And they'll all be these weird half-hour sitcoms that the first fifteen minutes doesn't seem to bare much relation to the second fifteen.
Sitcom (Com)Mission Page 91
This thread is locked. No further replies can be posted.
Quote: chipolata @ July 28 2010, 12:53 PM BSTAnd they'll all be these weird half-hour sitcoms that the first fifteen minutes doesn't seem to bare much relation to the second fifteen.
Who knows? Maybe they'll go on to write 'Lost'.
Or 'Heroes'.
Quote: Griff @ July 28 2010, 12:49 PM BSTNo, I'm not knocking the Writersroom. Just noting that they must get a tsunami of sitcoms sent to them after the Mission/Trials each year, and now they're going to get even more this time round.
we're paying for it
Quote: bushbaby @ July 28 2010, 8:17 PM BSTwe're paying for it
How much are you paying?
Quote: Marc P @ July 28 2010, 10:59 PM BSTHow much are you paying?
TV license?
Quote: bushbaby @ July 28 2010, 11:41 PM BSTTV license?
Bushbaby - our comments about the extra workload going the Writersroom's way weren't serious.
But if you really think that the licence fee means that the BBC are obliged to provide a new-writing service like the Writersroom, it's our right as taxpayers etc etc, you might be interested to read Stephen Fry's BAFTA speech from this year, discussing the "I pay my licence fee" attitude...
"... The licence fee and the charter and the way they were managed to give advantages to the BBC that supposedly guaranteed freedom, independence and duties of impartiality but now those very qualities became sticks with which to beat them. Everyone pays a licence fee ... therefore the BBC is ours and everything it does belongs to us. We own it, we have a right to make the executives travel coach class, to quibble every cup of coffee, every penny spent, all in the name of public probity, all in the cause of transparency, openness, good governance and clean citizenship. They are public servants, so we will treat them rather as Flashman treats servants, with disdain, contempt, snobbery and a mean rudeness bordering on the pathologically cruel, and every time we flog them and kick them, they will grin and they will say thank you sir, may I have another? Well, perhaps I exaggerate for effect. The BBC has itself for the last fifteen years gone out of its way to ingratiate itself to the public with endless and unbelievably wearisome and embarrassing It's Your BBC Road Shows and discussions, forcing successive directors-general to sit and debate with mad vexatious unhappy people who want to criticise Fiona Bruce's use of blusher or express their indignation at some incidence of the use of the word tits, or even the sight of that said material. The BBC opens up endless Have a Say sections on its websites, and solicits opinion and feedback at every turn. Whether they think listening to the kind of people who actually write in or leave messages to Points of View constitutes good practise, or whether it's a sop that they privately laugh up their sleeves at, I cannot tell. I wouldn't presume personally to advise the army how to run their brigades or to order their equipment. I don't tell policemen how to run a murder inquiry or how to patrol a football match, nor would I interfere in the running and equipping of a national health service surgical theatre. I may pay for the army, the police and the health service or contribute towards it but while accountability, openness and public debates in strategy and outcome are all obviously reasonable and indeed requisite parts of democracy, the rest - the interference, the claimed ownership - is just an intolerable intrusion into the jobs of professionals."
I'm not sure Stephen's argument is the best defence of the BBC.
It may have sounded funny read out at a BAFTA dinner, but when you see it written down it's clear that yes he does exagerate - massively. The BBC as Flashman's beaten and abused servant?? It's poor execs having to justify every coffee? I don't really buy it.
As for them having to travel with the plebs - if that were true I'd say 'good'.
Despite that, on the whole I agree that the 'I pay for the BBC, they should do what I say!' attitude is wrong. The Beeb provides a much better public service than most publicly-funded bodies.
The Writersroom being an excellent example. And I'm sure they'll cope with a few hundred extra scripts. If they're no good they'll just the 10-page read and a quick 'no thanks' letter.
"- the interference, the claimed ownership - is just an intolerable intrusion into the jobs of professionals."
So does that mean we shouldn't submit to the BBC until we become proficient?
It's not a defence of the BBC it's an attack on twattish attitudes to the BBC.
Quote: Tim Azure @ July 29 2010, 7:59 AM BSTSo does that mean we shouldn't submit to the BBC until we become proficient?
No send in sub standard stuff and they'll make it for you. Just like they do in every other industry in the world.
No, it may also be an attack on those attitudes, but it's definitely a defence of the BBC.
No it's not. Where is there a defence of the BBC in it?
Yes it is.
'...the interference, the claimed ownership - is just an intolerable intrusion into the jobs of professionals...'
You honestly don't think that's a defence of the Beeb?
Defence against what?
Never mind, it's not really worth getting into.
that Steven might not work for them again?