Trouble with BBC scotland:

I wouldn't be surprised if the CIN opts are seriously cut back this year given the great expense there was in running the massive concerts last year...

First off 'BBC London' is regional news, it's got nothing to do with it.

Secondly if they're going to make fewer Scottish programmes, what else are they going to fill the airtime with if they're not to use network programmes?


So? what does that have to do with anything. They're doing Waterloo road soon aren't they... that's drama

Quite simple really - shut BBC Alba, a useless vanity project which is the worst possible example of the BBC caving in to a vested interest which shouts the loudest. Very few people speak the language (Scotland has never had one single national language, so the comparison with Wales doesn't tally) and there's already a Gaelic radio station as it is.

With that done, you can spend the money on programming people can actually understand.

What I do mean is BBC In London, their head office. The problem is the BBC thinks the best way to solve this problem is to ( As I said ) SHIP up ideas and English departments. It very simple that just a joke, Waterloo road is just Drama being moved so there looked good. BBC really need to make Glasgow on the same level as Media City in Manchester and start marking Original programmes that are Scottish but can be broadcast across the network,




Well there could always do an STV and just move the programmes to BBC TWO overnight and make people Sky/Freeview + them...

You're implying here that BBC production from Media City means all the programmes are northern in character....? Other than North West Tonight I fail to think of any BBC programme that will be produced in Media City that has a very northern tone.

If we're going to go into statistics, less than a tenth of the population live in Scotland, which suggests a tenth of programming should come from Scotland. How close to that are we?

No where near it, I doubt it even reaches 5%.

That's what they do, BBC Scotland have made a massive contribution to the network and they've made loads of dramas, things like Sea of Souls and the recent Field of Blood (which was commended by Chris Patten, I note, so that might be turned into a series). Similarly they do plenty of things in music and arts, documentaries, comedy (new series of Rab C Nesbitt next week), loads of kids shows. I've done a little bit of work for BBC Scotland and it was all with Scottish people working in Glasgow.

But these things go through peaks and troughs, if BBC Scotland can't think of any good dramas to make then they can't make any and the BBC won't commission them. BBC Wales is a good example, all their dramas used to be crap (it used to be that they'd commission one tokenistic drama from Wales every year and fling it out in the middle of summer) and then they did Doctor Who and it was a triumph and the drama department was massively boosted. At the moment BBC Scotland doesn't have that kind of big drama but if the ideas aren't there, what can you do?

Sending departments to different regions to stimulate growth is entirely what the Beeb are doing at Media City, so why you think this is any different to what's going on in Scotland, I don't know. At least it's helping the Scottish economy.

What does that mean though? "original scottish programmes" ? If you mean tartan tat which nobody gives a toss about why bother? If BBC Scotland can produce shows that work on network it is surely better than having nothing at all. Exactly how was Crosswits specifically Newcastle, or Countdown specifically Yorkshire?

Yes I think some of the quota shifting is daft - Waterloo Road being a noted example but frankly moving Casualty from Bristol to Cardiff seems considerable more stupid to me. But then quotas tend to cause more trouble than they are worth sometimes, its not about quotas it is about culture and London has to learn to trust the regions to be able to make good shows for network (and the regions must be able to produce good enough stuff).

Otherwise all we end up with is the same thing that happened last time with Pebble Mill being demolished because they forgot Doctors used it as a four waller and C*rol M*lia sitting in a cavernous gloriously lavish studio with a set bigger than N6* for half an hour of Look North a night,

*I think

You're getting 2 things mixed up - programmes made in Scotland and programmes made for Scotland.

The cuts you referred to in the original post are relating to the latter - Scottish regional programmes. Network programmes being moved to Scotland like Weakest Link and Waterloo Road are a different matter, cutting them doesn't mean more money for Scottish programmes.

Waterloo Road from day one has always been a BBC Scotland production. It is commissioned by BBC Scotland for the BBC Network to Shed Media.

Only thing that will change when Waterloo Road moves to Scotland, is just that! It will still be commissioned by BBC Scotland for the BBC Network to Shed Media.

I'll agree with BBC Alba being axed. But, in doing so, where does the Scottish Junior cup final go, anf Celtic league rugby union. If they move, I'd hope they get english language commentary.

The RaboDirect Pro 12 rugby would be a very big stumbling block, its broadcast on BBC Two in Northern Ireland and Wales on Friday or Saturday nights. Moving it to BBC One would effectively mean Northern Ireland and/or Wales losing either the entire prime time Friday or Saturday night BBC One schedule every week, something that would go down like a lead baloon among fans of the shows broadcast on those nights.

There are of course solutions: Celtic Rugby could play more matches during the day on Saturdays or Sundays (this might mean losing other sport programming in the Nations though). Since many Celtic Rugby matches are effectively scheduled for TV anyway this might not be so difficult to arrange. Another option would be to put BBC One England on all platforms in the Nations in order to give a choice of viewing.

If all BBC opt-outs were on BBC Two it might necessitate a rethink of what BBC One is about, if national "cultural" programming which were heretofore the preserve of BBC Two were to move to BBC One. It would certainly lead to BBC One in the nations having to become a more highbrow channel than it has been of late. It would also mean a lot more opt-outs from the prime time schedule.