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Funny you should say that seeing as the BBC readily promoted the trail in the 80s featuring John Cleese in the pub as being an advertising break during Wogan and during junctions (there's a clip of this on TV Ark). Strange how things have changed in the sense the corporation would probably never even think of doing that now.

I think they probably stopped advertising the Radio Times because it no longer became the only magazine that offered BBC listings, although they still did trail it until a few years ago, now with the "Other listings magazines are available" captions. And also it has become part of the separate BBC Worldwide commercial arm, and now it has of course been sold off so we'll never see it promoted again.

Sent from my iPad

Santa's been then?

Can't believe I actually sat through all thirty minutes of that! Loads of stuff that hasn't been on the internet before.

The idents/stings around the 18 minute mark are very Channel 5.

Not sure Sky and Channel 5 would be too happy if the BBC ever went commercial!

To be honest tough, I've seen no evidence 'the right-wing press' want the licence fee abolished. Some writers are against the licence fee and certain newspapers provide those writers a platform on which to express their views. Not all right-wingers are anti-BBC; you can be right-wing and adore the BBC, just as you can be left-wing in every other sense and be anti-EU, for example.

'The BBC spends £6 million on new idents' headlines of days gone by were a slightly satirical take on the prevailing attitude of the time that splashing money on a project was guaranteed to bring great results. Almost on a weekly basis on BBC News you'd get a story along the lines of 'the Government is to spend £50 million on a new scheme for this or that' and it was just assumed that because the sum of money was so large it was bound to be a good thing. Seldom was it reported that a scheme launched three years ago at a cost of £50 million has failed to do anything positive and was a waste of money. It was all about flashing the cash.

Probably the main reason the BBC won't make another epic promotion such as 'Broadcasting At Its Best' or 'Perfect Day' is because the brand is arguably less coherent today than it was 18 years ago when the former promotion was made, and the audience is too fragmented for it to work. But also, the way the BBC goes about producing has changed for the worse. When you factor in the myriad compromises which would need to be made in order to appease everybody on the committee and nine layers of micromanagement, the finished product would be virtually devoid of meaning. The old saying 'too many cooks spoil the broth' certainly rings true. The world would be a better place if people were left alone and trusted to get on with their job.

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. It is brilliant.

Now that I think about it, there was the "This is what we do" trailers from the previous year or so.

Also there hasn't been a BBC report show in a while. Do these only come round when the charter is up for renewal?

'This Is What We Do' launched in 2006 and used existing footage from as far back as 2001.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/03_march/23/whatwedo.shtml

I don't think it counts but that's just my opinion.

I would say it counts, whilst it doesn't fit the usual method of (relatively) long-form storytelling encompassing all aspects of the BBC's output over a handful it does still make a statement about the things they get upto... kinda. It's probably of no surprise I forgot it existed until you mentioned it.

The following clip isn't that interesting, apart from the fact it's from the original broadcast of the episode complete with continuity at the beginning:

Take it you enjoyed the other present you got?

Huh? Yes I got an iPad as a present from a friend, not sure what you're talking about here.

It was you who got a box set of A Bit of Fry and Laurie? Don't know if that was you or someone else or if it was a present or a personal purchase.

No I didn't get a box set of Fry and Laurie.

EDIT; hello everyone from David's signature