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1990 on BBC Four (January 2018)

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JA
james-2001
It wasn't live. There were no live shows between August 1988 and April 1989, as has been pointed out in this thread.
BU
buster
The start of the drum roll at the head of the titles is also slightly different - much firmer. I suspect they played their own to cover up any slight gap before the BBC1/NC1 feed with the actual drum roll kicked in?


If the show was live - then the recording in the archives may have been a PasB (programme as broadcast) made from the network feed - which could have a dissolve from the BBC One symbol into the titles, but equally it might have been a recording of studio output (which would be clean at either end).

However for recorded shows, the copy in the archives is going to be the copy used for transmission (they wouldn't have made a PasB of a delivered recorded show)


Possibly didn’t make myself clear enough but was taking about the drum roll on Radio 1. If you compare the you tube vid above with the show on iPlayer, Radio 1 has a much firmer start to the drum roll, whereas iPlayer/broadcast fades in (as it normally does in every show). So, what I’m guessing (but may be totally wrong about) is Radio 1 played their own drum roll just to bridge any small gap before the actual drum roll began on their feed from NC1/wherever they took it from. The drum itself also sounds slightly different but that may be me losing it after listening to them over and over again..
VM
VMPhil
The start of the drum roll at the head of the titles is also slightly different - much firmer. I suspect they played their own to cover up any slight gap before the BBC1/NC1 feed with the actual drum roll kicked in?


If the show was live - then the recording in the archives may have been a PasB (programme as broadcast) made from the network feed - which could have a dissolve from the BBC One symbol into the titles, but equally it might have been a recording of studio output (which would be clean at either end).

However for recorded shows, the copy in the archives is going to be the copy used for transmission (they wouldn't have made a PasB of a delivered recorded show)


Possibly didn’t make myself clear enough but was taking about the drum roll on Radio 1. If you compare the you tube vid above with the show on iPlayer, Radio 1 has a much firmer start to the drum roll, whereas iPlayer/broadcast fades in (as it normally does in every show). So, what I’m guessing (but may be totally wrong about) is Radio 1 played their own drum roll just to bridge any small gap before the actual drum roll began on their feed from NC1/wherever they took it from. The drum itself also sounds slightly different but that may be me losing it after listening to them over and over again..

Yes, comparing the two in Audacity, it sounds as though Radio 1 start their own drumroll which then fades in to the TOTP drumroll. It's also very noticeable how much dynamic range compression there was on the FM signal compared to the (I assume) uncompressed version on TV.


If anyone's wondering, the last song Bruno plays (or rather, talks over) on his show is a 1988 re-recording of Chris Rea's 'I Can Hear Your Heartbeat'. I mention this only because 1988 seems to have been the year for producing re-recordings or remixes of previous hits. The BBC Four repeats have just featured a 1988 version of Bryan Ferry's 'Let's Stick Together', although the first time they showed it as part of the breakers, it seemed to be just a video for the original version from 1976 complete with muffled mono sound.
CO
commseng
It would have been quite likely that Radio 1 continuity (Con K or L) would have had the direct feed from the VT machine at TVC, both the audio via stereo lines and the vision so they could see the clock roll. They could also have had talkback from NC1 to check that there were no changes to the timing.
IS
Inspector Sands
It could be that the theme tune started on the tape before the titles started so that Pres, or in this case Radio 1 had some audio they could fade up early.

I'd have thought it was unlikely that Radio 1 would take the output of BBC1 as it was in mono at the time
MA
Markymark
It could be that the theme tune started on the tape before the titles started so that Pres, or in this case Radio 1 had some audio they could fade up early.

I'd have thought it was unlikely that Radio 1 would take the output of BBC1 as it was in mono at the time


I think by then Crystal Palace was carrying BBC 1 and 2 in NICAM in 'extended test' mode.

However, when did the practice of having a quarter inch audio machine at BH slave locked to the VTR at TVC cease?

There were technical reasons for doing it in the Quad era, because that format had poor audio performance and no stereo, but I think there were <cough> industrial relations reasons too?

Late 80s the show would have been C Fomat, much better audio, but still not the ultimate in quality
JA
james-2001
BBC website listings show both the 22nd December and Xmas day editions on the 20th, though strangely the wrong way round.

I'm wondering if maybe we will be getting the 25th birthday edition some point over the Christmas/new year period? Looking at a copy of it, removing Savile won't be that tricky, as he literally only does the opening and closing, plus there's a short clip of Gary Glitter in one of the montages that would also have to be removed, but the episode is safe apart from that.
Last edited by james-2001 on 25 November 2019 7:16pm
AR
Argybargy
BBC website listings show both the 22nd December and Xmas day editions on the 20th, though strangely the wrong way round.

I'm wondering if maybe we will be getting the 25th birthday edition some point over the Christmas/new year period? Looking at a copy of it, removing Savile won't be that tricky, as he literally only does the opening and closing, plus there's a short clip of Gary Glitter in one of the montages that would also have to be removed, but the episode is safe apart from that.

The Christmas Day 1981 show also only had Savile in the opening and closing links (with 1 link from DLT about 15 minutes in). This too would have been easy to edit out. But BBC Four still skipped the entire edition.

Also, the opening title sequence for 31/12/88 features images of Savile.

I think sadly there's no chance that BBC Four will be screening it.
JA
james-2001
The Story of 1988 did show the titles for the 25th Birthday show, with Savile edited out, so they've already made that edit once.
JA
james-2001
. The BBC Four repeats have just featured a 1988 version of Bryan Ferry's 'Let's Stick Together', although the first time they showed it as part of the breakers, it seemed to be just a video for the original version from 1976 complete with muffled mono sound.


The sound quality was terrible, I'm presuming it was the audio from the 16mm film optical soundtrack, they were notoriously poor. By the time it was shown on the following episode they had dubbed the audio for the remix on it. The picture looked quite poor as well, I'm sure it didn't look that bad when we saw it on the 1976 episodes. Seems to have been quite a common thing on these repeats though seeing music videos that look pristine, then seeing them on the modern music channels, YouTube (even official accounts) and the like and they look incredibly poor.

I always find Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney is one of the worst victims of this, looked so clean on the 1979 TOTPs, but the version show on the music channels for as long as I can remember, and even on Paul's own DVD, looks awful, looks like it's gone down several generations of both film and video, and probably a standards conversion or two as well. I have a copy of an ITV Chart Show episode from 1993 where they show it on the video vault, and they're using the awful quality version there too, only 14 years after the song came out.
BH
BillyH Founding member
I remember in the early 2000s the version of Minnie Riperton’s ‘Loving You’ shown on music channels was an old 16mm print covered in audio scratches, to the point where when I hear the song now it’s odd not to hear them. Eventually they dubbed a clean digital copy of the audio over it.
VM
VMPhil
I always find Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney is one of the worst victims of this, looked so clean on the 1979 TOTPs, but the version show on the music channels for as long as I can remember, and even on Paul's own DVD, looks awful, looks like it's gone down several generations of both film and video, and probably a standards conversion or two as well. I have a copy of an ITV Chart Show episode from 1993 where they show it on the video vault, and they're using the awful quality version there too, only 14 years after the song came out.

Ah but there’s a certain charm now after seeing it look like that after all these years watching VH1 at Christmas. Would love to see it remastered but it wouldn’t be quite the same. I’ve always thought it was a really charming video though, what with the ’70s visual effects in full force.

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