part of my life telling me
0:10:57 > 0:10:59The news and views of the world
0:10:59 > 0:11:03The blocky weather guide and advent calendars of my childhood
0:11:03 > 0:11:05And the breakfast time ritual
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Of shouting at the letters pages shall be no more
0:11:08 > 0:11:11So, goodbye, Ceefax, my old friend
0:11:11 > 0:11:12I will not be watching you again.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20So, Ceefax has fallen victim to the digital revolution
0:11:20 > 0:11:23just as Fahrenheit fell victim to decimalisation.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28But only in isolated and randomly chosen parts of the BBC,
0:11:28 > 0:11:29according to Martin Berger.
0:11:29 > 0:11:3450 years ago, we changed from using Fahrenheit to Celsius.
0:11:34 > 0:11:41Fahrenheit is rarely heard on national TV or regional BBC stations.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44There are two notable exceptions.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48At Look North and Wales all the weather presenters continue
0:11:48 > 0:11:51to give us the Fahrenheit equivalent.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53When will they enter the 21st century?
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Well, Martin, we asked if there was a method to the Fahrenheit
0:11:58 > 0:12:02madness and it appears there is. Sort of.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05We're told BBC weather presenters always use Celsius both
0:12:05 > 0:12:07on-screen and for voice-overs
0:12:07 > 0:12:10but when temperatures are particularly high, they will
0:12:10 > 0:12:13sometimes make verbal reference to Fahrenheit
0:12:13 > 0:12:15because viewers have said they prefer it.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18So, from that we can infer two things.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20It's our fault because we've asked for it
0:12:20 > 0:12:22and we needn't worry about it for 10 months
0:12:22 > 0:12:27if ever as we are unlikely to get any high temperatures.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Now, can you see me clearly? Not fuzzy around the edges at all?
0:12:31 > 0:12:32No, well,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35I am obviously not suffering from Nigel Slateritis then.
0:12:55 > 0:13:00Sometimes, for whatever reason, there is a glut in the shops or some
0:13:00 > 0:13:03special offers that are too good to miss.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06When that happens, I tend to buy now and think later.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11Nigel Slater got five million viewers, even if they were squinting.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Pin-sharp and crystal-clear next week, we have the Head
0:13:14 > 0:13:18of Entertainment Commissioning Mark Linsey in the hotseat.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20What is he busy stuffing our Christmas stockings with?
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Why not ask him? You can write to:
0:13:26 > 0:13:29You are also more than welcome to e-mail:
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Or jump on the very lively messageboard:
0:13:36 > 0:13:38And you can call us,
0:13:38 > 0:13:41the number is charged as a local rate call from a landline:
0:13:45 > 0:13:46Goodbye.