Options
The World at War
The Snakes
Posts: 8,940 Forum Member
✭
I notice the BBC is showing this every weekday at 1pm. Why aren't there more high quality documentaries like this being made today, instead of dumbed-down, female orientated dross? It's hard to reconcile the ITV that made this with ITV as it is today.
0
Comments
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/12/world-at-war-fremantle
When BBC2 repeated The World at War during '94 - '95 it was on at 6 p.m
They showed it last year in the same time slot.
Also I saw it on Yesterday.
Does anyone remember an earlier series (possibly 1960's) on the Second World War, that was also critically acclaimed?
The honest answer is that programmes of this quality take a huge amount of money to make and don't attract enough interest to justify the expense.
I think you mean "The Valiant Years", also a 26-parter, first shown in 1960-61.
Then there was "All Our Yesterdays" from 1961-1973 which was 'the news from 25 years ago', so 1936 -1948, so from Hitler annexing the Rhineland to the Berlin air blockade, presented by Brian Inglis - it was Pathé newsreel.
Sadly the dumbing down of ITV would never see them attempt to make anything like this as it would be considered too elitist. However, in the seventies the World at War had huge audiences and must have recovered its costs many times over.
From the haunting titles and theme music to Laurence Olivier's narration, it is total quality.
Some of the doc makers on the Satellite channels should watch it and maybe they could improve their current pathetic offerings.
Produced by Thames Television, who were like a commercial BBC in the seventies.
A timeless documentary - so authoritative and detailed. Surely the definitive account of the Second World War.
I hope you aren't suggesting females don't watch or have an interest in 'proper' documentaries.
Personally I despair of most documentaries these days, dumbed down, yes, but why add female orientated?
I was wondering this too.
Is the OP suggesting that women are too giddy and fluffy to watch programmes such as the World at War? Or are they suggesting that anything geared towards a female audience is inherently 'dumb' or simplistic?
Either way the comment is a tad sexist.
I will have to set Bettany Hughes onto him.
Possibly the most pointless HD remastering ever.
When the show was made all the film clips were old B&W usually 16mm and not very good quality .
IN a best case scenario they would access the original film elements used for the series and start from scratch but the chances of them even having the original elements is less than hopeless.
So we have what are basically programmes copied from 16mm footage with some more modern interview footage .
Either way , an HD master will be virtually impossible to tell apart from being in widescreen.
I believe Thames may be starting to have trouble flogging the series to networks who want material in widescreen so rather than simply crop it they are doing what they can but its basically a cynical marketing ploy to make the show saleable again.
The HD history channels have shown us just how "good" archive footage is in HD
I don't think most women have that much of an interest in documentaries unless some kind of "human interest" element is added, or celebrities are wheeled out.
Look at the difference between "World in Action" and "Tonight with Trevor Mcdonald".
ITV has been aiming itself squarely at the female audience ever since Greg Dyke took over in the late 80s. You can count on a couple of hands the number of non-sport male orientated programmes that have been commissioned since then.
I have no objection to some female orientated programming, but there should be an equal amount of male orientated programming too, particularly on the BBC which we all pay for.
Er, you did use a comma in the first place. How does a comma make it more acceptable?
Olivier's narration was so well crafted for the subject matter.
Sad it cant be updated to include information still classified at the time of its making, but it would probably spoil the whole flow of the programme even without the problem of the narrator no longer being here.
Evenings seem to be like a tv version of The Sun.
I guess for a lot of men I work with, even if they do not watch ITV they do watch the Champions League, FA Cup or England Football matches, but aside from that I get the feeling that a lot of my male colleagues only see ITV because the Mrs wants to watch X-Factor and it is a bargining chip to watch the football another night.
The World at War
The Ascent of Man
America: A Personal History of the United States (Alistair Cooke)
Civilsation
Anyone remember anymore from this period?.
The final episoide-'The Reckoning' was shown after 11pm the last time the series was shown.
I've seen most of the programmers over the years and it's a 'masterpiece' imo. It always gives me food for thought and reason to be grateful that it's not a period of time through which I lived.
I think the answer to the question about why nothing similar is undertaken today is quite simply:money, as is so often the case.:rolleyes:
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Life on Earth by David Attenborough.
From the '90s - "The peoples century"
it is a fact that ITV 1 predominantly aims its programmes at a certain type of female audience. no one is saying that means ALL women (well no one with half a brain anyway) but SOME women. in the same way football tends to be aimed at SOME men - but not ALL men.
we are quite capable of picking up the idea behind what was said without the thought police pouncing and declaring that this implies that women can't watch serious documentaries. yes - we know they can watch serious stuff - thanks for pointing it out.
and as for proof of a female agenda on ITV - well pick any days schedule on ITV
mornings - Jeremy Kyle/This Morning/Loose Women
afternoons - any number of cooking progs/makeover shows
evenings - soaps/human interest documentaries (my house fell down last week kind of thing) /reality progs.
about the only non sport crossover you might get will be some kind of 9pm drama such as the Bill, Lewis etc.
and before the thought police point out that men may watch some of the female programmes i mentioned too - yes - we know that - but there is no doubt they are primarily aimed at certain female viewers
truth is ITV 1 now has to compete with other stuff like the digital channels and the internet. so i doubt we will ever see the kind of prgramming ITV made in the 1970's again. as someone else said - the accountants and bean counters would only see small audiences rather than the long term value to them that a series like The World at War brings.
if you look at ITV4 it is full of quality stuff made in the 1960's 70' and 80's. from the ITC series to the Sweeney, and Minder.
with a few exceptions in 20 years time i cant see where ITV would get modern day progs to fill such a channel
But I always felt it was a poor man's 'World at War'.
Ironically made by ITV - and Thames Television at that! Oh why did we get Carlton inflicted upon us?
Death on the Rock and Mrs Thatchers anger at it. And because she was upset by one programme we lost Thames and ulitmately with that round of franchises it was the beginning of the end for ITV as we knew it