Episode 6 Points of View

Good afternoon and you find me at the doctors.

Well, you have to accept any appointment you can get these days.

For those who don't recognise it,

this is the location for the lunchtime dose

of the medical drama, Doctors.

That's right.

As a nation of hypochondriacs, our evening appointments

with Casualty and Holby just won't suffice

so for the past 12 years there has been daytime surgery

here in Letherbridge too.

So it is a surgery but not as we know it

in the same way that the captain of the Starship Enterprise

William Shatner is a presenter.

But maybe he doesn't know it.

This is the G8 summit and Greece's attempts to "Klingon" to the euro...

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Can I just say what a joy and what a surreal experience it is having you on the show?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

May I say...this is an out-of-body experience for me too! LAUGHTER

So, Captain Kirk makes an excellent job of being a comedian

anchoring a major BBC One production.

But apparently the professional comedian

and anchorman Dara O'Briain did NOT make an excellent job

of being a comedian anchoring a major BBC One production.

We're running to a tight schedule tonight.

It's extremely tight because we've had to make extra space to allow

Adele to finish the acceptance speech she started at the Brits.

LAUGHTER

No award for Dara, then.

And it would seem Countryfile disappointed

its usually loyal audience last week too.

The programme was billed as featuring new filming

based around the Humber.

Except lots of the filming wasn't new

and wasn't based around the Humber which could be a problem.

Short-changed by Countryfile?! What is the world coming to?

I've been doing my sums and last week's hour-long episode was one of the scheduled

compilation programmes which repeats

previously-filmed material from the three years since the format changed in 2009.

Cos there's not much better than being on the Humber in the boats that bear its name.

But in amongst the repeats there were around 23 minutes

of new features.

We have been gently nudged onto BBC Two today

but Countryfile will be on as usual this evening on BBC One

when they are promising to be in Northern Ireland.

And Simon Reeve will also be in his usual slot this evening

which should please a lot of people.

Whoa, look! There's cars coming the wrong way down the road. HORN TOOTS

Get off the road!

It's a dual carriageway, going that way.

There are law-abiding citizens of India

driving in the correct manner that way on the other side of the road.

And there are numpty muppets driving giant trucks

directly at our vehicle on our side of the road. Whoa!

And whilst we're in the mood for globetrotting,

although they have not personally dropped us a line to say so,

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are said to be

huge fans of the foreign drama acquisition, The Killing.

In fact, Camilla's not just seen it, she's got the T-shirt.

Well, the pullover.

I must say I got hooked to both series of The Killing too

and Borgen, the political one.

BBC Four is doing really well with these international dramas

and it seems the appreciative royals are in good company.

I do think that what BBC Four is offering of the moment

is a pretty broad range of programming.

Inspector Montalbano from Italy, Spiral from France,

and then of course our, what's been dubbed, Nordic noir,

the Scandinavian dramas such as The Bridge, The Killing and of course Borgen.

And the key is that we're interested in the very best of

foreign dramas which deliver complex, complicated,

enjoyable, entertaining dramas made to the highest quality.

When we first looked at The Killing -

and we bought The Killing off the back of an afternoon

watching a number of dramas.

We had some coffee and cake and watched half a dozen different dramas

and The Killing stood out as the great offering.

I thought straight away this might be something BBC Four audiences would like.

I have to confess, I couldn't have predicted it would be

the talked-about drama of 2011.

Now on BBC Four, with the whole country seemingly hooked

on Danish drama, it seemed only fair that we feed your addiction.

There's some strong language in a double bill of Borgen.

Borgen came along sometime after The Killing

and it was instantly an attractive proposition.

The fact that it happens to be that we are in a coalition government

and this series was about the politics of a coalition government are coincidence.

In the pipeline we've got a new drama coming up

called Lillehammer which is set in Lillehammer,

in Norway, and it's the story of an American wise guy, a mafia type,

who is on a security programme.

He's snitched on his mates in America and he has to flee.

We've also got Killing 3 coming up and of course Borgen and The Bridge will be back.

And from Scandinavia - clearly the new home of successful drama -

to Poland and the Ukraine where Panorama exposed

racism in football in a way that was really shocking.

If you're arriving here by train, this is the greeting you'll get.

And further down the platform it doesn't say, "Welcome to Warsaw",

it says, "Welcome to Hell".

This graffiti celebrates the White Legion,

one of many violent groups organised around football.

Let's take a look. Yep, they should be the other way round.

And whilst we're examining things closely

and particularly as it is Jubilee weekend -

BBC producers take note -

do not show the Union Flag flying upside down, please!

But this was the moment the torch reached the peak of its 70-day journey and burned bright.

MUSIC: "God Save The Queen"

And for those of you still unsure,

this is how the flag should be flown.

Broad white stripe at the top at the pole side

or if no pole, then at the left.

# God save our Queen. #

All flags will be kept under close scrutiny this weekend.

Now, one thing TV has led many of us to do in recent years

is pay much closer attention to family heirlooms.

The plethora of TV antique shows where the contents

of an outhouse or a chance find at a car boot sale

have proved to be worth thousands have had us all hoping to turn up some treasure ourselves.

But viewer Chris Dunkley claims the hunt for high-value collectables

has devalued antiques programmes themselves.

Not only do I think there are too many antiques programmes on,

but a lot of them don't contain antiques.

Call it "Junk Shop Challenge" or something, I don't care

what you call it but please do not call it antiques

when it's not antiques.

This kingfisher salt and pepper set

is not antique, having been recently made.

My interest in antiques started with Arthur Negus and Going For A Song.

-Hello.

-But you see, he spent time talking about them.

He spent time explaining where they came from, how they were made,

all the intrinsic things you want to know about an antique.

An English silver bell salt made during the reign of Elizabeth I.

You know what present-day salt cellars are like and you know

what those horrible little pimpy Victorian salt cellars are like.

It was really interesting and that's really the thing I'm beefing about,

is the lack of interest in some of these things.

I'd like to get something in here for about two pounds,

it might be a big ask though.

The one that really gets me is the Antiques Road Trip.

That really upsets me for the simple reason that,

I think with the dealers, when they're confronted by the experts

and no doubt a camera crew,

they feel obliged and pressurised a little bit into selling.

They must do. I don't think that's acceptable, I really don't.

Tunbridge Ware, what could you do on that one?

How does 125 sound?

I'd prefer 60. I'm on my hands and knee... I'm on my knees here.

-The ticket price is £34.

-In an ideal world, at £15.

I mean, he may walk into a lovely antique shop, point at an object

and say, "Yep, I'll offer you £2.50 for that, Tim, what do you think?"

I'd say, "I'm sorry, Chris, there's absolutely no chance."

Just be honest about it.

Let's have proper antiques, proper prices and do a good job.

So, low offers are not always going for a song

or indeed going, going, gone it would seem.

Now, stethoscope in hand, we should have a search for the pulse rate

of Doctors itself since we're here.

Is this series still pumping with energy,

still beating after 12 years?

-So we get to carry on being doctors?

-You're all fit for purpose, I'd say.

Congratulations, Howard.

-You've got the makings of an excellent practice here.

-Thank you.

"Love to hate", eh, Bright? But you're still watching, I see.

So that's me off the waiting list.

If you've got anything you want to get off YOUR chest about BBC TV,

we would love you to write to us.

And you know there's an e-mail address too, the address is:

or you can jump on the messageboard where it's lively.

You could also phone us, the number is charged as

a local rate call from a landline and it is:

Goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd