Anyone listen to the second episode of the play 'Greenmantle' on Radio 4 ?
Well ,a bit of a joke there------you didn't listen to it as it was cancelled after the events of July 7th.
Greenmantle takes place 90 years ago and is about the Germans attempting to stir up the Arabs in a Middle Eastern country and the British success in foiling that dastardly plan. It is a real , "Boys Own " adventure story , complete with Richard Hannay [of 39 Steps fame ] and other Gungho characters. It is as far removed from reality as those types of adventure stories usually were.
It was cancelled as ,Mark Damazer , Controller of Radio 4 thought it was , "touching on sensitive matters " i.e. the feelings of Muslims.
At the same time a drama was being broadcast on the morning's Woman's Hour and repeated each evening.This realistic drama was about 4 or 5 Service wives whose husbands are all in Iraq. One soldier is hovering between life and death , after an attack.Each episode was introduced by real -life interviews with Army wives and the play is done , " documentary " style.
I suppose it doesn't really matter if the wives and children of serving men , in Iraq , heard this and were upset ? . Does anybody at the B.B.C. care or does it even enter their brains ?
The sad thing is that the B.B.C. are being financed by public money , their executives ....et al ....get enormous salaries but all they seem to care about are their friends in Islington and what the Guardian might say.

Broadcasting companies tend to get very jumpy in the immediate aftermath of major events, cancelling and re-scheduling programmes all over the place. Politics doesn't really have anything to do with it.

Remember September 11th 2001? Virtually every programme that had even the smallest reference to aeroplanes was kicked off our screens in the following weeks, despite the fact that footage of the planes going into the towers was repeatedly shown on the news – ITV even showed slow-motion replays with classical music over the top as I remember.

It's all a bit daft and very muddled, really.

I have been listening to the womans hour drama you refer to and I don't really see how it might be upsetting - I would have thought it would be more comforting than anything? I'm sure if they got complaints they would pull it.

I've read the original Greenmantle, it's a terrific book and not offensive in the slightest.

Greenback '

Exactly ! Then why , didn't they get jumpy over the fact that there was a possibility of Service wives and children getting upset when they heard a programme about someone being in intensive care in Iraq. ?
Bombs and killings have been going on a lot longer in Iraq than they have in London.

Kathythebean ,

Well , we don't know if anyone has complained about the sensitivity of the broadcast ; possibly no-one has .
However that could mean that service wives and relatives who listen to it , recognise it for what it is -------a piece of drama . Why does the B.B.C. therefore have to presume that a 90 year old adaptation of a book , is likely to upset Muslims ? You can't argue it both ways . Do we know in fact if any Muslims complained about , " Greenmantle " ? It would be interesting if someone could find the figures in each case.

The following website may be of interest - check back over the archives for various examples from all BBC output. http://www.biased-bbc.blogspot.com/

Yes , it's difficult to imagine that not too many years ago , the B.B.C. had a reputation for fearless unbiased comment and reporting .

you must admit ty do some wonderful programmes though

Originally posted by Fareast
Yes , it's difficult to imagine that not too many years ago , the B.B.C. had a reputation for fearless unbiased comment and reporting .

I can't quite fathom how mentally unstable you would have to be to produce such an exhaustive blog about a perceived bias in the BBC.

What on earth does "fearless unbiased comment" mean when it's at home? It seems to me to indicate "opinion". Which is inherently biased.

I'm really not sure where you're going with this. Every time there is a disaster of any kind on these shores, programmes are pulled in the aftermath. There's no conspiracy.

even the head of the bbc has stated that the bbc is institutionally left wing , cant remember when he said it but im sure it was this year

Originally posted by panda79
even the head of the bbc has stated that the bbc is institutionally left wing , cant remember when he said it but im sure it was this year

Actually, maybe you have a point. I mean, look at this week's schedule for evidence:

EastEnders (think Far EAST, think CHINA, think COMMIES)

The Bigger Picture with Graham Norton (tsk - typical of the loony left to let gays present programmes on the telly)

An American Werewolf in London (patently a liberal critique of America's aggressive foreign policy)

How to Start Your Own Country (presumably one where everyone wears sandals and munches on lentils)

The Slavery Business: How to make a Million from Slavery (obviously yet another a attempt by the Marxist Beeb to denegrate the hard-working plantation owner)

A DISGRACE

:rant:

Ah me....sad lessons have been learned by the BBC ever since 'Ghostwatch' when some poor soul committed suicide and any number of people went to sleep with the light on afterwards.

There are any number of delusional folks out there who imagine we still fight wars in a gung-ho/boys own adventure fashion. It's only kind to protect them from themselves really :loopy:

And lets not forget the Americans who panicked en masse during a radio broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' :rolleyes:

Any bias in the BBC is that we've been dumbed down to such an extent that the possibility of causing a mass panic is now only too real.......;)


*Is it time for The Archers yet.......

Greenback ,

Yes , I could understand it if they pulled a programme that was directly connected to a disaster but what relevance has a 90 year old story , from the 1st. World War . got anything to do with bombings in London in 2005.
And I asked , but haven't had a proper answer , why put on a programme the same week that had TOTAL relevance with what's going on in Iraq , practically all the time. If you were a child whose father was in Iraq and you hears people talking about the war and a soldier in intensive care , maybe you would be upset ? Even if no-one has complained was it worth taking the risk in one case and not the other ?
Gillian Reynolds in the Telegraph , a life-long respected radio reviewer and hardly a right -wing bigot [!] was absolutely baffled by the inconsistency.
Amongst other relevant points she makes , she states , "In either case , I know I would find it curiously inconsistent of BBC radio to ban a historic fiction which might be thought to allude , possibly , to today's militant Islam while broadcasting neo-realistic drama which most definitely does ."
I think someone in a previous post on here has made a point about someone from the BBC admitting that they were biased , so perhaps it's not just an individual impression , after all. To be honest , I can hardly believe that anyone can listen to Radio 4 regularly and conclude that the BBC is NOT biased ; the mind boggles .





,

Don't know enough about the BBC goings on what with Greg Dyke being sacked and how many of the staff are unhappy with recent changes.

But we should be pleased that we don't have to endure the propandist ****e that the US have to put up with.

Just watched 'Outfoxed' which comments on the 'Maxwell Empire' and the 'Fox' news network.

Absolutely intollerable.

Bush's bottom boy if I ever saw one.

what about the endless lists of songs they ban during wars etc

during the 1st gulf war they banned songs like the cure - killing an arab, the clash - rock the casbah which you can sort of see, but then some (which ive forgot :P) were completely non sensical

Originally posted by melthebell
what about the endless lists of songs they ban during wars etc

during the 1st gulf war they banned songs like the cure - killing an arab, the clash - rock the casbah which you can sort of see, but then some (which ive forgot :P) were completely non sensical

if my memory serves me right im sure they banned in the air tonight by phil collins and a song by the bangles

Originally posted by panda79
if my memory serves me right im sure they banned in the air tonight by phil collins and a song by the bangles

Yup and 'The air that I Breath' by the Hollies too.

As for Greenmantle there was someone on Radio 4 last week explaining the decision in reply to listeners' complaints. If I remember correctly his explanation was that whilst the drama being broadcast on Woman's Hour was a serious drama meant to highlight current issues that families of people in the forces are going through. Whereas Greenmantle is a more lighthearted, less factually correct piece of fiction. (Not having read it I have no idea if that's true).

You can listen to the discussion here:

Feedback - Radio 4 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/feedback.shtml)

Using the 'Listen Again' link