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Film critic Barry Norman dies

(July 2017)

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ST
Stuart
I used to watch Film in the 80s/90s and always used to look forward to the new incarnation of the logo each year. Very Happy
JO
Jon
Very sad news, I don't think the Film programme has really been the same since he left.

Regarding that article excerpt, didn't he also write the film reviews for the Radio Times in recent years?

It hasn't been the same since Jonathan Ross left, probably time he could be allowed back to that show.
SC
Si-Co

He also did a soap review programme for ITV in xmas 91:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBkB2UxzmUc


I remember his comment about Ramsay Street being "reassuringly Anglo-Saxon". I'm not sure you could get away with saying that these days!

Hard to believe that programme is over a quarter of a century old. I still think of the 1990s as being "a few years ago"!

RIP Mr Norman.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Apparently there was a nice tribute to Barry Norman from Duncan Newmarch in one of the junctions last night, presumably at closedown.
DE
DE88
Jon posted:
It hasn't been the same since Jonathan Ross left, probably time he could be allowed back to that show.


Well, the show *did* undergo a major revamp when Claudia Winkleman took over from Wossy... Wink

Here's Barry interviewing Woody Allen.

:-(
A former member
So why didn't the BBC give it a regular slot? There must be to it, than it was a cheap filler programme to plug up the gaps etc.
Last edited by A former member on 2 July 2017 1:07pm
AN
Andrew Founding member
So why didn't the BBC give it a regular slot?


Because it got low viewing figures and was only kept on as there would have been an outcry had it been axed?
SW
Steve Williams
Yes. And he was also one of the presenting team for ITV/4's 1988 Olympics coverage. I think he'd wanted the Beeb to involve him with their sports programming, but they'd opted to restrict him to Film xxxx ? ITV made him an offer for their Olympic coverage, and he accepted?


That's more or less right, he was a big sports fan and he wanted to do more about it on the telly. Not sure there were many opportunities for him on the Beeb, mind. On the ITV coverage he was on the late shift with Elton Welsby, he would generally be joined by a number of guests for a discussion on the day's events around midnight before Welsby took on the main duty of actually anchoring the live stuff later in the night.

Am I right in saying that he left the BBC because they wouldn't give Film a permanent slot in the schedule? But retired only a few years into doing his Sky Movies programme.


Well, that was one of the reasons they mentioned, for much the same way Des Lynam used to complain about Match of the Day being on too late. It did shuffle around quite a lot, although it was pretty consistent in terms of being on the same day and on every week, even if the start time could be anything from 10pm to midnight. In those days it used to get a teatime repeat on BBC2 as well and there were a few occasions where the BBC2 showing was actually the first broadcast. Of course, for the first few years it was a regional show for the South East, I don't think it was networked until 1979.

His departure for Sky came at the time when Sky were going to turn Sky Premier into the British HBO, and as well as films they were going to show other programmes as well, it was the same time they signed up Harry Enfield and David Baddiel and their series were going to be on Sky Premier as well. In the end they decided not to do that and Enfield and Baddiel's series were shown on Sky One, but Barry Norman's series was indeed on Sky Premier for the first year. But then in the second year they got rid of all original programming from Sky Premier and moved that to Sky One as well, where it ended up some weeks going out at midnight, so he was back to square one. And then he retired.

They certainly got a lot of mileage out of the Film ’88 set. (starts at 6:40)


Indeed. I'm not sure where that montage was first created for, mind, because I remember seeing it for the first time on TFI Friday, and I'd abandoned that by 1998 because it had gone rubbish. So presumably they'd made it for another anniversary.
TI
tightrope78
With Barry Norman's passing that's another member of Morcambe & Wise's 'There is Nothing Like a Dame' cast gone. Not many left now.
IS
Inspector Sands
I never quite understood why 'Holiday' and 'Film' had the year in the title..... presumably it was just because otherwise they're very dull titles?

The UK in Crimewatch was always superfluous too
MA
Markymark
I never quite understood why 'Holiday' and 'Film' had the year in the title..... presumably it was just because otherwise they're very dull titles?



Life back in the 70s was dull (good job we didn't know any better) ! Anything trendy or modern or futuristic would have '2000' slapped on to it. 17 years on, now we're the other side of that threshold, such things look really naff !
BU
buster
Didn't Holiday lose the year in the early 90s (possibly around the time Jill Dando took over), but they couldn't resist adding 2000 to it (on screen, at least) around the turn of the millennium? Or did I imagine that last bit...

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