BBC Four

I don't know if anyone else has spotted it but there is an edition of The Russell Harty Show on BBC Four at 23:00 this evening. Guests include Grace Jones, so it is probably that episode that always turns up on clips shows.

It is always interesting to see complete episodes of programmes which contain a famous moment in television history. In fact, I think that would be a good idea for a season of programming on BBC Four; Clips Season. They could show the complete episode of Blue Peter where the elephant has a poo, the complete episode of Today with The Sex Pistols as guests. There must be hundreds of other shows where a small part of them has been played hundreds of times but the complete episode has rarely been seen.

Maybe because the rest of the show isn't really that interesting?

Also I believe this is part of BBC Four's 'Talk at the BBC' season they've been promoting between the end of the local opt out and the headlines at 8am during Breakfast (and presumably other times).

It turns out that the "first few minutes" of this edition of The Russell Harty Show have been lost. The CA explained this and so did a modern day caption after the opening titles (which must have been taken from another recording). The caption blamed recording problems. The show itself started with a bit of picture roll.

That's a bugger isn't it?

The most famous edition of RH, is it not, & it ain't complete after all!

Don't they have a 'Best Of' edition they could bung on?

(I'll have to watch later!)

Well, all the famous bits were in it, and it was still fascinating. All you missed was Harty introducing Grace Jones at the start, and it worked when you could see the whole thing because you could see why she was getting more and more annoyed throughout the show.

It was a daft way to arrange the seats (he had to turn his back on her), but she's as mad as a brush and he couldn't help but show his disdain.

I never much liked that clip (or the full programme), it was just uncomfortable.

What a shame for Russell that its considered his most famous moment.

There's a couple of programmes which they could have shown:

http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/147316

http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/593067

There might be clips from that episode shown again tonight, in The Unforgettable Russell Harty.

BBC4 have shown the full episode of Friday Night Saturday Morning with the Monty Python's Life of Brian debate.

The whole point in watching something like this for me is to see a typical example of the programme and in this case to see a clip I have seen many times, shown with context. Showing a 'best of' especially a 'best of' that was compiled 20 - 30 years after the programme was originally broadcast wouldn't be the same at all. Even the way the clip of Grace Jones is usually presented is edited down for a modern audience who probably wouldn't want to watch more than 30 seconds of this programme.



Turns out you were wrong in this case. It was a very interesting programme. As well as Grace Jones, it also featured a photographer, a man wearing make-up and a man on roller skates.

That's a funny one too - it starts with Tim Rice's intro and then there's quite an awkward gap before the Monty Python clip begins, with some nervous laughter from the audience and a bit of black too - presumably a problem on the night with running the film, but interesting that it's been left in on the modern day repeat (to BBC4's credit, really) as it doesn't look good at all.