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March 28, 2024, 07:11:43 PM

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The Return Of BBC3

Started by Blue Jam, March 02, 2021, 04:46:39 PM

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Blue Jam

After being relegated to iPlayer for six years, BBC3 is to become a proper channel again:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56251020

'member how it was dismissed as the crap channel, and how there were calls for it to be scrapped, then it was scrapped just as it was finding its feet and getting good?

Phil_A

I guess it did have a reputation for being the "Snog, Marry, Avoid" channel as opposed to having a pretty decent comedy output. I think it always had a fairly even ratio of quality to dross

Does this mean BBC Four is fucked then?

Blue Jam

I liked Snog, Marry, Avoid... and I saw Ellie Taylor doing stand-up at the Embra Fringe and she was very good. But yes, BBC3 did seem to be finally airing good stuff at the time it was scrapped, like it deserved a bit of a reprieve.

As people here pointed out at the time, BBC3 at least had a distinct identity as a channel for the 16-34 age bracket, showing new comedy and lighthearted stuff. It was just starting to put out some really good comedy and more interesting documentaries when it was scrapped.

Does BBC4 have much of an identity now? The last time I watched it it just seemed to be "that spare channel the snooker gets shoved onto".

purlieu

Quote from: Blue Jam on March 02, 2021, 05:10:04 PM
Does BBC4 have much of an identity now?
It's the Top of the Pops channel!

Alberon

I think BBC 4 will survive (or at least continue in the zombie format it's had the last few years), but it'll probably lose it's EPG number to BBC 3 and get stuck further down alongside BBC Alba or something.

Blue Jam

As much as I welcome this move I really hope it doesn't mean we'll see more of Stacey Dooley MBE on there. I know BBC3 like to choose presenters for their relatability to the target audience, but that's fine for Reggie Yates (for example) because he's actually good. Stacey Dooley's success is utterly baffling to me.

I thought BBC4 had improved recently :/

BlodwynPig

A bit more of a thoughtful yoof TV would be good. Something that doesn't take itself too seriously or be too try-hard with 24 Grime and Mukbang for da kidz. Pls Like kind of level.

Blue Jam

There are often lots of good films on iPlayer, are those generally on BBC4? I don't suppose it matters when people are mainly streaming them. Does BBC4 even need an EPG number in that case?

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Blue Jam on March 02, 2021, 05:16:45 PM
As much as I welcome this move I really hope it doesn't mean we'll see more of Stacey Dooley MBE on there. I know BBC3 like to choose presenters for their relatability to the target audience, but that's fine for Reggie Yates (for example) because he's actually good. Stacey Dooley's success is utterly baffling to me.

While Dooley could be perceived as downmarket, I think she is decent for the audience she will reach. She certainly doesn't have a swagger about her - looks committed to the topic she investigates and knows her peanuts.

Cuellar

Dooley used to work behind the bar at my local back home. And this was after she did her first couple of documentaries. I think she also did a few shifts in a clothes shop in town too.

I never liked the ideology of Snog, Marry, Avoid: marriage being the best, the highest. Kiss, Get To Know Better, Politely Refuse would have been a better title.

colacentral

Quote from: Cuellar on March 02, 2021, 05:25:08 PM
Dooley used to work behind the bar at my local back home. And this was after she did her first couple of documentaries. I think she also did a few shifts in a clothes shop in town too.

I never liked the ideology of Snog, Marry, Avoid: marriage being the best, the highest. Kiss, Get To Know Better, Politely Refuse would have been a better title.

Hold Hands, Court, Doff Your Hat?

Blue Jam

As RuPaul would say (probably), "You can't say Shoot, Shag or Marry on the BBC". Just a more polite form of that isn't it?

I enjoyed the show but I was a bit uncomfortable with it at times, some of the lines POD (the Personal Overhaul Device) came out with seemed a bit slut-shamey, and there were things like her dismissing charity shop finds as "dead people's clothes" (fuck right off). Also the makeovers seemed to transform some people with interesting personal style into High Street fast fashion clones, and all the blokes ended looking like they were from TOWIE.

Ellie Taylor was lovely though. What's she up to these days?

mothman

Quote from: BlodwynPig on March 02, 2021, 05:24:38 PM
While Dooley could be perceived as downmarket, I think she is decent for the audience she will reach. She certainly doesn't have a swagger about her - looks committed to the topic she investigates and knows her peanuts.

It's been a couple of years since Dooley won Strictly, so if she hasn't conquered the mainstream BBC channels by now she never will. She's well on the "... With..." trajectory now, that can only lead to Channel 5. That way lies Humble, and beyond lies the Fogle.

JamesTC

Monkey Dust, Swiss Toni, Grass, Nighty Night, 15 Storeys High, Catterick and The Smoking Room all in the span of two years (2003-04). Fucking phenomenal list of great comedy for such a short period.

Snuff Box is still one of my favourite TV shows. Though I am very hesitant to recommend that as it is a VERY acquired taste.

I remember In The Flesh as being their last good show. Need to revisit that one. Felt like a fresh take on zombies.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: mothman on March 02, 2021, 08:12:27 PM
It's been a couple of years since Dooley won Strictly, so if she hasn't conquered the mainstream BBC channels by now she never will. She's well on the "... With..." trajectory now, that can only lead to Channel 5. That way lies Humble, and beyond lies the Fogle.

Yes, was very disappointed she went on Strictly. I didn't watch it, but the clips I saw she seemed to remain her indomitable self despite having to put of the glitz and cliche of that show.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: JamesTC on March 02, 2021, 08:22:24 PM
Snuff Box is still one of my favourite TV shows. Though I am very hesitant to recommend that as it is a VERY acquired taste.
I think this is the first time I've seen someone on here say they liked Snuff Box. I fucking loved it.

Sebastian Cobb

It smacks of wanting to try and attract younger viewers without really knowing how to reach them. All of the "Big four and a half" channels have viewing ages around 60. Most channels actively target that demographic as they're easy to sell ads for and often have a fair bit of cash. The BBC dunted BBC Three to a corner of iPlayer to wither as young people mostly streamed.

Now they're shitting it because without any identity or promotion, they've lost further ground to streaming services in younger viewers and they don't do enough to justify a license fee for that generation.

They were going to bin BBC Four and use that timeshare space to bring back Three in its place but Four survived, with the caveat that new arty programming should go primarily to BBC2 and it would mostly show cheap archive stuff.

However around the time of covid Sky Arts became free-to-air and did very well with people locked down. So perhaps the BBC will throw BBC Four a bone based on that. I've noticed a few new promo reels on it.

As for Three - I'm not sure a linear slot will help it much. Part of the problem is they're still centering programming round a channel identity, when that's not really how shows compete for younger people who stream online, things like I May Destroy You and Fleabag managed to get audiences in their own right.

Blue Jam

I really tried to get into Snuff Box, I really did. It just wasn't for me, sorry.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: JamesTC on March 02, 2021, 08:22:24 PM
Monkey Dust, Swiss Toni, Grass, Nighty Night, 15 Storeys High, Catterick and The Smoking Room all in the span of two years (2003-04). Fucking phenomenal list of great comedy for such a short period.

Don't forget Thieves Like Us!

Lets not forget a lot of these were buried in the schedules, some with practically zero promotion, while for most of the evening they were filling the schedule with Two Pints of Lager re-runs.

I think these can be seen as happy accidents where there was a period of investment and expansion due to ITV Digital failing and Freeview getting going where they had this space opening up for viewers who weren't really arsed about Sky but also wanted something other than the 5 analogue terrestrial channels. To a lesser extent, this happened with Sky too, with there being some quite mad cheap stuff on some of the Bravo etc channels and some younger presenters cutting their teeth on stuff like that.

Christ, they got so desperate to fill the schedules of BBC2 when it was first coming on air people managed to fly things like Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home under radar long enough to get it on Play for Today.

JamesTC

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 02, 2021, 08:30:19 PM
I think this is the first time I've seen someone on here say they liked Snuff Box. I fucking loved it.

How could you not love Charles Manson repairing a vending machine by glaring at it?

It just was a bit weird even for BBC Three. In many ways it exemplified what BBC Three was great at doing at the time. They could experiment with different styles of comedy that wouldn't work on more mainstream channels.

I introduced the show to my uncle around 10 years ago and we have said "France and Spain" to each other since.

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on March 02, 2021, 08:32:17 PM
It smacks of wanting to try and attract younger viewers without really knowing how to reach them. All of the "Big four and a half" channels have viewing ages around 60. Most channels actively target that demographic as they're easy to sell ads for and often have a fair bit of cash. The BBC dunted BBC Three to a corner of iPlayer to wither as young people mostly streamed.

Now they're shitting it because without any identity or promotion, they've lost further ground to streaming services in younger viewers and they don't do enough to justify a license fee for that generation.

[]
As for Three - I'm not sure a linear slot will help it much. Part of the problem is they're still centering programming round a channel identity, when that's not really how shows compete for younger people who stream online, things like I May Destroy You and Fleabag managed to get audiences in their own right.

I really don't think the justification was there to get rid of BBC Three. The streaming thing was an excuse. BBC Three got huge ratings in the youth demos that other channels (with advertisers on) would kill for. Say what you want about Two Pints, but it pulled in the youth audience even for a 10-year-old repeat (the Mrs Brown's Boys of youths).

This move is desperation to get back the audience that they've lost. As you say, they don't do enough to justify the licence fee for that generation but this feels like too little too late to win back that audience.

Sebastian Cobb

I agree it's desperation and probably won't work. I think at the time they assumed extending the hours of the children's programming would do them well with Gen X parents I guess.

But I also think there's probably some argument for the streaming thing, when I was growing up people got tellies in their rooms at different rates but we also had to get our parents to run coax from a splitter or put up a loft aerial to get a watchable picture. That's probably not happening now the kids all have their ipads and whatnots, my flat doesn't have an aerial as it's cabled and I've managed fine with just IPTV.

Captain Z

BBC3... the channel that apparently panders only to the woke left but would also get cancelled nowadays by the woke left for showing things like Little Britain.

Nothing good produced by the BBC nowadays, only things with a lefty woke anti-government agenda. Not like all the good old comedy back in my day, you'd never find any anti-Thatcher sentiments in that...

Malcy

BBC3 in it's early years had great stuff like has been already mentioned. Now it's just absolute shite targeted at 'yoof' and it's pretty fucking horrendous with the odd interesting 20 min documentary.

Quote from: JamesTC on March 02, 2021, 08:22:24 PM
Monkey Dust, Swiss Toni, Grass, Nighty Night, 15 Storeys High, Catterick and The Smoking Room all in the span of two years (2003-04). Fucking phenomenal list of great comedy for such a short period.

Snuff Box is still one of my favourite TV shows. Though I am very hesitant to recommend that as it is a VERY acquired taste.

I never thought Snuff Box was an acquired taste, I've never shown it to anyone who hasn't pissed themselves and asked for more and that's over various demographics and ages. Even 2 Pints was great in it's day and even had a new scene written by the writer released just a few days ago in celebration of the 20th(!) anniversary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR_Gq5gky6w

And Burn It as, I think, their first original drama is superb. Never heard a bad word said about it and have rewatched it almost every year since broadcast.

See absolutely no point in making it broadcast again considering it's current demographic is people who probably laugh at the thought of watching 'broadcast' TV.

Malcy

Quote from: Captain Z on March 02, 2021, 09:14:36 PM
Nothing good produced by the BBC nowadays

Absolute wank, BBC still makes plenty of great TV.

crankshaft

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 02, 2021, 08:30:19 PM
I think this is the first time I've seen someone on here say they liked Snuff Box. I fucking loved it.
Snuff Box is all over the place but it succeeds more often than it fails, and there is nothing as funny as Rich Fulcher going postal at David Bowie as portrayed by Alice Lowe.

beanheadmcginty

Those wondering where they're going to put it - they're going to bring closedown of Cbeebies back down from 9pm to 7pm (which is what it used to be) and then play BBC 3 out on that signal so it'll have a 7pm start time every night. BBC 4 will not be affected (by this anyway).

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Malcy on March 02, 2021, 09:38:51 PM
Absolute wank, BBC still makes plenty of great TV.

Absolutely. Gems right across all channels. And through the daytime if you're lucky enough to be able to watch while you work. I record a lot of it for catch up at the weekends. Although i do like a bit of ARoadshow of a sunday... guilty pleasure. One man and his dog is back this year too - celeb edition makes me hoot!

Captain Z

Quote from: Malcy on March 02, 2021, 09:38:51 PM
Absolute wank, BBC still makes plenty of great TV.

I was paraphrasing the myriad gammon comments on this story today.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: mothman on March 02, 2021, 08:12:27 PM
It's been a couple of years since Dooley won Strictly, so if she hasn't conquered the mainstream BBC channels by now she never will. She's well on the "... With..." trajectory now, that can only lead to Channel 5. That way lies Humble, and beyond lies the Fogle.

Dooley is currently the host of a decent series called DNA Family Secrets, which goes out at 9pm on BBC Two. She's doing okay.