BBC Radio 3: Being Orson


BBC Radio 3 devotes its 'Essay' programme this week to 'Being Orson', in which five notable speakers will discuss various stages of his life and career. I've not always found BBC radio's Welles-related programmes to be particularly outstanding, but was probably 'spoiled' early by Simon Callow's 2 hour 'The Storyteller' in the Archive Hour strand some 15 years ago which combined research from his first biography volume with high quality transfers of audio material from the Lilly, and made an excellent introduction to me of Welles's radio career. I hope that with five episodes there'll be something of some interest here.

The programmes will likely go online soon after each one is broadcast, and remain available for 30 days.
tutu10
Five radio episodes from 2015 to mark centenary of Welles’ birth.

Around 15 minutes each - nothing special or new, though David Thomson’s attempt at psychoanalysis (5: Some Kind of Genius) does make you feel for Orson.

Still think he’s wrong about Kane and Vertigo swapping places in the future with Kane back to number 1.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05std80
cd318:
 "@noble100 , with a £5 billion annual budget financed by the British public perhaps we have a right to ask a few questions, don't you think?"

     5 billion pound budget and a mandatory 155 pounds/yr subscription fee?
     You bet you should be asking a few pointed questions. 
     However, my main point is you guys need to be thinking of solutions, not just bitching and asking questions.
    In America, we subscribe to a cable or satellite hdtv service for about $100/month(80 pounds?).  There's a dedicated BBC hdtv channel (some great stuff.) that's just one of hundreds available.  More channels than you'd ever have the time or desire to watch.
     Of course, we do have to suffer through some dreaded commercial advertisements that subsidize the whole service and keeps the rates low.  Most here just record their favorite shows and fast-forward past the commercials. 
     C'mon you guys, this isn't friggin brain surgery.

     How about privatizing it?  Sell the BBC to HBO, let them pay the typical elaborate budgets for the same very good BBC productions and they broadcast them on their own premium channel.  
     The UK then sells cable and satellite hdtv franchise rights for specific viewership segments throughout the country, always issuing the rights to at least 2 separate companies per segment to encourage competition and keep subscription fees reasonable. These new hdtv service provider companies finance themselves, are responsible for establishing and maintaining their own networks/equipment and pay a yearly fee for the segment broadcast rights.
     Companies throughout the world and the UK would pay the segment hdtv providers to run their commercials. Households would then subscribe to their choice of local providers and pay them a monthly fee, 80-120 pounds depending on how many premium channels selected (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc. that are commercial free).
     Only downside is you'd have to tolerate commercials on the hundreds of regular non-premium channels.  But each hdtv subscriber is issued a DVR (digital video recorder) with remote, so you could fast-forward through the commercials, too.  
     You could also add government agencies to regulate the whole shebang, if that floats your boat.

Cheers,
  Tim
@noble100 , with a £5 billion annual budget financed by the British public perhaps we have a right to ask a few questions, don't you think?

£155 a year mandatory subscription fee per household whether you watch it or not? Just try that in America and see what would happen. 
" It's now little more than a publicly financed overblown political football on numbered days."

     Well, kicking that BBC political football when it's down should surely help, right?  British thinking at its best.

Cheers,
  Tim
Thanks for the memo. Being R3 it still may be worth checking out. 

It's shocking how the BBC has surrendered most of its former standards in pursuit of populism - and failed.

It's now little more than an publicly financed overblown political football on numbered days.