According to the reports, it seems that, for the first time in years, BBC1 is returning to good old fashioned quality entertainment this Autumn. With classic dramas like The Virgin Queen, a drama series about ancient Egypt, The return of Spooks, Waking The Dead, new sitcom Green Green Grass- a OFAH spin off featuring Boycie and Marlene, the return of Worst Week of My Life and Little Britain, Strictly Come Dancing, a new David Attenborough series on insects, The Story of God-a major new documentary series with Robert Winston and a collection of four re-worked Shakespeare Plays with a modern twist (like 2003's Canterbury Tales).
This has to be one of the best line ups the channel has offered in Autumn for years. The worst thing is the return of Carrie and Barrie, but if the highlights are as good as they sound, then surely they can be forgiven for the one lame duck!
Do you think that BBC1 is improving its quality or do you feel it has a long way to go? Or do you prefer ITV's offerings for whatever the reason?
According to the reports, it seems that, for the first time in years, BBC1 is returning to good old fashioned quality entertainment this Autumn. With classic dramas like The Virgin Queen, a drama series about ancient Egypt, The return of Spooks, Waking The Dead, new sitcom Green Green Grass- a OFAH spin off featuring Boycie and Marlene, the return of Worst Week of My Life and Little Britain, Strictly Come Dancing, a new David Attenborough series on insects, The Story of God-a major new documentary series with Robert Winston and a collection of four re-worked Shakespeare Plays with a modern twist (like 2003's Canterbury Tales).
This has to be one of the best line ups the channel has offered in Autumn for years. The worst thing is the return of Carrie and Barrie, but if the highlights are as good as they sound, then surely they can be forgiven for the one lame duck!
Well it's the same as any other year then isn't it, some classic drama's, a Robert Winston series, a David Attenborough series, Shakespeare redone with a modern twist, Little Britain, Strictly Come Dancing. No major change of direction in my opinion.
According to the reports, it seems that, for the first time in years, BBC1 is returning to good old fashioned quality entertainment this Autumn. With classic dramas like The Virgin Queen, a drama series about ancient Egypt, The return of Spooks, Waking The Dead, new sitcom Green Green Grass- a OFAH spin off featuring Boycie and Marlene, the return of Worst Week of My Life and Little Britain, Strictly Come Dancing, a new David Attenborough series on insects, The Story of God-a major new documentary series with Robert Winston and a collection of four re-worked Shakespeare Plays with a modern twist (like 2003's Canterbury Tales).
This has to be one of the best line ups the channel has offered in Autumn for years. The worst thing is the return of Carrie and Barrie, but if the highlights are as good as they sound, then surely they can be forgiven for the one lame duck!
Do you think that BBC1 is improving its quality or do you feel it has a long way to go? Or do you prefer ITV's offerings for whatever the reason?
Shouldn't we wait until the Autumn before answering?
They are only programme titles at the moment, plus there will be loads of stuff not in the press release that is also on this Autumn
Is BBC1 going upmarket? Apparantly yes, if you belive press releases
Is BBC1 improving quality? How do we know!, these new upmarket programmes could be really poorly made!
Whatever you think of BBC1 at present at least it's looking at itself and saying, right what can we do to improve things. Now surely that's a good thing.
Let's see what the Autumn brings us before we make our decision.
Whatever you think of BBC1 at present at least it's looking at itself and saying, right what can we do to improve things. Now surely that's a good thing.
Let's see what the Autumn brings us before we make our decision.
Ok I'll agree that we should wait and see, but how many TV stations in the world would be able to turn a Dickens classic into a twice weekly half hour ''soap'' other than the beeb? This is enough for me to stay switched on to the channel. I get a feeling that with all this ''upmarket'' talk, we may be nearing the end of the dancer idents and something more tasteful evolving.........
I usually feel quite pessimistic about the direction that mainstream television is taking, yet this does provide a bit of hope. Perhaps BBC One is finally escaping from the ratings driven post-birt-era culture and returning to its former status as the populist, yet relatively highbrow channel.
When the BBC makes popular programmes it is criticised (usually by the right wing press) for chasing ratings and dumbing down. When it makes worthy programmes with limited appeal it is damned for wasting money and being out of touch. These people hate the BBC no matter what they do so they should pay no attention to them.
Also, I'm sure it will be well made and acted, but do we really need another Elizabethan costume drama? There must be some other kings or queens they could do, William III for instance.
If a topic about "ITV1 Autumn LineUp"" is raised it has numerous replies, optimistic comments droning on about the brilliance of X-Factor and the masterful genius of Saturday Night Takeaway. The same sort of thread appears about BBC1 and we get lacklustre response and a chorus of "wait and see."
It seems that all folk want nowadays is soap, talent shows and Ant and Dec. In that respect.....would the last person to leave this country please turn out the light.
For some weird reason I'd completely forgotten that Lorraine Heggessey was leaving as Controller of BBC One until I read about the autumn line up and it mentioned Peter Fincham's name.
So does anyone think we'll see a change in presentation?
but how many TV stations in the world would be able to turn a Dickens classic into a twice weekly half hour
''soap''
other than the beeb? This is enough for me to stay switched on to the channel.
As a matter of fact, turning Dickens into a half-hour "soap" is pretty astute, as it's exactly how the novels were written and first published. They were initially serialised weekly, and if you look at the structure of the books you'll find they contain many of the essential ingredients of soap opera, such as cliffhangers.
Again, like others, I'll not vote until I see what the autumn schedule is actually like in full. However I heard somewhere today that the BBC is abandoning excessive showing of repeats, which can only be a good thing.
