BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies on the Arts in general:

Davies in BBC arts pledge

Ciar Byrne
The Guardian
Friday January 3, 2003


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<small>[ 26 December 2003, 04:00 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Good to see the BBC investing in High Art like "Cirque du Soleil":

Ballet comes to BBC1
By Jason Deans for The Guardian


Lorraine Heggessey: 'Nutcracker is key to arts programming'

BBC1 controller Lorraine Heggessey is once again bidding to head off critics who complain that her channel has abandoned serious arts coverage by commissioning the first ballet to be seen on BBC1 for at least 20 years.
Ms Heggessey has ordered a TV version of choreographer Matthew Bourne's radical reworking of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, which relocates the action to a bleak, Dickensian orphanage on Christmas Eve.

She has also commissioned a TV special for BBC1 based on Cirque du Soleil's critically acclaimed circus show.

Both arts specials are expected to go out in an early evening slot on BBC1 during the channel's Christmas 2003 schedule.

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Hellooo, Earth to The Guardian - Bourne's "Nutcracker1" and Cirque du Soleil are good populist works, but their selection tells us nothing about Heggessey's intentions regarding "serious arts coverage".

Lorraine Heggessey

Monday July 7, 2003


Job: controller, BBC1
Age: 46
Industry: broadcasting
Annual programming budget: £962m
2002 ranking: 51

If 2002 was the year Lorraine Heggessey took on ITV and won, then this year her commercial instincts have had to be tempered in favour of a grander cause - licence renewal in 2006.

The corporation has launched a concerted counter-attack against accusations that its main channel has become too populist and permanently banished serious arts coverage to the digital ghetto of BBC4.

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<small>[ 26 December 2003, 03:59 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

£1m Nutcracker link puts more pressure on Dyke
By Nicholas Hellen for The Times


GREG DYKE, the BBC director-general, has a £1m stake in a company that has produced five films for the corporation, including one of the highlights of the Christmas schedule.
One of the films, a recording of The Nutcracker!, Matthew Bourne’s celebrated version of the Tchaikovsky ballet, will be broadcast on BBC1 this afternoon.

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I read that new version of Ashton's Cinderella will pass on TV BBC2 with Cojocaru and Kobborg , could someone so kind to make me a copy and too send me in trade of what he wants !!!!

A lot of people are away Cathy and I don't have TV. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and hope that someone can help out.

<small>[ 27 December 2003, 09:44 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>