<img src="http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/images/services_bbc4.jpg" alt="" />
<small>Here is the link to the
BBC4 website</small>
BBC4: What about the big picture? The launch of BBC4 will bolster the corporation’s flagging coverage of the arts. But is it a sign of the BBC’s commitment to catering for all tastes, or a dumping ground for programmes that lack mass appeal? Bryan Appleyard reports in The Sunday Times.
What we’re doing here,” says a confident Roly Keating, controller of BBC4, “is opening up a new space, not closing down the old space.”
“It’s just another example of the amoebic, spreading tendencies of the BBC,” says an incandescent John Hambley, chief executive of the digital arts channel Artsworld. “I mean, what is BBC2 for if it’s not the sort of stuff they’re putting on BBC4? Instead, they’re just filling BBC2 with gardening and DIY shows.”
click for more Stuart adds: I have just received a booklet through the post about BBC4 and was surprised to see that dance got hardly any look in. Here is an e-mail I sent to the BBC on this theme:
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As an Arts lover, and in particular a dance fan, I read this booklet with anticipation. Dance, including ballet, has been neglected on the BBC in recent years and I was looking forward to a new channel which would redress this situation.
My disappointment was immense when I only found the word 'dance' once in the whole booklet, included in the section on 'Music', not a suitable category in my view. Out of some 15 arts programmes described not one was a dance event.
If this is the way that the schedulers are looking at the art form then it does not bode well for coverage on the new channel.
Still it's early days and i hope that this early neglect of one of the art forms where the UK excels today will be remedied in the near future.
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If you want to e-mail the BBC about dance programming, here is the link to the
feedback page.
[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited February 24, 2002).]
<small>[ 17 February 2003, 02:38 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>