1997 Week on BBC Four

So you didn't bother with the rest of the programme because the first quarter concentrated on that show?

There was no presentation stuff related to Diana but a few bits of Nick Gowing that night, including welcoming BBC Prime viewers. Also showed a rather emotional Martyn Lewis trying to keep his composure at one point. The most interesting bit was an interview with the chief exec of BBC News at the time who gave an insight into the panic at not having an obit tape for Diana and how they effectively made up blocks of the schedule for the BBC network that day. I guess there's little interest in doing a programme charting the TV coverage of that day but with this year being ten years on, you never know.

It would be nice if those to contributed to the MHP page would re-encode their clips, the interruptions to the film particularly would be nice to see.

Cheers, Asa

Firstly - kind of agree with the This Life argument - it dominated too much of the programme.

Secondly, I think there was an edition of the excellent "Days that shook the World" on the death of Diana which IIRC covered quite a bit from the reporting angle.

The day Diana died, I was due to go on holiday with my family - it being August Bank Holiday. I remember turning on commercial radio and hearing "This is Independent Radio News - At 5.35am this morning, Diana Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris.." and that ran (with Greenwich time signals) on a loop all day I think. Very eerie and almost war like. The BBC News virtual studio sported its late news set all day to create a sombre feel. Certainly a day of mourning, respectively. It was interesting to see that documentary last night and getting an insight as to how they managed.

Anyway, there isn't actually that much programming wise on BBC4 from 1997. I'd like it if they showed Driving School again or perhaps The Cruise - after all it was the year of the docusoap. Don't get me wrong, its great seeing Hotel Adelphi again.

Today's schedule was quite interesting. I have never seen Eastenders before but the one they showed of 1997 looked more like sitcom!

I also enjoyed their Panorama which I thought was interesting looking back to then and comparing it with now (to show us very little had changed! )

The Cruise was 1998.

The chat and TV documentaries were a bit disappointing to be honest - it wasn't that I disagreed with the choices they covered but it felt a bit thrown together, with all the clips far too long...

The Panorama special last night was much better - and nice to see very liberal use of the title sequence in use that year!

Going back to TFI Friday... isn't it a shame that Caroline Aherne doesn't like to appear on TV anymore. She should at least have an interview with Parkinson!

We've got the Teletubbies tonight on BBC Four at 7pm!

I wonder what the viewing figures will be like?

Sorry to take this slightly off topic, but seeing as the ad for 1997 week features the other theme nights/weeks...

Does anyone know when New York Week & Tube Night will be on at all?

It was bad enough This Life took up a quarter of the 1997 programme - but according to this weeks "What's on EastEnders" it actually launched in 1996, so that's really taking the piss!

It did - it featured on I Love 1996 IIRC.

New York week has been on already, it was the week before 1997 week. As for Tube night, no idea when thats on?

Tube Night is this Sunday, some interesting (if slightly geeky!) stuff on.