And what ifs with Joe Losey. I think he got drunk on mingling with these people.
10.03.2026 18:34
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And what ifs with Joe Losey. I think he got drunk on mingling with these people.
He was trying to reinvent the grammar of television without really having any idea why directors have some basic rules in the first place.
It boggles the mind how you can get it down to 89mins when the whole problem in the edit was that they had no coverage so couldn't reduce down some interminably long takes and had to chuck a narration over it in desperation.
Spit on me! Not sure how I missed this, but the movie edit of Blackeyes - cut back-to-back with the serial, but never released - has been on Amazon Prime for just over a year. What a time to be alive. Will it be better? Probably not, but it finishes sooner. www.amazon.com/Blackeyes-Gi...
The playful, prolific use of hyperlinks in online journalism (eg Slate, Pitchfork) didn’t anticipate link-rot. Now so many articles are pock-marked with cryptic allusions that some long-dead link once explained. Weird how quickly a new style comes to feel more archaic than the traditional format
Guided by Voices' Crawlspace of the Pantheon LP sleeve (2026)
And the Robert Pollard Title Generator gives us
Reading a book about Aston Villa's journey from relegation to the Champions League and have learned that before being appointed manager, Gerrard put together a presentation on his plans for the club that lasted FIVE HOURS.
Today's blog post features the submission to the DCMS open consultation about the BBC Charter Review green paper made by the campaign against the recently-imposed changes to access at the BBC Written Archives Centre.
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-bbc-wac-...
London’s Metropolitan Police persecutes UK rap while using it for self-promotion, argues @hwfmorris.bsky.social in The Wire 506
www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/c...
The BBC WAC Campaign's full submission to the Government's Charter Review is now online. We argue that policy changes at the Written Archives Centre fly in the face of the values at the heart of the Green Paper: trust, transparency, and the telling of stories. Read here: tinyurl.com/CharterSubmi...
A cheeky little audio cameo there for Humphrey in his outro of a radio weather forecast.
The numpties lost the next three episodes. Three!
The Monitor film of The Allegri Quartet is about to start on BBC Four. It was important to include a programme actually directed by Humphrey Burton and this is one of his first. It's a special one, turning the usual approach to classical documentary on its head. A demystification. Looks great too.
On BBC4 right now, Humphrey Burton and Glenn Gould are arguing furiously about interpretations of Beethoven (from 1966) and I can't imagine anything like it happening on telly today.
Always curious to see forecasts of culture decades later. Sadly the next three episodes are lost.
Humphrey Burton Night is just about to get going on BBC Four. Watch live: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live...
This is an important thread for anyone who cares, not only about archive research, but BBC accountability.
The White House. A murder of bros.
Drives me mad. I saw someone layering over a sharp yellow t shirt yesterday and I was consumed with jealousy.
Should read 2022. Apologies.
BBC Charter review consultation responses need to be in by Tuesday. If you are thinking to put something in last minute, here’s our report which contains useful international evidence you can draw upon
Good company! Thanks John.
PS if you would like to know quite how reluctant the BBC was to answer questions about the death of the public-facing catalogue, read in particular Annex A of the covering response from January: www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/draf...
The Written Archives Centre sign behind protective wire. (c) Ian Greaves
We have more to say about recent changes to services at WAC, but for that you will have to read our submission to the government's open consultation on the BBC Charter Review. We publish tomorrow. Thanks for reading and if you would like to get involved find us at bbcwaccampaign at gmail dot com
We at the WAC Campaign believe access to information is an essential part of Public Purpose 2: “learning for people of all ages”. This surely includes the written archives which facilitate so many projects: books, articles, documentaries, exhibitions, as well as outreach projects in schools.
So, the catalogue was killed off for no very convincing reason other than that it seemed more trouble than it was worth for those higher up at the BBC. The Director of Archives did little to defend her staff. And consequently the BBC is failing to meet its Framework Agreement commitments.
The WAC catalogue project will conclude in Q4 2024/25. Any future import of data will be for BAU purposes. External publication of the WAC catalogue will not go ahead due to focus of work being on BBC business enquiries. FOI release, 19 January 2026. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/draft_catalogue_for_wac_and_docu#incoming-3280799
An undated and comically redacted document in the FOI bundle reveals the shift in priorities at the BBC. This proposal appears to set direction for the reduction in WAC services that no researcher wanted or expected in 2025:
There was absolutely no discussion of cutting back the service, refusing entry to members of the public, ceasing vetting on request and so on. There is therefore no way that the measures adopted could be said to have emerged out of this meeting. (Anonymous)
One of the contributors to the focus group told us:
The aim being to index portions of the holdings and then share these selected portions of this catalogue inventory online, targeting the academic research community who are the main users of the written archive collection. I should stress none of this means any relaxation in the current short extract from earlier email from Noreen Adams, 2 December 2022. The words "main users" are highlighted.
Since that enthusiastic user group session, there has been a move within the BBC to reduce the very service that was so highly praised. In earlier emails the Director of Archives, Technology & Services even said that the academic research community is the main user of the Written Archives Centre.
In reply it was clear there had been no movement in four months, but the review is up and running because selected WAC users receive an invite the *next day* to a focus group meeting in June. This forms part of the final report (see pages 8-11 for an account) www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/rece...