Media Guardian: BBC4 to explode myths of 60s TV
Just how this will be handled should prove to be very interesting, since it is very difficult to subjectively and accurately compare the television output of the 1960s versus today; for one thing you have to take into account advances in technology as well as changes in attitudes and social structure along the way. A crude "highbrow" versus "lowbrow" programming argument simply won't work and conversely a greater choice of channels may not result in a 'better' choice of programming either.
No doubt some will say that for every "Civilization" there was an "Emergency Ward 10" (true) and others will equally argue that "Walking With Dinosaurs" was a better history teacher for the masses than any number of 'stuffy' documentaries which people only tolerated back in the days when there was only two or three channels, but there are also changes in general programme presentation to consider as well.
Regardless of how well the debate will be handled - it's on BBC Four so it should be handled better than most - this forthcoming Summer in the Sixties season on BBC Four appears to be very interesting and I for one will look forward to watching much of it.
