BBC Retro Documentaries: Classic or Dud?

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I mean, the kind of which the I LOVE THE 80s series was paradigmatic. BBC Manchester is the stable, I think. Lots of fast cutting, chronological sequence intact though with lots of key things snipped out, main footage (eg. pop videos) intercut with lots of talking heads - of a) people relevant at the time ('I was the girl in the My Little Pony advert'), b) celebrities (Wayne Hemingway, AAAAAARGGGH!!), c) Ordinary People - all REMEMBERING, informally, imitating slogans / jingles of the time (obviously heavily prompted by producers). Plus quirky bits of 'lost footage': BBC news broadcasts, old editions of Going Live, a sense of (Popular) History As It Happened.

I'm NOT just talking about the 70s-80s progs. MATCH OF THE 90s was somewhat similar (down to the credits, those sudden freeze frames with text over them - which I loved); the other night's Wimbledon prog, too, tonight's Madonna prog. I get a sense of an attempt at a (slightly?) new kind of pop-culture history, more rooted and fan-based... but is it all too glib and formulaic?

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

a) people relevant at the time

No, pinefox, you're getting confused, you're thinking of C4's Top Ten. The beauty of the I Love The 80s series was that hardly anyone actually involved in the events ever appeared on it. That way, you don't need many researchers, you don't have to ship people in from other countries, and you don't even have to get your facts right, because no one will argue. You just entice some minor slebs by telling them they can keep the vivid orange shirts, sit them in front of an abstract background and flash idiot boards at them, and in just a couple of days you've got 20 hours of primetime TV, and no one knows the difference.

more rooted and fan-based

Jamie Theakston pretending to remember stuff - fan based? They've got I Love The 90s planned for this summer. How long is it before Newsnight gets renamed "I Love The Now", with Kate Thornton giggling "That Barry George, me and my mates used to have such a big crush on him".

So, I Love Last Tuesday programs: Dud, for letting self appointed expert on everything Stuart Maconie on TV, because all he ever says is "Everyone thought [Insert some appalling band/film/TV show] were rubbish, but actually they were really great."

The general concept: Could be classic, Top Ten was great until they ran out of things to do, and I'd really love to see a I Love The 1880s, because stuff must have happened, right? And I'm sure Phil Jupitus would still have plenty of anecdotes, and Peter Kaye would be able to hum the theme tune.

― Graham, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Graham: merci for the reply, but no, I'm not getting confused, and I am most certainly not thinking of C4's Top Ten - I am thinking very specifically of BBC (Manchester?) progs. (Not JUST the decade ones, as I said.) They do indeed feature people involved at the time - I remember Fighting Fantasy Gambook king Ian Livingstone turning up alongside Johnny Marr for 1984 - and this is a Good thing about them. On the other hand, I quite agree about the cockfarming idiocy of the celebrities.

Your answer also seems to imply that all accounts of, let's say, 'the recent past as history' are bad (eg: a history of the 1990s is a bad idea). I don't think I agree with that.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i find these nostalgia for recent past progs unspeakably depressing. the "what were we on!!!" subtext is ultra-annoying. there's nothing to say that progs about recent past should be bad, but they all are. i think its the way that they homogenize everything and just leave out stuff that doesn't fit. scope too large? 'this is how we were in the 80s/90s/whatever'. what, all of us?

― gareth, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What I meant was you describing I Love The 80s as paradigmatic, when really it's just a cheap rip off. The Top Ten series was usually 70% people involved, 20% associated people, 10% random celebrities. I Love The 80s was maybe 15% people involved, 15% people connected, and 70% random celebrities who happened to be alive at the time (and nobody noticed). I know washed up musicians are easier to get hold of than say, the inventor of the space hopper, but a lot of the time it seemed they weren't bothering.

My problem with I Love The 90s is that the 80s series didn't teach me much that I didn't know (And I wasn't born until '83), so this series will probably feature reminiscing about Take That and The Spice Girls. There are lots of interesting news stories and fads that get forgotten quickly, but the I Love format never covers them.

The format in general is great, but only when they actually have people that were involved, or were actually fans. It's the valuing celebrity viewpoints above normal people that bothers me, it seems like a new thing. I don't want Craig David as spokesperson for my generation. And I agree with everything Gareth says.

― Graham, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree that celebrities-as-fans are rubbish. But there is still good archival stuff to be dug out.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

WORST CELEB ON TV EVER = GINA YASHERE. AAAARGGGH, THIS IS NOT MY LIFE, THIS IS CELEB FANTASY LAND WHERE EVERYONE IS REALLY STUPID

― the pinefox, Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

Thread revival!

Did anyone see the advertisements on VH-1 for the American version of I Love The 80s? It looks so awful.

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 13 December 2002 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll play back the memory loop in my head instead.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 13 December 2002 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

two weeks pass...

another thread revival for the Vicar

― the pinefox, Monday, 30 December 2002 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

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