One other comment springs to mind: when people like me say that reality TV isn't truly democratic, its apologists always wrongly say we think this era of TV *was* ... the truth is that neither the Dimbleby Years nor the Bazalgette Years are democratic. The era in TV that *was* was the time in between, the heyday of This Week and World in Action - the BBC's current affairs output took a long time to let the people speak, but when it did, later, it was still more truly democratic than modern TV.
Four day week, ha bloody ha ... but the consensus at this point was generally that we would have to work less and less, and also that the role of the state would if anything increase - few could see the privatising counter-revolution coming (note Dimbleby's slight disapproval of the post-war settlement near the end).
I think it was all for the best, in some ways, that Richard Dimbleby died when he did - that paternalistic approach would have been seriously questioned almost immediately after his death. Just the fact that the East End family aren't interviewed is in itself telling, and wholly removed from today ... Peter Hall is so much more a "modern" figure, culturally recognisable now, by comparison.
got that wrong! by 1984 more british people would know st tropez than southend . who goes there now unless they need to?
4bawbees 9 months ago
One other comment springs to mind: when people like me say that reality TV isn't truly democratic, its apologists always wrongly say we think this era of TV *was* ... the truth is that neither the Dimbleby Years nor the Bazalgette Years are democratic. The era in TV that *was* was the time in between, the heyday of This Week and World in Action - the BBC's current affairs output took a long time to let the people speak, but when it did, later, it was still more truly democratic than modern TV.
RobinCarmody 2 years ago
Four day week, ha bloody ha ... but the consensus at this point was generally that we would have to work less and less, and also that the role of the state would if anything increase - few could see the privatising counter-revolution coming (note Dimbleby's slight disapproval of the post-war settlement near the end).
RobinCarmody 2 years ago
I think it was all for the best, in some ways, that Richard Dimbleby died when he did - that paternalistic approach would have been seriously questioned almost immediately after his death. Just the fact that the East End family aren't interviewed is in itself telling, and wholly removed from today ... Peter Hall is so much more a "modern" figure, culturally recognisable now, by comparison.
RobinCarmody 2 years ago