I nominate Archie Valparaiso as the 'guest reader' who appears on the 100th podcast. Any seconders?

and he should be flown in first class and put up at the Dorchester

If you can't afford the Dorchester, there's a cheap hostel in Piccadilly which I stayed at a few years back. It's a charming place; they let you collect and make your own bed, wires hang out of plug sockets, the communual toilets have a distinct reek of their own, strange stains congregate on faded yellow curtain showers and there's also the chance the place will be evacuated for a fire alarm at 3.30am in the morning. Reminds me of one of the "Spikes" in Orwell's "Down And Out In London And Paris".

did u just say that cantona coughs "arsenal" in the new ken loach?

a recent BFI talk that there have been 3 serious approaches to him and broadcasters to actually make 'Monkey Tennis'. Until it was made clear that it was just monkeys. Playing tennis. So the idea and desperate programme makers went away

Best story he told was while they were writing the Armistice series in the empty 'Last Of the Summer Wine' offices and observing the episode plans on the wall that went 'Compo says 'You'll never get me on that contraption'. Next scene 'Compo flying down hill on contraption. One of the writers swapped one of the cards with 'Compo bursts puppy with cock'.

Hilarity ensued. We also got to a see a 2 minute clip of the US pilot of 'The Thick Of It' (probably illegally) which was ass clenchingly bad. As the lights went up, someone just let out incredulously 'What??'.

About how TV gets made nowadays. In fairness to the middle-aged comics fronting documentaries, the ones discussed (Fry, Merton, Wood) don't rely on scriptwriters in their "day jobs".

But the whole idea that having a snappy title and a celebrity in tow determines whether or not a programme gets commissioned is deeply depressing. No wonder I find I have fewer and fewer nights slumped in front of the TV and tend to be quite selective about what I watch. I guess from my point of view that's probably a good thing (and gives me more time among all the clever people here) but what effect is having on people not in the Word massive?

I think the 100th podcast should be a birthday special featuring everyone who's ever been on it. Hepworth and Ellen obviously, but let's round up Harrison, Collins, Fitzpatrick, McIlheney, Forde, Jude R, Kate M, the whole bleeding lot of them. Fraser on the dials. Producer Matt back fiddling around with the level just one more time. Big old cake. Two minutes from each of them on their all-time favourite HORA. Sound Of Young Islington in the background. Sob. Gawd bless you ma'am. Etc.

Thanks for another illuminating podcast. With, once more, regarding the vile state of television, if people didn't watch it then producers wouldn't be encouraged to make more. Mark Kermode has started a campaign to boycott crap films (Hottie & Nottie being an example) and maybe one of you could step forward to figurehead a similar campaign. The campaign for real television in a campaign for real ale style. Maybe you too could be invited to speak at a commons select committee as campaign for real ale were. Mwah hah.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
Groucho Marx

The exec producer, whom I know, of all the F*** off documentaries is currently experiencing a spell of job-free navel-gazing at the moment. Then again, so am I. And I'm about as far removed from the media circus as anyone.
On another subject, I'm from Manchester and use the term Dibble almost exclusively for the police, and so do most of my mates up there. Now I live in Sarf London and nobody knows what I'm talking about.

. . . that Aris was making re the credit crunch was more to do with the new-look broadcasting landscape likely to emerge from this recession rather than with the quality of the programmes themselves. In other words, a publicly-funded Channel 4 would be more able to get back to its original remit, thus encouraging the BBC to do the same, while new owners or extinction for ITV and Five might also spell the beginning of the end for the race to make the next Fuck Off I'm Fat. Or something like that.

Another common term derived from an old comedy. An IT colleague at work was genuinely surprised to find when I explained that its use for junk email came from an old Monty Python sketch where you got spam with everything. He's about the same age at the sketch, which might explain why he'd never heard of it.

because lots of people are willing to watch it. (See also films, books, music, etc.) Having had a house mate who would lie on the couch for a few hours each evening and watch *anything*, I'm not surprised to see the utter shite on the TV listings each week. I've always assumed it runs along the same lines as soothing angry beasts by waving shiny objects at them.

Cast for 100th podcast: Hepworth, Ellen, Archie Valparaiso and Backwards7? Quality entertainment and an obvious Massive crowdpleaser.

is it the right time for the return of the HORA?

Excellent, though thoroughly depressing, talk about the state of British TV today. It is a shame that some producers don't get together and try to stop the rot, instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator - try to make some interesting and intelligent programmes. I mean the constant stream of Chav friendly television is depressing in the extreme...Cops On Camera, Chavs on Camera, Police Chase, Ambulance Chase, constant reality TV and Z-List celebs etc etc (jesus, I'll be subscribing to the Daily Mail soon...)

Aris offered a very interesting, albeit cynical, insight into the way TV programmes are pitched but I was wondering if he had any answers as to how it can improve. It was all a bit bleak.

This might be a silly question, but just how can American TV produce such a huge amount of excellent high quality dramas and comedies and we can't?

Do they, the americans, produce a huge amount of good TV? Surely we are exposed to but a fraction of their output, as are they to ours. I have a friend in the U.S. who raves about all the british TV he ever sees, on public channels probably, and assumes all we have is of the same quality, as compared to what he sees as his homegrown crap. Whenever I have been in the U.S. I have struggled as hard as I do here to find something watchable. The more channels available, the less good there is to see.

It'll be the rank and file of Coast, anything by Attenborough and most nature docs, most of the bodice ripping 3 part dramas and anything adapted by Andrew Davies. These days most are co-productions with U.S., Canada or the european countries anyway.

to be read out on the 'cast. (Since you ask, it's RAN-dell). However, when my comment about La Mossman was broadcast I had the distinct feeling of being hauled up before the whole school by Head Beak Hepworth. As n. molesworth would sa "You hav caught me, Sir, like a treen in a disabled spaceship" (thanks wikipedia - can't believe I don't have my own copy to hand, chiz chiz)

when wee bairn was born. Have turned box on once since Jan 19th. Have watched Red Riding on torrent and bought a few things - Red Riding again, The Long Firm and Whitechapel on DVD. Watched part of one episode of Later... on the iPlayer. Lined up Inbetweeners but got distracted. Used to have loads of How Clean is Your Arse type nonsense on. Don't miss it at all.

is from two guys who also have a bit of experience on TV between them:

http://www.clivejames.com/video/library/3
[go to Isaacs interview, nifty interface imo]

When they get round to the current state of TV their explanation is v simple. As soon as ITV bids no longer required a quality component they no longer contained them ... and then the BBC followed ITV down, et voila ...

...typed into Google: this thread comes up sixth.
"Sacred Harp" in a Spotify search throws up an item that would probably not please the religious minded.

I find that even with the limited number of channels in my house there's always something I'm happy to watch for the 45 minutes a day that I spend in front of the TV. I don't think the average evening's TV is worse now than it was in 1982. It's a good deal better. But there's a lot of junk because there are a lot of channels and they have to be filled with something. Much of that will be a pale imitation of something that did well on one of the other channels. What amuses me about TV, and I think this was reflected in this podcast, is that it's full of clever people pretending to be stupid.

The major disappointment about TV in the last ten years is that the vision of a multi-channel future involved lots of specialist services all financed by advertising aimed at specialist audiences. It hasn't happened. The advertisers tend to want big audiences and that means lowest common denominator programming, an expression which I'm not using pejoratively at all. Less people are going to watch a documentary about Miles Davis than a talent show featuring Susan Boyle. That's just common sense. Actually, *I'd* rather watch the latter than the former. Because that's the thing. *Approving* of a programme is one thing. Watching it is another one entirely.

Well,as far as the "good stuff" is concerned we have got to thank our *Stars* everyday for the BBC.
I get the feeling that the license fee IS safe,regardless of Government "hue",if purely due to the fact that there is simply not enough advertising money to go round at the moment,let alone for another outlet.
My only clear conclusion: Armando Ianucci is a VISIONARY!

in broadcasting at the turn of the 90's

didn't do him out of a job thou

For my money, Neil Simon just about nailed the reasons why in his semi-autobiographical play 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor'. The action is set in the writers' office on 'The Max Prince Show' a fictitious 1950s American TV comedy - the kind Simon himself once wrote for.

At one point Max (who is closely modeled on Sid Caesar) claims that he has received a letter from the brass at NBC telling him to "Give the people shit". One of the writers asks why. Max replies: "Because they can make money on shit. A potful. Drive up to Connecticut, they got big shit Tudor houses wherever you look. That's why they invented television. They put shit on for people to watch. They advertise shit. The people run out and buy the shit. Their kids break the shit, so they buy them more shit. Then the shit moguls go to France for the summer while the poor people stay here and watch more shit. That's why I got a letter saying 'Give the people shit'".

ITV etc. in a nutshell, I'd say.