Rolling BBC iPlayer Thread 2009

A thread for people to post recommendations for stuff they've seen or heard on iPlayer that people might otherwise have missed, cos there's a lot on there, and some of it's quite good.

That said, I'm gonna start with Ozwald Boateng: Why Style Matters, which is one of the most mind-boggling programmes I've seen in goodness knows how long. Essentially, it appears to have an awful lot more to do with the first part of the title than the second.

can we include 4OD as well? LOADS of stuff on there right now - almost every comedy series ever shown on C4 for example

boateng is so ridiculous and awful that i might actually have to watch this. he's probably on TV more than any other british "designer" and he's so completely shit and such a nob.

knob!

I 4OD any good? I had a look ages ago, but they wanted me to install software and run things in the background and stuff. And all the good things they wanted me to PAY for, the temerity of it.

Yeah, 4oD, ITVPlayer, any of that old catch-up stuff seems a plan. Just cos I'm on a Mac, iPlayer's the only one that's any use for me.

Boateng fans will be particularly excited by the amount of extreme close-ups of his teeth there are in the programme (there are an awful lot).

4OD is a pain in the arse from what I can remember of trying to set it up, but now I've got it working it's pretty decent. It's no iPlayer though.

It keeps not letting me log in - I've had to reset my password about three times, but the content's pretty good.

^^^this. I gave up. But then (of course) I couldn't resist more tv and so set it up again. Works quite well. Haven't tried the ITV one yet. Why they don't just copy the iPlayer?

4OD requires installing stuff, so does Demand Five (only a WMP plugin though), but ITV Player is the worst. Firstly, it requires that you install bloody Silverlight. Second, it is s-l-o-w... BBC iPlayer far and away the best of the main channels, because it Just. Bloody. Works.

no, Sky Anytime is the worst, because it is shit and makes you pay for everything despite only being available to people who pays Sky fuckloads to start with.

I went on to ITVs cathup thing looking for Harry Hill, and he wasn't there! SInce that's about all I watch on ITV, the whole things pretty worthless, esp. since Silverlight doesn't work with Chrome.

Since we're giving shout-outs to stuff tho, on iPlayer at the mo is a terrific documentary on prog-rock. Dunno if it's been trailed on real TV or whatever, but I thought it was a pretty good walkthrough of a genre that I knew very little about. Gems of info include finding out that Rik Wakeman could have been in the Spiders from mars!

there's a big thread about that prog rock doc on ilm.

youtube is good for harry hill.

being linuxy i was curious as to what would happen when i clicked a 'download silverlight' link. it actually took me to mono project's linux version caller moonlight. but even after installing that and all the microsoft libraries that it said i needed the original pages (and some pages that mono linked to as examples) were still telling me i needed to install silverlight.

Yeah, 4OD is really clunky but, unlike iPlayer, stuff is on there for months. For 'ever', really. I watched the final episode of The Devil's Whore again, from last year. Then watched Adam & Joe from a decade ago.
The drawback to it is that all the content is Ch4 therefore: so much crap featuring Justin Lee Collins/Alex Zane/Alan/Jimmy Carr ect. to wade through.

well you don't have to watch it (i know what you mean really, they should organise the lists better and FFS no-one wants to watch Captain Butler again)

I keep forgetting: having sullied my beautiful Mac with a Windows partition, I guess I could actually watch 4OD stuff now. Then again, nobody's saying anything that would make me want to.

Last thing I watched on iPlayer was the Wallace and Gromit Christmas thing (me and the rest of the iPlaying country, according to the stats). Last thing before that ... can't remember. One of those resources I like the idea of but actually seldom use.

Good idea for a thread, though.

iplayer wishlist:ALL episodes of Shooting Stars, Top Of The Pops, Later with Jools, some if not all Doctor Who, DEF II archive (to include Standing Room Only)

OK, the Book Group is on 4oD. WIN!

Here's Prog Rock Britannia, available until Tuesday. (In future, we'd be well served to put expiry dates next to any programmes linked, I think - seems polite)

There's a fair amount of accompanying material, too: Prog at the BBC, which is archive performances from all kindsa people (expires Wednesday), a live performance of Tubular Bells from 1974 (Tuesday), and documentaries about Pink Floyd and Genesis.

Maureen Lipman Night on BBC Four last night - unfortunately, the only bit that's on iPlayer is her interview with Mark Lawson, so you'd have to source the other stuff (Re: Joyce!, Eskimo Day, Funny Women [a profile from (I think) 1997])... elsewhere. The Lawson interview's still worth a watch though. (until Sunday)

More luck with their Roy Orbison stuff from Friday, though: Legends has him being eulogised about by Bono and Elvis Costello and various Travelling Wilburys, amongst others; A Black & White Night is a concert from shortly before he died (I think) featuring him playing his hits alongside Elvis Costello, Tom Waits and some other people. Both til Friday.

yeah, he was still alive then.

Tried to get Eskimo Day - finally on and BBC4 plays up. Sigh.

One of the best things on BBC iplayer curently - Rick Stein looks back. Seriously. Lovely stuff about Keith Floyd, violence in early 70s Cornwall and (best of all) shots of Stein Snr.'s lovely house wot he built, Polventon near Padstow (until Wednesday night).

Which has worn better than Rick himself.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3389/3183943253_c872d72915.jpg

try t h e b o x dot bz

xpost

yeah the Stein thing was good for making Keith Floyd seem like the greatest person who has ever lived.

I thought I'd give the first episode of The Diary of Anne Frank a go. Ended up watching the entire 5 episodes back-to-back, follwed by the Anne Frank Remebered doco. So good.

Episode 1 of Anne Frank can be found here, and there's links for the other four down the bottom. All are available until 6.30pm Friday. The BBC Four documentary about her is also available until Friday night.

Rick Stein's Memoirs are here until Wednesday.

One thing I've just noticed - if you download rather than stream the programmes, then they're yours to watch for a month.

You using the standalone Mac player, then, WBS? Is it any good? The basic impression I'd got was "don't bother".

Whoa; I didn't know about the Anne Frank series. We watched the doc on BBC4 and were both wiping away the tears at Miep Gies.

Is the Anne Frank thing just going to make me cry like a little girl? I'm not sure if I should watch it tbh, even though it looks very good.

Grim - I haven't actually tried it yet, I know they've only introduced it recently. I'm on a PC at work at the moment, and I spotted the information in the corner of the page.

The Anne Frank adaptation is the first to have the rights to use the actual words from the diary. It's the definitive version imo. It's excellent; funnier than you might expect, and the casting is spot on, esp the girl who plays Anne. The final episode, of course, is heartbreaking.

Just to be a pedant: the diary's the only 'definitive version' pls.

/Ozick

> Episode 1 of Anne Frank can be found here

and is repeated on real tv next month.

because i waited until the weekend to watch all of them the announcement about the documentary came too late for me to do anything about it (and i can't watch it here at work...) so hopefully that'll get a repeat too.

> Is the Anne Frank thing just going to make me cry like a little girl?

probably only the last 30 seconds.

> Just to be a pedant: the diary's the only 'definitive version' pls.

to be more of a pedant there was more than one version of the diary - she rewrote it when she realised its importance. plus there is the fact that it has been translated from the dutch. and the fact that the first versions censored a lot of the peter-related stuff, from what i hear.

All true; but the full, un-edited version was released in 1981(I think?), and leaving aside issues of translation (duly noted), there's a difference between what she wrote and any adaptation, no matter how faithful.

That's right. Of course, I meant the definitive - most authentic - adaptation. But anyway.

8) i only really brought those things up as i've just found out about them myself. and also that the attic was pretty much a small house in itself.

odd also that the 3 main adult women were all played by people better known for comedy parts - two of them were in 'shaun of the dead' for instance...

I found the Daily Show on 4OD the other day. Dammit if it isn't funny - it may or may not have gone downhill recently, but it's still awfully good. It reminds me in tone of what Have I Got News For You USED to be like, funny and entertaining as well as being really quite angry at what's happened.

to be fair, on good weeks HIGNFY is still exactly like that. unfortunatly, it all depends, not only on the week's news but whether the guest is a smug cunt like clarkson or not as well.

Daily Show's an interesting mention for this thread actually - their entire archive is viewable for free online. Even in the UK. Every single item that's been on the programme since 1999 is up there. This also used to be true of the Colbert Report. But not any more, cos FX won't let non-satellite viewers watch the show.

BBC Four has re-shown the three-part documentary series The Department Store tonight; each episode being a behind-the-scenes look at three independent department stores across the UK, think it was originally shown late last year. Episode one is up here, and will be followed by the other two later on (until next Monday night).

the dept. store is def worth a look (ep.2 is the best)

also worth a look is bbc2's show on city traders from last night; can't wait for the second part

I keep forgetting: having sullied my beautiful Mac with a Windows partition, I guess I could actually watch 4OD stuff now

HOLY COCKSUCKING FUCKBASTARDS. I've just spent the best part of TWO MOTHERFUCKING HOURS trying to set up the balanitic bell-end of a cocksucker that is the Five on-demand player. After some staggering Windows-related cunt-arsery (eventually I resorted to downloading the appropriate .exe file on my other Mac and swiping it across on a USB stick) and the usual DRM-related pish, I got it going ...

... only to find that the free stream is unwatchably jerky. Received web wisdom (ie Digital Spy) suggests this is a universal problem caused by Five using a ZX-81 as their primary server, and the only way to get round it is to watch shit at 4am.

Returning to Mac OS and iPlayer after that little debacle is ... ah, fuck it, you can work out a metaphor for yourself. I'm off to pour myself a stiff drink. What a waste of an evening.

best mac client for iplayer is "iplayer grabber"

I installed windows to play system shock 2 and it was a ballache

system shock 2 is amazing tho, you should try that grimly

(xxpost) I take heed of Adam Faith's (alleged) last words "Channel Five's all shit, isn't it?"

'All the Young Dudes: Pop and Fashion' - Writer Paul Morley takes a journey back through time to revisit his own adventures and misadventures in fashion and meets the pop stars who he feels are responsible for the way he looks now.

Interested to know what anyone made of thos.

I think we recorded it. Which means I'll probably get round to watch it in 2013.

responsible for the way he looks now.

Which would be a grumpy middle aged man at M&S? (not that I can really comment, as I look like a grumpy approaching-middle-aged man at M&S)

I liked it a lot. He got a different kind of discussion with New Order/Tricky/Phil Oakey etc which was a bit deeper than the usual q&a you see on TV and an interesting way to think about fashion.

I watched a iPlayer-linked Lauren Laverne/Stuart Maconie 60s fashion programme straight after - and it was dull, tired, uninspired stuff in comparison.

I hate the way 4OD sometimes stalls and then you have to go back to the start and watch ads AGAIN because they cocked up.

Dear 4oD user,

You may have seen or heard rumours in the press about changes to 4oD. As a valued 4oD user we thought we'd let you know exactly what this will mean for you and help clear up any confusion.

No doubt you're already aware that you can watch 4oD Catch-Up on our new improved channel4.com (and if you haven't tried it yet, what are you waiting for?). All the content is streamed which makes it really easy to use, you shouldn't need to download anything - simply find what you want to watch and hit "Play". Oh, and non-Windows users will be pleased to know that 4oD Catch-Up on channel4.com is now Mac and Linux compatible.

From around the end of June you'll also be able to watch all our archive programmes on channel4.com. Which means all your favourites will be in one place and available for free.

Of course you're welcome to use your 4oD application until then if you prefer, although you may find that you are no longer able to download or rent some programmes or films. However you may be interested to know that many popular 4oD programmes are available to buy and keep on itunes.

i wish things were kept longer on iplayer. i wanted to watch the death of respect docus they had on bbc 2 but theyre already gone. with 4od, you can watch programs dating back to the 90s (was *amazed* to see lipstick on your collar on there). with the iplayer, youll be lucky if its there after a week.

THAT'S BECAUSE CHANNEL 4 IS FUCKING SHIT

no. thats what makes channel 4 better.

4od's huge archive is the only thing it has over iplayer. the adverts are really annoying.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m10hz/BBC_Proms_2009_Prom_22_A_Celebration_of_Classic_MGM_Film_Musicals/

Until next Saturday night. The singing stars from the classical and musical theatre worlds include Seth MacFarlane (from 1.10.40) looking a bit orange.

When I try using new 4od, 75% of the time shows don't load the 'watch now' sign next to the description to click on and... umm... watch the shows, making it useless even having the website.

New CBBC series Roy. Only 12 minutes in, but it's pretty good so far. (til Wednesday)

^^^Just watching this with the kids - very amusing.

Some good stuff in last night's How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin doc. Particularly the anti-Beatles propaganda from 1966:

Look how elegant they are! But when they started their career they performed wearing wearing only swimming trunks and toilet seats round their necks. Then they met a kind fairy - London dealer Brian Epstein.

um, that's pretty damn accurate! (apart from the "London" bit)

I didn't know that about the swimming trunks! Why did they do that?

Perhaps I will stop listening to them.

Entertaining the Hamburg off-duty sailors, the nutcases!

I hope that outfit is in the new Beatles Guitar Hero game.

Yes, you start with the swimming trunks, and after successfully firing Stu, you get the toilet seat. Then you back Wally the drummer on a version of "Fever", and get leathers. And so on.

(I'm improvising a better game now, aren't I?)

"Brazil" is on through Tuesday night

"Point Break" (courtesy onimo) is on thru this Sunday night

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dtjjp/Point_Break/

I was just about to post that. God bless 'em, I stayed up way too late watching it and still went to bed before it was done. How often do they make films available? I'd never noticed it before.

whenever they get the rights, it's pretty random

Wouldn't happen know if they're available on iplayer on Virgin's cable package would you/ Tbh I can just check when I get home but I missed the second hour or so of this last night so would like to finish it off.

*(/ = ?)

s/\//\?/ i think you mean

Upt0eleven i'm pretty sure everything that's on regular iPlayer is also on Virgin's set-top box version

unless there has been a "problem"

hmm, couldn't find it last night. maybe there's a separate section for films but it wasn't immediately apparent.

i use get_iplayer which is a command line version for downloading stuff and Point Break is still listed there:

koogs> ./iplayer_1_19 -l point
Matches:
494: Point Break - Point Break, BBC One, Drama,Films,Action & Adventure,Guidance,TV, , default, 0 days 0 hours ago -
An undercover cop, pursuing a gang of bank robbers, is seduced by the LA surf scene.

along with 5 episodes of Pointless...

Does anyone else get this regularly on 4od where the PLAY NOW button doesn't load, rendering the whole thing useless?

http://burythehammer.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/alan2.jpg?w=510&h=382

;_; at 4od not wanting me to watch the shows they put online. Thought I'd check out Being Erica but it is doing ^^^ again. It really cannot be that hard to have part of your website load after the fifth refresh?

is Adblock causing the problem? tried IE?

Well it worked after the 8th refresh or whatever. But it was doing this pre- whenever I got adblock aswell.

YouTube, Channel 4 sign pioneering long-form content deal

October 15 2009: YouTube and Channel 4 have signed a pioneering content deal which will make the broadcaster’s original programmes available on demand, in full and free-of-charge via YouTube in the UK in the coming months.

The strategic partnership marks the first time that a broadcaster anywhere in the world has made a comprehensive catch-up schedule available on YouTube, providing Channel 4 with additional advertising inventory and reach: YouTube last week announced it was serving over 1 billion video streams every day.

Under the terms of the deal, Channel 4 will make its 4oD video-on-demand ‘catch-up’ service of new programmes available via YouTube shortly after television transmission, including series that have already proved particularly popular with online audiences such as Skins, Hollyoaks, The Inbetweeners and Peep Show. YouTube users will also be able to access around 3,000 hours of full length programming from the Channel 4 archive at any given time, including shows like Brass Eye, Derren Brown, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Teachers and many others.

Content will begin appearing in the coming months and be fully available in early 2010. All programmes will be available only in the UK, free-of-charge supported by advertising.

Financial terms are not being disclosed, but the partnership runs for an initial term of at least three years and the two parties will share advertising revenues on an agreed formula. The deal will create significant value for Channel 4 and its independent production partners, generating additional revenue to invest in creating high quality, original content. YouTube and Channel 4 will continue to co-operate on additional monetisation opportunities as new technology evolves.

Channel 4 will have a branded presence on YouTube and will be able to sell advertising around its content on the site. The agreement also allows Channel 4 to sell advertising around some non-Channel 4 content on YouTube for the first time, expanding the amount of inventory available to its sales team and bringing its considerable expertise in advertising around full length TV content to the YouTube platform. It will help Channel 4 develop its advertising sales proposition in digital, including the use of YouTube’s demographic targeting tools to target advertising against Channel 4 content on YouTube.

The deal builds significantly on Channel 4 and YouTube’s existing partnership; Channel 4 was the first broadcaster to sell pre-roll advertisements on YouTube clips and to incorporate an offline sponsor into an online YouTube package (Lucozade, Big Brother).

The deal is non-exclusive, allowing Channel 4 to continue distributing its 4oD service via its own website, channel4.com, and other third party sites and services.

Nikesh Arora, President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development for Google, YouTube’s owner, said: “Over the past few years, fans have had access to increasing amounts of professional programming online as TV companies experiment with new ways of distributing their content. Channel 4 have been visionary in their online strategy and are consistently at the forefront of new uses of YouTube to engage their viewers and unlock new revenue streams. This significant new agreement brings Channel 4’s great full length content to the YouTube community, helping Channel 4 to grow their online revenues and to continue to invest in the creation of high quality original content.”.

Andy Duncan, Channel 4’s Chief Executive, said: “Channel 4 was the first broadcaster anywhere in the world to make all its commissioned content available online and we’ve consistently pioneered in this field. This strategic partnership is another important milestone for us and we’re delighted to be combining the power of the ‘4’ brand and the appeal of our content with YouTube’s unrivalled reach and reputation online.

“Making our programmes directly accessible to YouTube’s 20 million UK users will financially benefit both Channel 4 and our independent production partners and help bolster our investment in quality British content. It demonstrates our ability to strike dynamic commercial partnerships to help underpin our future as a commercially funded, not-for-profit multi-platform public service network.”

Jon Gisby, Director of Future Media and Technology at Channel 4, added: “Channel 4 has a clear lead among commercial broadcasters in video-on-demand and we’re convinced extending our relationship with YouTube will help consolidate that position. The deal will grow our share of the audience and enhance our advertising sales proposition. It will create new advertising inventory for Channel 4 Sales in digital media and will help us realise our ambition to be the UK’s leading sales house for video-on-demand.”

Patrick Walker, YouTube’s Director of Partnerships, added: “We know that the YouTube community is enthusiastic about full-length programming on the site, and we’ve been working hard to create the right environment for more broadcasters to make their content available with the right branding, the right advertising formats and the right level of control over advertising sales. This partnership demonstrates our commitment to bringing an even greater range of content to YouTube and we look forward to other similar agreements to come.”

Starter For 10 on there; very much worth watching.

also Good Night, and Good Luck

and the notorious betty page. shame these are movies I only kinda wanna watch, as i'm undoubtably only going to get around to it when they are no longer there.

"Our servers are too busy. Please try again later."

Fucking BBC. I pay my telly license to WATCH/LISTEN to the bbc not wait around for it to be less busy at some other time.

cunt bags gonna make me watch itv or something and then kill myself for watching itv.

"BBC iPlayer is down for maintenance. We'll be back shortly."

Loving the Anish Kapoor programme (even though i bet it contributed to my having to queue longer to get in the exhibition)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p00f2/Imagine_Winter_2009_The_Year_of_Anish_Kapoor/
Until Dec 22nd.

Yes, it was superb. Kicking myself that I didn't make plans to get to the exhibition, Ned I can only assume it was even more stunning in real life? And was the wax cannon thing in action or were those firings done before the opening?

Cannon is fired during exhib but you have to queue separately. And you only get to see the impact if you are standing in the middle of the v crowded viewing area, otherwise you get the loud bang of the firing and that's it. Bit of an anticlimax imo.

I went yesterday afternoon and didn't have to queue for the cannon, it was quite crowded but I got a good view. The guy firing the cannon was really ramping up the tension I thought, I enjoyed it immensely. I enjoyed the whole thing, but I've been a complete Kapoor stan for so long I can no longer make any proper judgements.

i missed that C4/YouTube story completely. great news.

BBC pull your finger out re old programmes (charge if you must, would rather that that bother buying DVDs)

Doh, Starter For 10 is gone now. Disappointed.

Pretty great ep of Newsnight last night. The initial roundtable about Cameron's latest racist bullshit was astonishing - the completely looniness of the Tory spokesman, the complete uselessness of Ed Balls, the twists and turns over who had the upper hand, and Paxman in full-on Paxman mode:

http://bbc.co.uk/i/p6bq8/

the completely looniness of the Tory spokesman

Paul Goodman! He was actually drooling at one point I'm sure. Also glasses on or off, man!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2579/4135670103_65d7b61a29.jpg

I can't believe he's from my generation. Chair of the FCS when I was at poly and during their "Hang Mandela" phase. Not exactly the cuddly side of the Conservative party.

And again

BBC iPlayer is down for maintenance. We'll be back shortly.

seems to be down a bit recently

limmy's show. this was excellent. the a-ha sketch had me howling with laghter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pzfp8/b00pzfm0/Limmys_Show_Episode_1/