spooks hunted in Autumn

Early in the year I re-watched some of the Spooks series, which had run its course and finished after its ninth (?) series. We joked at the time about whether they'd need to come up with a privatised version next and 'lo' it appears to be so.

It looks as if the initial premise of the new series will be an agent Samantha being hunted a la Jason Bourne - with a dash of Homeland surveillance.

An observation about Spooks was it's London-centric nature and I think the new series starts here, although the private enterprise spin of should make it easier to move to other locations.

We shall see - although it's slightly worrying that it is already being advertised as an Autumn show. I like to think we are still in Summer.

no claustrophobia on this submarine

There's that bit in a Tarantino film when Uma Thurman and John Travolta discuss what later becomes the plot of Kill Bill. And I think the same thing happens in Notting Hill Gate when Julia Roberts rehearses the lines of her next movie with Hugh Grant. Its something to do with being a commander on a submarine and having to talk in improbable sounding jargon, which the Julia Robert's character suitably mispronounces.

But the producers from the BBC were watching and thought "Hey, that's not half bad, don't y'know" and commissioned a whole series based upon the rooftop scene.

It's called 'The Deep' and about a spacious submarine underneath the North Pole. There's a great and suitably diverse gang of crew although Minnie Driver has managed to wangle the part originally destined for Julia Roberts. I initially wondered why there wasn't a spiky haired oriental looking person in the crew but was then relieved a couple of scenes later when one showed up in the UN tracking station.

I've heard others being scornful of this project, but I'm regarding it as an interesting piece of light entertainment. The submarine's interior is about the same size as a space ship from Alien and has plenty of Sci-fi pods and flashing lights all around. There's obviously a great conspiracy happening outside in the 700 degree centigrade thermal ducts which don't seem to melt the icebergs.

We also have a possibly murderous latecomer to the crew who knows Everything but won't say a word.

In effect, we have a great collection of space drama plot devices stacked up in this five parter mini-series. Or should that be Minnie series?

I will be watching. Open the pod bay doors.

6music radio comparisons

Before I get onto my gambling, I thought I'd drop an extra little post in today about the ongoing debate about radio station playlists. There's some interesting differences between the commercial channels with their circa 500 track playlists (very limited DJ autnomy) and the broader tastes available on some of the other channels.

Take Capital FM 226 unique tracks over the last 30 days. 12 tracks in common with 6music.
Or the more indie/rock XFM London with its 540 unique tracks over the same period including 226 with 6music.
Maybe a softer cored Heart with its 508 unique tracks and 22 in common with 6music.

And how many unique tracks did 6music play? 3,258. About 6 times as many. Of course you still need to like the music. I think the only one to compete on variety would be Radio 2, but their 2,392 unique tracks have a rather different audience profile.

"Those Charts In Full" as comparemyradio.com might say.

6music and CapitalFM

6music and XFM London

6music compared with Radio 2

6Music

I usually like the BBC but am annoyed to see that the director general has decided to shut down 6Music. That's the relatively X-Factor free channel playing broad music that sets it apart from many of the regular commercial channels. rashbre central has certain eclectic music tastes and 6Music is one of them.

I decided to do some digging to see how much this digital channel costs to run, per annum and it seems to be around £6 to £9million, depending on whose version you read. In the scheme of things, that's a small amount for some originality and quality programming. As an example, Radio 5 costs £72m and Radio 4 is around £109m.

I also checked on the BBC Broadcasting House Refurbishment project which was originally planned to run to around £1billion. It has overrun by a currently projected £55million. Thats enough to pay for a few digital channels alone.

I can't help wondering whether the priorities are somehow becoming unbalanced?

Instead of promoting new format digital channels, we see them cost cut to offset bad project management.

I can't help wondering whether the BBC top brass was ever really behind the 6Music idea in any case? New music, independent artists, some not signed to labels, live recordings...whatever next? Maybe that's why it was a DAB and internet only channel instead of one that could also be listened to in the car. It would also make it easier to close if the audience figures were somewhat disappointing.

There's some story about boosting the playlists for Radio 2, but equally there's a discussion already running about keeping the Radio 2 demographic north of age 50 or something. It amounts to just running a time machine of safe old tunes from Radio 1 in the 1970s and 80s as a form of lazy programming.

If even Mark Thompson himself says there is a lot of 'great content' and 'some real talent' on 6Music, then it poses a serious point about where BBC is positioning its values.

On this occasion, a brief line to the BBC complaints department is in order, I notice it can be found at:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/
as well as at 03700 100 222.

There's also the BBC Trust to consider, which is to review the intended decision and which has its own email and member list.

I won't directly add the emails here in the interests of spam avoidance, but michael.lyons, richard.tait, jeremy.peat, mehmuda.mian, david.liddiment, janet.lewis-jones, rotha.johnston, patricia.hodgson, alison.hastings, anthony.fry, diane.coyle, chitra.bharucha as well as trust.enquiries and srconsultation all take an AT bbc.co.uk suffix as the publicly disclosed names of the members of the Trust. They would love to hear from people with views about BBC decisions.

Of course, there is more about all of this at the BBC consultations website for their strategy review

Whilst writing this, I notice that there's now a Facebook group and a new www.love6music.com website which are part of other folks' attempts to register a similar point.

If you are not already a listener, I'm told that iPlayer is the way to get your listening noticed, via http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_6music/

Stay tuned.

destructobase or 2010 Torchwood competition?

We need a Torchwood competition...now read on...

Like many, I watched the Torchwood series this week, not as a fan exactly, but as one who expected some good plotline compressed over a few days. I thought the idea of aliens using children as drugs was sufficiently evil, if somewhat Matrix-like.

The original trade of 11 of children back 40 or so years ago and the later consequences was clever thinking although I had a bit of a problem with the step change from a dozen to millions as the next logical increment. They must have been passing the kouchie an awful lot back on that tentacular planet.

The stock film of London Town and Cardiff got a large airing though, for the location signposting. Perhaps a spot of Michael Mann/Spooks editing would have compressed some of this to good effect. I suppose the HD viewers could wonder why the streets were both traffic jammed and deserted at the same time.

And speaking of Spooks, in that series they are fairly cavalier with their lead actors, expending them whether or not the replacement character is already in view.

The difference with Torchwood is that it has a broad fan-base including many from the Doctor Who environs. So the snuffing of a lead like Ianto after a couple of others were erased in the last series leaves a conundrum if the series is expected to go anywhere further.

The gender politics of the series was also something of a vanguard and this has no doubt suffered a few setbacks if the plan is to keep Torchwood as a brand.

Slightly more into the storyline, there were some interesting ideas dealt with quite rapidly - I know many have been used elsewhere, but there was sufficient to keep one guessing:

- keeping the thunderbolt space alien landing in London almost secret
- handling the chanting kids as a kind of bemused news static
- self interests around deciding who to protect
- children being used as alien drugs
- the essence of the trade ‘just 12’ turning into ‘ten percent’
- resolving who gets selected (the epsilons, of course)
- the lack of challenge of the decisions
- the tiny coterie of involved individuals
- the obedience of the military
- the good ol’ “reverse the polarity of the standing wave” moment
- the final sacrifices to resolve it
- no ‘not really dead’ resolutions (except Jack)
- the blemished hero

Maybe Russell T Davies and co have decided to shut down Jack on earth. Perhaps he is about to go intergalactic?

So here’s my suggestion: I think the BBC could have a fantastic coup now to open a competition to rewrite the last episode of that series of Torchwood.

A different ending x 5. Public submissions and then professional scriptwriting.

Start the petition.

Parallel universes anyone?

Oh - and let's not forget the other space aliens with proper space ships that landed 27 years ago and have been holed up in District 9 in Southern Africa.
Click to explore the zone


And good prequel mini-doc here:

survivors

I watched the first episode of Survivors late night on TV Replay. It occurred to me that that much of the weekend schedule is made of modernised replays, with even this series scripted from a 1970s drama of the same name, updated for cellphones and the interweb.

Survivors is about an apocalyptic pandemic flu virus and the stories of a few with immunity. I'm guessing that the first episode has tracked the old storyline, albeit with modern numberplates. I also speculate the scale of deserted motorways and lensbabied citiscapes would have been difficult in the 70's version.

There is a BBC look to the production which also reminds me of some Doctor Who episodes. All the more interesting when the rumoured new Doctor Who turned up part way through, driving a Land Rover. And then at the end of the episode a secret location where the men in white coats look mysterious with lots of flashing lights.

It will be interesting to see if this can recreate some of the 'shared experience' viewing from the days of only four channels. I shall continue to view.