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Re: Pre Merton Broadcasts

Messages in this topic: 19 View All
deanbedfordSep 30, 2012
 

 
Trying to respond to various points

"mat_bagnall" <mat_bagnall@...> wrote:

>
> Is there a reason why the BBC dont broadcast old episodes before Paul Merton joined.

Dean here: Obviously I'm not in Britain and following the schedules closely, but I thought they were re-running 80s shows two or three years ago.
But, accepting what you say, I think the reason is that we are almost 25 years from Kenneth Williams's death and about 50 from when he was at his professional peak. It seems to me that Peter Jones, Derek Nimmo and Clement Freud are largely forgotten outside the JAM community and again it is 40 to 50 years since their professional peaks. On the other hand the likes of Paul Merton and Graham Norton and so on remain big names in comedy in Britain. They're just far more likely to draw an audience.

Wayne Styles <wayne.styles@...> wrote:

>
> It could be that they have sold the rights to other publishers for CDs etc before they realised the income to be made or they still own the rights and the sales from older broadcasts may be another income stream.

Dean here: They are still selling rebroadcast rights and the CDs are published by the BBC itself, are they not?

Wayne Styles <wayne.styles@...> wrote:

>
> In a recent interview a producer "cant remember his name" said that he would lift his arms up to indicate to Kenneth to give the show a boost and off he would go, then lower his arms again to indicate to Kenneth to let the show calm down and that he was the only person who could do this.

Dean here: That was David Hatch.

James R Curry <scratchy@...> wrote:

>
> I thought we discussed this before and one of the reasons for
> the BBC's limited selection in airings is the fact that they don't have a
> well-organised archived of early JAM. Or am I mis-remembering?

Dean here: When I was helping the BBC producer pick bits for the three hour special that aired earlier this year, I was sending him ideas and he was coming back, having listened to the shows within two hours or so. He clearly had ready access to all the shows.

"mathew" <mat_bagnall@...> wrote:

>
> Listened to the Jam Masterclass last night and Nocolas said the early shows werent deemed that great which they arent

Dean here: He said the pilot wasn't good and has said the first series or so wasn't as good as it could have been because of the more complicated rules. But that still leaves about 350 shows in the Kenneth Williams era.

On the wider debate about which era is better, I can see how many people think the show is funnier these days.

But listening to Espen's stream, I tend to prefer the old shows. Listened to in a row, there can be a samey-ness in the shows these days. But Kenneth Williams - and I can understand why not everyone likes his style - remains a uniquely funny, distinctive presence on his shows. You never know where he's going, he's just so unpredictable and interesting. And Peter Jones in particular is an amazing support act.

Not to say Paul and the others aren't great... better than anything else on radio. But I laugh harder at Kenneth and I think thhe BBC SHOULD play his shows. He deserves to be - to use one of his own phrases...

"A cult! An enormous cult! He should be the biggest cult around here!"

 
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