Am I the only one that fails to grasp the excessive hyperbole that surrounds Dr.Who? With the new Dr coming in, Matt Smith seems to be everywhere, not least being paraded as some kind of kooky fashion icon by the increasingly smug Guardian newspaper.

I loved Queer As Folk, but via Dr Who, Russell T Davies seemed to get swiftly elevated to the level of genius, which put me right off him.
Equally David Tennant seemed to get elevated to level of a Shakespearean actor (literally via his much-hyped role in Hamlet, and figuratively, via the amount of attention he received, and the parts he was offered over winter 2009), and I can't honestly see the appeal; I didn't even think he was that good at playing the Doctor for a start: all knowing looks and purposefully raised eyebrows, lacking any sense of subtlety, and a bit too heavy on the camp.

Am I missing something or have the BBC just done a fine job of rolling the proverbial snowball of hype down the media mountain, and the Dr.Who franchise is now an unstoppable, self-propelled wrecking ball, crashing all the headlines? Is the series really that good, or even that popular? I tried watching it and was quite disappointed. Granted, as I'm in my late 30s and without kids I know I'm not the show's target demographic, but I was actually quite disappointed at how very average it was, in terms of look, feel and content.

Imagine a comedy show that's a bit like Little Britain. Only (much) funnier.

Imagine a show that has hints of Absolutely and League of Gentlemen.

Then imagine that it was written by a couple of Scottish blokes. And that they wrote Empty, which had the always good Gregor Fisher and Billy Boyle in it. Then imagine these same guys had written a cult internet comedy show about computer games called Consolevania. Now imagine that they star in this show too, and that it knocks everything on BBC3 into a cocked hat.

Now, can you imagine why the only bloody place the BBC are showing it is in Scotland (unless you do a manual search on iPlayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=Burnistoun)?

Get it on the network, now!

I’ve spent too much time in the past week reading comment boxes below 6Music stories across the Web. Two things have struck me: one a small point about perceptions, the other larger about the BBC’s future.

1) There are supporters of 6 who will suggest ditching Radio 3: after all, aren’t they catered for by Classic FM? This is the mindset you’re more accustomed to seeing from some classical devotees, for whom ‘pop’ is one great amorphous mass, indistinguishable. I’d thought this group was shrinking, at least partly for demographic reasons. But maybe the numbers are simply being added to the other side of the cultural canyon. Can most listeners to pop music no longer tell the difference between the outputs of Radio 3 and Classic FM? (As a side issue, many comments suggest that these people can’t tell the difference between BBC3 and BBC4.)

2) Leave aside for a moment the merits—or otherwise—of 6. The programmes that seem to crop up most often in defences are the likes of Maconie’s Freakzone. Despite the fact that it runs against the grain of my Larkin-influenced view of art, this is about as clear-cut an example of Reithian principles in action as it is possible to imagine in the area of pop—even if Reith himself would have hated every minute of it. But there is no big audience out there for it, even if it is the fanciful notion of avant-gardists everywhere that, y’know, if only people got to hear this stuff, they’d really love it. And radio is, relatively, cheap. The BBC is established on a contradiction of sorts, and one that for the last fifty years they managed to make work. But a poll tax/licence fee that is demanded from everyone coupled with a mandate to provide certain types of programming will, I feel, be the downfall of it soon.

I’d like a BBC. Probably, we all would. So we have to think about what we give it, and what we want from it, a little harder than we are at the moment.

Members of the Massive may enjoy this short film about the iconic opening titles to the BBC Arena series, inspired by their recent show on Brian Eno.

I've written a bit more about it on the BBC Music blog

BBC Parliament are re-running their 'Election 74' coverage at the moment - both on TV and streamed via the BBC website - and it's fascinating viewing. It's like stepping into an episode of 'Life on Mars' - one of the studio team lit up a cigar and had a sip of what looked very much like a whisky and coke a few minutes ago, and an OB reporter has just manhandled a housewife to try and get her to turn towards the camera. Whilst wearing a big camel coat.

Don't know whether anyone else in the Massive has been partial to a bite of Masterchef in the past, but last night I found myself initially rather pleased to have a news series back - then turned it off after fifteen rather grating minutes. Maybe it was the mood I was in, but I suspect not...

Okay, Masterchef is not Mad Men, Breaking Bad or The Wire, but over the last few years I've found it to be thoroughly entertaining, the acceptable face of the reality genre; once even breaking national speed limits to get myself home for one of the finals. The blend of cooking (always worth a watch), easy human interest (hooking the lizard brain), and the subsequent kitschy appeal of the Greg-John's double-act (natch) was just right for some feet-up, laugh along and smile jollyment.

However, tuning in last night I found it's somehow morphed into an artificially pumped, E-number-wired caricature of itself; has become overcooked, been over-seasoned... and other similar cooking analogies. Having aced its original 6pm BBC2 slot simply on the basis that it was fun, light and worked to a simple idea, now it's on prime-time BBC1 it evidently feels everything has to either run at a cranked-up eleven, or we won't pay any attention. The show starts at hysteria pitch, and just keeps pulverising for thirty intense minutes, rendering the whole experience not so much a marathon, but an endurance test of such intensity that I actually found it rather tiring.

Even the most plain contestant has to now admit in a frenetic montage of skills-to-140BPM-soundtrack that they've given up a major career in the city, sold their kids for saucepans and become a kitchen fundamentalist in search of the kind of head-chef position at Claridges that will "change their lives". Then, once we've been whipped breathless with the melodrama... said contestant dives straight out in the first round because they slipped Terminator Torode their "culinary twist" of olives in mashed potato.

Even if they do master the mash matrix, they then have to learn how to walk the streets of Greater London in slow tandem with their fellow contestants, in a scene akin to Reservoir Dogs.

By this point, fifteen minutes into a 90-minute show I had to turn it off - I felt like I was about to have a heart attack with the intensity of it all. Which is a shame, because, whether the producers realise it or not, Masterchef actually worked back on BBC2 because it was light entertainment. Now, it thinks its Spooks. And look what happened there. Again, every week became about walking around moodily as Earth turned towards yet another apocalypse. Why is it all getting so god-darned dramatic? Greg had us at "cooking doesn't get better than this", but it seems we've gone the way of American TV, where everything has to be borderline life-changing, or we won't feel a thing.

Shame, really.

Tonight, BBC4 has a Latin music theme.
The part that I will be Sky+ing (other recording methods are available) is Ry Cooder & The Chicken Skin Band, in a concert from 1977 recorded for The Old Grey Whistle Test

May I respectfully draw the attention of the Massive to the excellent videos from the recent Radio 2 Folk Awards. As well as Nanci Griffith above, there are performances by The Transatlantic Sessions and Cara Dillon together and separately, Lau, Martin Simpson, The Bad Shepherds, Dick Gaughan and Show of Hands. They're all here with a link to the full programme on iPlayer.

(full disclosure, this is a corporate post, I work for the BBC)

Is this the most cringiest campaign ever? Did someone there think it was a good idea? It's made my toes curl so badly I can barely walk anymore.

DON'T

Gentle viewer, I cast my eyes on this pearl last night. Cor blimey, it was way past bad acting to "Crossroads" standards. All that was needed was for Benny to arrive saying his head hurt. However what pushed the whole enterprise in to another zone was Leslie Ash as hospital big cheese. I swear the producers are going for comedy. Her lips were more ridiculouse than a circus clown. Is this possibly the best present example of seriouse soap as comedy?

Apparently JR is leaving the BBC the amount we've paid him I am surprised he's stayed so long and not wandered off to play tennis with Ricky Gervais and dust his Japanese robot collection.
So what will we miss now the great man has left:
The 4 puffs and a piano?
The tedious pointless interviews with American actresses where he seems to be alluding to anal sex almost from the word go?
His tame gimp Andy laughing at everything he says on his taped "saturday morning" radio show?
Surely not Film 2010 is it still on?
Anymore 14 Million pounds worth of gems to share?

My iPlayer Grabber can no longer 'grab' anything from the Beeb, the BBC iPlayer Desktop Player decided to load and function for the first time yesterday - all fine and dandy you may say but the playback is unwatchable unless you like watching stills with dialogue way out of sequence.

gear:
Mac G4, 2G RAM, Leopard 10.5.8

help is needed as I have to watch last Friday's Beautiful People and last night's Clement Freud In His Own Words

not close to a big M&S right now, but was intrigued by this development

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/30091/cello-iviewer-iplayer-tv-video

(video may not work). One thing I am curious about is how the TV displays the iPlayer, is it shown in a small window by default and only made full screen (but presumably at less than Freeview quality) if you choose ?

Also curious about Panasonic's Freesat PVR if anyone has/has played with, one of these ?

THIS time last week I posited Lord Bragg's 'In Our Time' as reason alone for the licence fee. Now, off my head on tea to stay awake, I offer another reason for paying £2 a week for Auntie: Andrew Graham Dixon's art series.
Watching his latest monumentally interesting and accessible show 'The Art of Russia' I am struck with the notion that he is the best factual presenter anywhere.
'The Art of Spain' was incredible and 'Travels with Vasari' ditto.
He is the best factual presenter on TV, bar none.
How can we put a price on programming that regularly brings us both AGD and IOT?