Topic: BBC4

[royhendo]

It doesn't seem to have its own thread, but I reckon it should, cos the number of times I miss things that I would have wanted to watch is ridiculous (spending the weekdays away from home).

I'm sat watching "The Beauty of Maps" just now and it's phenomenal stuff (well, it is for me anyway).

A little gem on the SKY and digibox dial this one.

[Paul JH]

Is ten times better than BBC3 that's for certain. I'd rather kill myself than sit through the shite they stick on there (Young Butcher of the Year / I Believe in Ghosts with Joe Swash, any number of 'comedies'). And any channel with Charlie Brooker on is good enough for me.

[BazC]

Best tv channel out there in my opinion. BBC iPlayer is a boon even if only judged on the amount of programmes you can watch on BBC4, which you would have otherwise missed.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

It is so fantastic, I'm sure some cretin from the home counties will soon decide that it has to be closed in order to appease Rupert Murdoch.

[Alan_X]

It doesn't seem to have its own thread, but I reckon it should, cos the number of times I miss things that I would have wanted to watch is ridiculous (spending the weekdays away from home).

I'm sat watching "The Beauty of Maps" just now and it's phenomenal stuff (well, it is for me anyway).

A little gem on the SKY and digibox dial this one.

I was just thinking of starting a thank fuck for the BBC thread while watching that. There are some fantastic programmes on BBC4 and BBC2.

[Paul JH]

I know it was a BBC2 programme, but then it ended up on BBC4, but Wonders of the Solar System is the kind of thing the beeb do best. Just bought it on Bluray, it's a cracking programme. This kind of output, and the likes of Charlie Brooker, wipes the floor with anything ITV manage to stick on ANY of their channels.

Shame the BBC pumped more money into BBC3, it's tragic.

[BazC]

I know it was a BBC2 programme, but then it ended up on BBC4, but Wonders of the Solar System is the kind of thing the beeb do best. Just bought it on Bluray, it's a cracking programme. This kind of output, and the likes of Charlie Brooker, wipes the floor with anything ITV manage to stick on ANY of their channels.

Shame the BBC pumped more money into BBC3, it's tragic.

Yeah those programmes are class. A few highlights over the last year or 2; The History of Maths, Atom, The Cell, Chaos Theory, A history of Chemistry... all mini-series or one offs that were brilliant viewing. I think Horizon on BBC2 is brilliant as well.

For science, BBC4 and BBC2 are fantastically good channels, with BBC4 having the better ones because they're precisely the ones the average viewer will find 'boring', so they get moved aside from the 2 main channels.

[SalisburyRed]

It's an excellent channel, and shows exactly why a publicy-funder broadcaster like the BBC is a good thing. No commercial channel would go near some of the stuff BBC Four produces, simply because it doesn't draw in the ratings.

For me, any channel that shows Mad Men and Charlie Brooker is worthy of praise.

[royhendo]

The Beauty of Maps was doubly good in that it gave props to the British Library, which is one of the greatest places in the geeky world.

[Sasquatch]

Best thing on BBC4 is Wallander.

No, not that crap Kenneth Branagh version, but the Swedish one with Krister Henriksson. The second series is showing now on Saturday nights (repeated on Thursday nights).

I do miss Johanna Salstrom from the first series though. She sadly commited suicide in real life.

[hassinator]

It is so fantastic, I'm sure some cretin from the home counties will soon decide that it has to be closed in order to appease Rupert Murdoch.

sad but very likely to be true.  if the tories get in they're already up to their armpits in deals with murdoch.

all this 'culture shit' will be banished in pursuit of the tv equivalent of cheap knob gags.

boooo!

[N-Red]

Absolute cracking one off documentaries on there as well, remember watching one about a Danish journalist and two Danish N. koreans (one of which was disabled) going on a visit to North Korea, really tense stuff and a fascinating insight into North Korea and just how closed off it is. Another of my favorites was one about the indian hill railways, it follwed the trail of a steam train and the lives of people who lived next to its tracks- had a wonderful story of a poor woman with four sons who managed to get her eldest son into a prestigious local college. Great channel, instead of commisioning cringeworthy comedies on BBC3 I really hope the BBC focus its resources more on BBC4.

[royhendo]

cracking one off documentaries

That's a good description of the doccos on BBC3 a lot of the time. "This week on celebrity titwank..."

[N-Red]

That's a good description of the doccos on BBC3 a lot of the time. "This week on celebrity titwank..."

Yes it is , although that wasn't my intention, should have thought out that sentence a bit more

[royhendo]

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession is just as good. It's an education, by jove!

Edit: it does make me think "Masch: Power, Plunder and Possession" though.

[royhendo]

Anyone see this the other night? It's on the iPlayer if not.

It makes me think a few things:
1. He's a top quality barry gadgie (as some people say up North)
2. Science as a whole is just as fundamentalist in its thinking as bloody religion
3. Flip the script on the whole thing and all you get is a reinforcement of the tenets of a Bhuddist/Christian/Mulsim/whatever kind of religious or spiritual awakening

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis

Or is that bollocks?

Seems to me that life does self-regulate, whether it's conscious of the fact or not in a Pandora-stylee is moot really. And to think of it in any encapsulated scope, be it a single-celled organism, a particular earthly eco-system, a planet, or a galaxy, is to restrict the understanding of the overall balance, no? Surely the whole shooting match is the thing whose balance is worth understanding (albeit in a purely 'fart in the fog' sense). This planet and the star it spins around are doomed to oblivion whether it's in the next decade or two (as Lovelock says) or the next few hundred billion years, and the whole thing, whether we tag it catastrophic or not (if any of us are left) will have been down to self-regulatory balance.

Way out duuuuude!!!

Anyway, it was a great docco - highly recommended for the chin strokers.

[Phil M]

On now - Passport to Liverpool

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00d2zdk

[BazC]

On now - Passport to Liverpool

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00d2zdk

Nice one. I'll be watching that on iPlayer when it's up.

Also, there's a history of science type series running on BBC 4- first couple of episodes (I'm guessing out of 3) are on iPlayer. 

Also one on iconic artists, the first episode of which was about Andy Warhol. That was quite good as well, and I think the episode after it was on earlier.

[Degs]

Love it, I also love 6 music though so don't hold your breath.

[SalisburyRed]

On now - Passport to Liverpool

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00d2zdk

Cheers for pointing that out, really enjoyed it.

[Guz-kop]

Had no idea about a couple of the documentaries mentioned on this thread. Nice one.

[Phil M]

Cheers for pointing that out, really enjoyed it.

Welcome mate, I'm an oot but I thought it was great, very educational.

[Stussy]

Passport to Liverpool programme was great.

I add my signature to this praise of BBC 4.

[SalisburyRed]

Welcome mate, I'm an oot but I thought it was great, very educational.

Likewise.

[BazC]

Some decent stuff on iPlayer for BBC4. I'd fill your boots while you can because with Murdoch's mate in charge now, we probably won't be getting the same BBC soon let alone one which has channels like BBC4.

[royhendo]

Yup - wait n see. Tories will bend over and take it up the arse from Murdoch, and don't expect the Lib Dems to do much about anything.

[Lee1-6Liv]

Watching the black stuff on bbc 4 now, brilliant.

[Pheeny]

Watching the black stuff on bbc 4 now, brilliant.

indeed it is.

[BCCC]

Watching the black stuff on bbc 4 now, brilliant.

I reckon this is this first time I've seen it since it was first on. Classic.

[BCCC]

Whatever happened to tins of Swarfega?

[Lee1-6Liv]

Whatever happened to tins of Swarfega?

Bought a tub of it in home and bargains few weeks back for a quid

[AA1122]

Really interesting insight into the architecture of Liverpool's civic buildings. I know very little about architecture but really enjoyed learning the stories behind some of the buildings that surround us. Definately recommend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tnw4p/Peoples_Palaces_The_Golden_Age_of_Civic_Architecture_NeoClassical/

Architectural historian Dr Jonathan Foyle explores some of the best Georgian and Victorian neo-classical civic buildings in the north of England. He visits town halls, concert halls, libraries, schools and galleries in Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Todmorden in an unlikely story of rivalry, ambition and power in the service of social responsibility.

The north's public building boom was first funded by the profits of sugar, tobacco, cotton and slavery. Later, the Victorian municipalities in the increasingly powerful industrial and mercantile northern towns competed with one another to build bigger, better, more significant architectural monuments than the neighbouring city.

Neo-classicism harked back to Rome, democratic Athens and the Greek city-state. The regular proportion, geometry and symmetry of classical temple-style architecture suggested order in chaotically-expanding urban environments and served to associate towns regarded as squalid and unruly with the cultured ancient civilisations of antiquity. These were buildings constructed with the aim of elevating the towns in which they stood.

Featuring contributions from historians Lawrence Westgaph, Steve Binns, Joseph Sharples and Colin Cunningham, Jonathan Foyle visits Bluecoat School in Liverpool, John Woods's Liverpool Town Hall, Liverpool Athenaeum, Thomas Harrison's Liverpool Lyceum and Manchester Portico Library, Charles Barry's Royal Manchester Institution, Manchester Athenaeum, John Foster Jnr's Liverpool Oratory, Harvey Elmes's Liverpool St George's Hall, Lockwood and Mawson's Bradford St George's Hall, Cuthbert Brodrick's Leeds Town Hall, Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery, Cornelius Sherlock's Picton Reading Rooms and, to illustrate that smaller towns also aspired to neo-classical magnificence, Todmorden Town Hall.

[loveisreal]

Best thing on BBC4 is Wallander.

No, not that crap Kenneth Branagh version, but the Swedish one with Krister Henriksson. The second series is showing now on Saturday nights (repeated on Thursday nights).

I do miss Johanna Salstrom from the first series though. She sadly commited suicide in real life.

only just got into this.  one of the best programmes i've seen for ages.  wallander is such a hero.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Swedish Wallander absolutely kicks ass.  Best program on the telly by a mile at the mo

[loveisreal]

Swedish Wallander absolutely kicks ass.  Best program on the telly by a mile at the mo

all the episodes that i've seen so far would be worthy cinema releases in their own right.  defo gonna buy a boxset next payday.

[Lawnmowerman]

Are these wallanders films. If i was to look them up on amazon, would they be classed as films?

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

No it's a Swedish detective series. Quite dark, but darkly humorous.  Don't get sidetracked by the shite BBC remake with Ken Branagh.

[Lawnmowerman]

No it's a Swedish detective series. Quite dark, but darkly humorous.  Don't get sidetracked by the shite BBC remake with Ken Branagh.

These ones? Bit confusing as they're classed as films or maybe its the wrong one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wallander-Collected-Films-1-7-Box/dp/B004KKPQN2/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2M3HQYV5H0Y8S&colid=2XY01LRCQFRXN

[loveisreal]

These ones? Bit confusing as they're classed as films or maybe its the wrong one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wallander-Collected-Films-1-7-Box/dp/B004KKPQN2/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2M3HQYV5H0Y8S&colid=2XY01LRCQFRXN

i think that's the one you're after.  it's a series, but since each 'episode' is around 1h30 long maybe they've classed them as films on amazon?  there's a couple of episodes on iplayer atm and it's on every saturday night on bbc4.

[xavidub]

I was just thinking of starting a thank fuck for the BBC thread while watching that. There are some fantastic programmes on BBC4 and BBC2.