UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > General Vintage Technology > General Vintage Technology Discussions

Notices

General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 16th Jan 2022, 5:53 pm   #1
G6Tanuki
Dekatron
 
G6Tanuki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
Default Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

A friend pointed this out to me:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the.../9781781255254

and I have ordered myself a copy.

The author is an academic at the University of Sussex.

I look forward to devouring this book in the next couple of days.
__________________
I'm the Operator of my Pocket Calculator. -Kraftwerk.
G6Tanuki is offline  
Old 21st Jan 2022, 10:15 pm   #2
Grubhead
Heptode
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 539
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

I saw in one of the TV guides that the BBC are going to show a series called that, so it might be the book of the series.
Grubhead is offline  
Old 22nd Jan 2022, 1:40 am   #3
dave walsh
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex.
Posts: 5,814
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

Thanks for the reminder chaps. I believe I clipped a reference to this and I think you are right about the series GH. Try "This New Noise" by Charlotte Higgins [pub 2015]. Very different/readable and it came out when the Beeb was undergoing one of it's periodic attacks [like now]. Only last week, somebody damaged the Ariel Statue over the front door. Not very original! Eric Gill's home life was bizarre and illegal to say the least but as someone pointed out, if all artists have to be virtuous to be accepted most works would have to be destroyed. There is a great Radio 4 play in which Lord Reith converses with Eric who is is up the ladder sculpting away in his kilt.
Two equally disturbed individuals in my opinion!

Dave W

Last edited by dave walsh; 22nd Jan 2022 at 1:54 am.
dave walsh is offline  
Old 22nd Jan 2022, 9:59 am   #4
Ted Kendall
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Kington, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 3,657
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

Quote:
Originally Posted by dave walsh View Post
Two equally disturbed individuals in my opinion!
Maybe, but each created something of lasting value. It's easy to knock Reith - as easy as it is to forget that events now in the past were once far in the future. This man fashioned public service broadcasting out of whole cloth. Maybe the Manse gave him the sense of purpose to see it through. Was it Russell who said that progress is made by unreasonable people?

Last edited by Ted Kendall; 22nd Jan 2022 at 10:06 am.
Ted Kendall is online now  
Old 22nd Jan 2022, 3:19 pm   #5
Guest
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

My copy has just been delivered, a large tome. I will start reading it in a few minutes.
 
Old 25th Jan 2022, 2:08 am   #6
dave walsh
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex.
Posts: 5,814
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

I can't really agree there Ted although Tesla was probably very unreasonable at times! "Sons of the Manse" are rarely full of cheer. One was our Prime Minister, I think! It would be easy to imagine someone else who was far less "stiff" than Reith creating something much better and more relaxed in 1922. I think that the gloom filtered through even to to the misplaced idea that everything not approved of by a certain social group was disposable, especially in the sixties! CBC didn't wipe it's Dylan Videos or dump Journey into Space Acetates in a cupboard for decades! Nowadays it all has a monetary as well as historical value [look at TPTV for example] and the Beeb [which in my opinion should be more like the Smithsonian than Netflix] still makes appeals for missing items "illegally" recorded. They always want "feedback" but only if they agree with it's content.

I actually feel quite sorry for John Reith. He was greviously injured in the First W War and had a limp [like that Montague bloke who sacked Alistair Milne in more recent times]. He was clearly a bit confused and very unhappy about himself. In the biography written by his daughter, she says clearly that she didn't even like him Apart from the share scandal, when the BBC was still a private company, Reith got the Director General job by shamelessly canvassing the chair of the interviewing committee using the "old boy" network, even though he knew nothing about radio or broadcasting. . He was devastated when not needed anymore because he couldn't keep up with the changing times [he didn't approve of Television or his school contemporary J L Baird]. This was ironic as I suspect Baird was a very much nicer individual but treated the same way in business. I suppose Gill was the Jimmy Savile of his day but I still wouldn't want his statue removed from Broadcasting House or his typography burnt by fanatics!

Bertrand Russell was a decent chap but quite priveliged and from another age!

Dave

Last edited by dave walsh; 25th Jan 2022 at 2:29 am.
dave walsh is offline  
Old 25th Jan 2022, 11:39 am   #7
russell_w_b
Dekatron
 
russell_w_b's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 3,684
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

Quote:
Originally Posted by dave walsh View Post
[like that Montague bloke who sacked Alistair Milne in more recent times].
Marmaduke 'Duke' Hussey, you mean?
__________________
Regds,

Russell W. B.
G4YLI.
russell_w_b is offline  
Old 25th Jan 2022, 12:47 pm   #8
Junk Box Nick
Octode
 
Junk Box Nick's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 1,571
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

Quote:
Originally Posted by dave walsh View Post
It would be easy to imagine someone else who was far less "stiff" than Reith creating something much better and more relaxed in 1922.
Captain Leonard F Plugge was a fascinating character. His ideas were rebuffed and once he got going with Radio Normandie the establishment made life difficult for his International Broadcasting Company. Unfortunately, WWII put an end to his broadcasts but the IBC continued as a production company into the 1960s.

There is a biography available And The World Listened. He led a remarkable life with no little incident, success and failure, and some tragedy. Well worth a read.
Junk Box Nick is offline  
Old 25th Jan 2022, 6:17 pm   #9
Richardgr
Heptode
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Täby, Sweden
Posts: 692
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

Captain Leonard F Plugge - that was an interesting read from wikipedia! Thanks for the pointer.

Seems like there were people back then who could really think outside the box, and without borders.
Richardgr is offline  
Old 25th Jan 2022, 6:22 pm   #10
dave walsh
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex.
Posts: 5,814
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

Yes that's it Russell "Marmaduke", apparently well known for throwing a hissy [or is that Hussey] fit! He wasn't a happy bunny either. I see that after appointing John Birt as DG in 1987 he, much later, publicly stated that his own choice was an arrogant individual with some talent but inclined to storm out of the room if he faced criticism. Pot and Kettle come to mind. Hussey said he appointed Birt [known as "The Dalek" by Dennis Potter] to make everything financially accountable and that he had been surprised to find that the Beeb was run by an "Old Boy Network. Really?

Alistair Milne was a very decent man and popular. The Greg Dyke of his day perhaps but no match for "The Duke". His biography is well worth a read but quite sad. I wondered how he got through it all after his summary dismissal without warning.

Ah Captain Plugge! I'm sure I've got something about him somewhere It wasn't the surname that brought him to mind [although it's hard to forget] more the reference to setting up in a sort of opposition to the BBC hierarchy that had rejected him! A bit like J L Baird I think! It's a shame that the war closed down Radio Normandie for good. We could have had an alternative that didn't fade out like Radio Luxemburg or pirate radio in the sixties. I'm assuming that Normandie would have had quite good coverage to Britain from the other side of the channel but perhaps not? The "Captain" must have thought so. It may have been seen as a real threat. Look at the BBC panic when ITV provided a second TV channel. I think there may have been an article in one of the magazines abut Leonard. Perhaps Radio Bygones, The Radiophile or maybe the BVWS Bulletin? Sadly, we've only got the Bulletin these days, good as it is. They were all very different in the main. I'll check out the Captain's biography and I intend to get David Hendy's book to go along with "This New Noise" by Charlotte Higgins. Merlin says "A People's History" is a fair size but the reviews seem to indicate it's very readable.

Dave W

Last edited by dave walsh; 25th Jan 2022 at 6:37 pm.
dave walsh is offline  
Old 25th Jan 2022, 7:31 pm   #11
G6Tanuki
Dekatron
 
G6Tanuki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

I always wonder just how UK radio broadcasting could have evolved if the original BBC -' British Broadcasting Company' - had managed to escape the stultifying hand of 1920s Government control and been given free rein to provide a much more diverse [and profitable] range of stations/content.

The Reith/BBC legacy was only really broken by the coming of the 1960s pop pirate stations. I look at the US proliferation of radio stations in the same timespan and think "Oh, if only...."
__________________
I'm the Operator of my Pocket Calculator. -Kraftwerk.
G6Tanuki is offline  
Old 27th Jan 2022, 12:59 pm   #12
Richardgr
Heptode
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Täby, Sweden
Posts: 692
Default Re: Book: The BBC: A People's History David Hendy

I don't agree. There is something unique about the BBC in the way it made impartiality almost its most important objective, and I don't think we could have got to this point where that reputation is still largely intact if market forces had taken over.

I've worked overseas a lot, and BBC content that is aired on different channels in those countries goes a long way to support the way people from the UK are seen - comedy, drama, royal family, news. They all create an impression (illusion I would say being a bit anti-home these days) that UK people themselves are keen to cling onto (the "great British sense of humour"). Plus, I should add, slightly odd people, since a lot of reality shows are produced in the UK, so your British person is the go-to sexual deviant with a strange lump growing out of his head, bad neighbours, and a debt that requires his or her door to be kicked down).

Losing that reputation for impartiality would be the tragedy if the BBC is not able to manage its transition to the removal of the license fee in 2025.

On the subject of impartiality, there was a program on the radio playing different records that had been banned by the BBC over the years. There are some obvious ones, but one of them was a popular record produced by the BBC, and it was banned in case the BBC was considered to be showing favouritism to its own recordings!

(Another one was a catchy big band tune that had a hand clap in one part, and too many workers in wartime industries were putting down their tools and clapping at that point, affecting productivity in managers' eyes).
Richardgr is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:00 am.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.