Skateboarding with a Ming vase Amidst controversy surrounding the massive job cuts and extensive reorganisation at the BBC announced yesterday by the DG, Mark Thompson last night delivered the New Statesman Media Lecture in which he placed the announcements in...

Although some of us were expecting some major reorgs at the BBC, including bits and bobs of something-or-other moving to Manchester, I am sure the loss of so many jobs came as a surprise to many people. I really don't...

Hello, and welcome to the latest updates to Electromusications. We have a spread of articles from across the Transdiffusion spectrum for you this time, kicking off with a piece by Louis Barfe about the first buildings in Britain that were...

Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats In what is evidently going to be a cracking good four-part series on 20th century composers who will be remembered in the future much as Beethoven, Mozart and Bach are today, Howard Goodall kicked off...

Hello, and welcome to the latest updates to Electromusications. As you may know, if you subscribe to some of the mailing lists about broadcasting history, television presentation and related topics, a couple of months ago Russ J Graham - overall...

Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief, BBC Four If you, like me, are of the opinion that the only documentaries that make it on to TV these days are those overloaded with oft-repeated CGI sequences and which re-state their meagre...

BBC digital channels 'poor value for money' Evidently I am one of not very many people, as the channel I watch most of all is BBC Four, criticised today in a report commissioned by Tessa Jowell from Professor Barwise of...

Former DG... blames 'dumb' programmes on women execs Much as one can admire Alasdair Milne (left, in a photo from some time ago) as a programme-maker (eg Tonight in the 50s) and for standing up to the Government (over coverage...

Reaching middle age, Horizon appears to have slowed down The current season of Horizon marks the 40th anniversary of what we must still, I imagine, regard as the BBC's flagship science and technology series. But what a shadow of its...

Big Brother in 'torture' row - MediaGuardian For the presumably small number of people who haven't made the connection already, the spectacle of reality television getting more and more horrendous - as is happening not only in Germany but arguably...

BBC news chief Sambrook moves job In what is presumably one of the final bits of fallout from the toxic nuclear waste (painted with whitewash to fool us, of course) that was the Hutton Report, comes the announcement from the...

BBC online services: redefining the remit "The BBC has just under four months to redefine the remit for its online services, the government has said. The Graf Report, commissioned by the government, also said at least 25% of the BBC's...

Avid readers of this occasional column will notice that it has been a while since we last looked in on the old Victorian mansion where Madame Arcati and our fellow sitters congregate to contact the spirits of our dear, and...

Early yesterday morning, we were surprised by a knock at the door. On stumbling downstairs and opening it, I was astonished to see Madame Arcati. She was so excited at having apparently perfected her Ectoplasmic Speaking Tube, thereby allowing direct...

Well, Madame Arcati still has some work to do on her apparatus for receiving voice messages from The World Unseen, if last night's efforts are anything to go by. Attempting, as we are wont to do, to contact the departed...

My nautical independent television pioneering, and, sadly, defunct correspondent Captain T.B. has chosen to indicate quite categorically to me, in the latest seance held in our front room yesterday evening with, as always, the invaluable intercedence of Madame Arcati, that...

Majority 'want change to TV fee' says ICM/Panorama poll According to the BBC's own research, aired on Sunday in "What's the Point of the BBC?", 70% of people in the UK (not necessarily viewers, by the way) would like...

BBC Charter Review - Your BBC, Your Say It has not received a vast amount of attention, but the fact is that not only is BBC Charter Review taking place, you can also take part in it, by making your...

Beyond the Charter - The BBC after 2006 "Far-reaching change is needed to enable the BBC to achieve its full potential," begins the press release announcing the publication of "Beyond The Charter", a report on the BBC by the Broadcasting...

Leaving aside for the moment the possibility that recently-leaked government documents might have oozed out deliberately to minimise their chances of ever coming to pass, the whole idea of breaking up the BBC along regional lines does not seem to...

Ouch! Unpleasant to listen to the unpleasant Lord Birt, unlamented late BBC DG, laying into the Corporation in the Lords this afternoon. When Dyke departed the other day, people cheered him and shook his hand; when Birt left some years...