http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20908049

;o)

Good.

…and some more Miranda! Hooray!

…and while we are at it, can we have some more 2 Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, please.

Is that headline strictly true?

So we said our policy was to not write a pilot

BBC turned down new ‘Yes, Minister’ to do more ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’.

No they didn’t.

Makes me more certain I did the right thing by ditching the TV and cancelling my TV licence. Mrs Browns Boys FFS.

Ah grand, a tird buckin series 😉

I saw a trailer for Mrs Brown’s boys yesterday

FFS indeed 🙄

As far as demanding trailers goes – meh, it’s been a long time since the “glory” days, but you’d have thought they could’ve just read a few scripts and worked it out from them. Maybe they did ?

Never heard of digital channel ‘Gold’, so went to wiki, which says UKTV own Dave and Gold with Dave showing my highbrow comedy.
Now given then that this series isn’t considered highbrow enough for Dave, and the producers couldn’t sell it to a more obvious channel for it such as C4, I reckon we can assume that the BBC asked for a pilot because they thought it would be gash, and the producers refused to provide one because they thought it would be gash.

Mind you, that doesn’t explain how Mrs Brown’s boys got aired.

Mind you, that doesn’t explain how Mrs Brown’s boys got aired.

…because it’s hugely popular?

Not my cup of tea but seems to attract decent viewing figures.

I loved Yes Prime Minister.
I like Miranda.

I don’t mind Mrs Brown’s Boys, it keeps many habitual alcoholics out of the pub and at home with their families.
Was better as a stage show though, seems to suit that format better.

However, the introduction of a competitive ‘gameshow’ element to the recently reintrodiuced ‘Room 101’ makes me want to torture puppies.
It is the clearest evidence of institutional dumbing-down yet available.
I swear, if Sarah Millican appears as a guest I will not be held responsible for the consequences.

On a similar note, when Armando Iannucci took the Alan Partridge series Mid Morning Matters to the BBC they said “could we take it outside? It’s too contained in that radio studio”. Hence it went to YouTube then Sky Atlantic.

when Armando Iannucci took the Alan Partridge series Mid Morning Matters to the BBC they said “could we take it outside? It’s too contained in that radio studio”

Hmmm, they might have been right about that though?

Mrs browns boys and Miranda both utter shite

Well, done Mr Tynan, as insightful and droll as ever.
The world trembles in anticipation of your next contribution to modern critical thought.

Yes Prime Minister was last on air 25 years ago so it would not be unusual to ask for a pilot as clearly a lot of the elements, including the cast, would be different.

Seems perfectly reasonable. The stage revival of Yes Prime Minister wasn’t that well received. Did Lynn and Jay write that?

😉

🙂

I’ve seen the trailer on Gold. Aren’t you supposed to put the funniest bits on the trailer, so that people want to watch the show? If so, oh dear.

There doesn’t really need to be a new Yes Minister though. The antics of today’s government are equally well satirised by Jim Hacker et al as their original target

Never heard of digital channel ‘Gold’, so went to wiki, which says UKTV own Dave and Gold with Dave showing my highbrow comedy.

Uktv (and therefore dave, yesterday, gold etc) is part owned by the bbc, so it’s not exactly a ‘rival’. The channels are basically a way of using advertising to buy old content from the beeb so that licence money can be recycled. The channels get enough revenue to create a bit of their own new programming now though.

Miserable buggers. You’ll be slagging off the (British) Inbetweeners next.

The Thick Of It seems to have any modern day politics covered so we don’t really need Yes Minister.

As for Mrs Browns Boys I really struggle to see the attraction – there’s been plenty of comedies over the years that I don’t find the slightest bit funny but are hugely popular & I can see where they might get their audience, ie Last Of the Summer Wine & My family..

I swear, if Sarah Millican appears as a guest I will not be held responsible for the consequences.

You randy old sod!

There doesn’t really need to be a new Yes Minister though. The antics of today’s government are equally well satirised by Jim Hacker et al as their original target

Exactly. The only thing to have changed in politics since the 1980’s is the size of the lapels on the suits…

Humphrey: Make him something important. What’s he interested in? Television?

Hacker: Hasn’t even got a set.

Humphrey: Fine, make him a governor of the BBC.

From: The Grand Design

Humphrey: Nuclear weapons are there to make people believe that Britain is defended.

Bernard: The Russians?

Humphrey: No, not the Russians, the British. The Russians know it’s not.

From: The Ministerial Broadcast

Humphrey (about Hacker): He’s got no. 10, a salary, a pension for life. What more can he want?

Bernard: I think he wants to govern Britain.

Humphrey: Well stop him, Bernard!

From: The Ministerial Broadcast

Humphrey: Well, it’s clear that the committee has agreed that your new policy is a really excellent plan but in view of some of the doubts being expressed, may I propose that I recall that after careful consideration, the considered view of the committee was that while they considered that the proposal met with broad approval in principle, that some of the principles were sufficiently fundamental in principle and some of the considerations so complex and finely balanced in practice, that, in principle, it was proposed that the sensible and prudent practice would be to submit the proposal for more detailed consideration, laying stress on the essential continuity of the new proposal with existing principles, and the principle of the principal arguments which the proposal proposes and propounds for their approval in principle.

From: The Ministerial Broadcast

Humphrey: Prime Minister I must strongly protest in the strongest possible terms, my profound opposition to a newly instituted practice which imposes severe and intolerable restrictions upon the ingress and egress of senior members of the hierarchy and which will in all probability, should the current deplorable innovation be perpetuated, precipitate a constriction of the channels of communication and culminate in a condition of organisational atrophy and administrative paralysis which will render effectively impossible the coherent and coordinated discharge of the function of government within her Majesty’s United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Hacker: You mean you’ve lost your key?

From: The Key

Hacker: May I clarify something? Who knows the Foreign Office secrets, apart from the Foreign Office?

Bernard: That’s easy – only the Kremlin.

From: A Victory For Democracy

Hacker: Is there anyone in the church who doesn’t believe in God?

Humphrey: Yes, most of the Bishops.

From: The Bishop’s Gambit

Peter: I gather he’s been waiting ages for the job.

Humphrey : Long time no See!

From: The Bishop’s Gambit

Head of MI5: There was a lot of ridiculous press specualtion at the time, suggesting Halstead was a spy. Totally unfounded of course.

Hacker: But he was a spy.

Head of MI5: But they didn’t know that!

From: One Of Us

Head of MI5: We can’t have unfounded, arrogant press speculation. That’s the last thing we want.

Hacker: Even if it’s accurate?

Head of MI5: Oh, especially if it’s accurate.

From: One Of Us

Bernard: You only need to know things on a need to know basis.

Humphrey: I need to know everything. How else can I judge whether or not I need to know it?

Bernard: So you need to know things, even when you don’t need to know them. You need to know them not because you need to know them, but because you need to know whether or not you need to know. And if you don’t need to know you still need to know so that you know that there was no need to know.

Humphrey: Yes!

From: Man Overboard

Humphrey: It is characteristic of all committee discussions and decisions that every member has a vivid recollection of them, and that every member’s recollection of them differs violently from every other member’s recollection; consequently we accept the convention that the official decisions are those and only those which have been officially recorded in the minutes by the officials; from which it emerges with elegant inevitability, that any decision which has been officially reached would have been officially recorded in the minutes by the officials, and any decisions which is not recorded in the minutes by the officials has not been officially reached, even if one or more members believe they can recollect it; so in this particular case, if the decision would have been officially reached, it would have been recorded in the minutes by the officials and it isn’t so it wasn’t.

From: Man Overboard

Hacker: Do we ever get our own way with the French?

Humphrey: Sometimes.

Hacker: When was the last time?

Humphrey: Battle of Waterloo, 1853.

From: A Diplomatic Incident

Bernard: Yes … the English speaking nations can be said to include the USA.

From: A Diplomatic Incident

Dorothy: An ordinary person wants to stop a major government policy. What can he do about it?

Hacker: Join the Civil Service!

From: Power To The People

Humphrey: Abolish Education and Science?

Hacker: I’m only abolishing the department. Education and Science will flourish.

Humphrey: Without a government department? Impossible!

From: The National Education Service

Bernard: I think you should put out a press statement showing sympathy for the unemployed.

Humphrey: Why?

Bernard: You may be joining them any moment.

From: The Tangled Web

The thick of it is much better than any episode of YPM and I would prefer if the BBC didn’t squander my Licence fee on un-funny slapstick ‘comedy’ such as Mrs Brown’s boys – total utter tripe

I don’t think the thick of it is better, just a different style. One pokes fun at the politicians, the other at the civil service.

The thick of it is much better than any episode of YPM and I would prefer if the BBC didn’t squander my Licence fee on un-funny slapstick ‘comedy’ such as Mrs Brown’s boys – total utter tripe

I’d prefer it if they didn’t employ Clarkson and Hammond on Top Gear but it seems I’m in the minority.
Different folk like different stuff to you shocka!

I would prefer if the BBC didn’t squander my Licence fee on un-funny slapstick ‘comedy’ such as Mrs Brown’s boys – total utter tripe

Your right is would be better if they didn’t “Squander” money making 2 program’s watched by just short of 12 Million and 11 Million people on consecutive nights recently 🙄

I’d prefer it if they didn’t employ Clarkson and Hammond on Top Gear but it seems I’m in the minority.

At least they generate way more profit for the BBC than it costs to make the program and pay wages for them, so Top Gear actually tops up the BBC substantially so they can make loads of other stuff that you might like 😉

Your right is would be better if they didn’t “Squander” money making 2 program’s watched by just short of 12 Million and 11 Million people on consecutive nights recently

Well nobody ever suggested the general population weren’t complete idiots.

Well nobody ever suggested the general population weren’t complete idiots.

Well I certainly didn’t. (don’t like the program in question at all)

But to suggest that the BBC were “squandering money” by making program’s that had viewing figures as high as those, is pretty stupid too to be honest.

There’s a delegation of teachers waiting for you….

No need to remake, or renew. As others have said, only the lapels have changed. It’s still utterly perfect comedy.

Ahh good. I love Mrs Brown’s Boys. Can’t stand politics in any form, and I don’t find it funny in the slightest. 🙂

No surprise. You’re looking at a corporation which commissioned ‘Big Top’, ‘My Hero’, ‘Don’t scare the hare’, ‘The Green Green Grass’, ‘Total Wipeout’, ‘Hole in the wall’ and ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’.

Urgent message about your 69 VAT returns in the comms office.

Loved the original. Enjoyed the stage pay last year. I’m a bit gutted its on a digital channel to be honest.

I love Mrs Brown’s Boys

Only another 11,999,999 to find then

Mongrels would get my vote for any resurrection…
It’s the quality of the “straight” programs that make me reach for the razor blades: The Now Show (is the mental age of the viewing public really only 9 FFS!). Or how about the 50 Best Olympic Moments on BBC3 (or something like that)?? Facile does not begin to describe this utter tosh! Even Radio 3 has gone all anodyne 🙁

when Armando Iannucci took the Alan Partridge series Mid Morning Matters to the BBC they said “could we take it outside? It’s too contained in that radio studio”

Hmmm, they might have been right about that though?

The point being that the BBC failed to grasp the concept of the show or believe it would be enjoyed by a large audience. They missed the point and misjudged it if Sky Atlantic’s viewing figures for the show are to be believed. I’m trying not to dwell on the fact that in my opinion Mid Morning Matters is a beautifully observed, written and crafted piece of television with still one of the greatest characters ever to be created and Mrs Browns Boys is 1970s camp nonsense whereby expletives have been mistaken for comedic gems.

I appreciate that Mrs Browns Boys suniversally popular and that in itself is justification enough for its existence but the BBC seem to becoming fearful of commissioning anything challenging, satirical or different in terms of its conventions.