A little bit of weekend fun: Kojak in Brum

Posted by PaulB on 10 May 2008 - 12:38pm.

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"This video is not available in your country"

Huh? What is this? The latest salvo in the the Anglo-Spanish Eurovision 68 Revisionist War?

Archie Valparaiso | 10 May 2008 - 1:02pm

Congratulations

It was posted on youtube by the BBC to go with a radio documentary - maybe they're adhering to international licensing issues? If so I can only apologise on behalf of our corporation.

As was pointed up on the podcast, after all the Genralisimo's dark and dirty deeds from the Civil War onwards - they finally get him for fixing Eurovision. If it had come out at the time our most celebrated bachelor might have toppled a regime and cocked a smirking snook at every radical posing rock star of the period, not to mention Bono and Thom. As it is at the very least there should be some tit for tat diplomat expulsions before the end of next week. But really, did your TV documentary makers have to humour our Peter Pan of Pop in quite such a way, he's unbearably sanctimonious at the best of times. Surely one day he'll find the right girl and settle down - without offending his female fans or the man upstairs.

Trust you're having a good day.

PaulB | 10 May 2008 - 1:28pm

Normal service will not be resumed shortly

Ah, if it's the Beeb it's the weird restriction of their iPlayer at work. (Weird because it doesn't apply to "Listen Now" or any of their other content. I can listen to their radio but not watch their telly. And I occasionally paid my licence fee for over 15 years for this?)

Archie Valparaiso | 10 May 2008 - 5:51pm

A good cause

I'm freelancing for the BBC at the moment Archie, so maybe some of it's gone on my wages!

From what I can see, people like yourself (paid the license fee for years, then live abroad) are a pretty small constituency for the Beeb. Feeling is that Johnny Foreigner should pay for the BBC stuff he gets or get it with adverts - which does go a little against th Beeb's original mission to 'educate, inform and entertain' all nations, 'spreading British democratic values' in the traditions of World Service radio. Truth is, the Beeb needs the income from ad revenue and DVD sales outside the UK, squeezed financially as it is due to political shenanigans here and lobbying from the likes of Murdoch (who wants the BBC to have it's wings clipped in any market he hopes to dominate).

Also, the BBC often doesn't own the non UK rights (or world wide web rights) to programmes they put out. Paying for those up front would render some things too expensive to make. I get caught out on this using archive footage and music performances in programmes. With the advent of web distribution the copyright holders have become a lot less open to haggling with the likes of me. I can see their point, they can tell me to go away and make more money licensing their archive globally or in each territory. The result is if I want a programme to be seen internationally then what I can buy with the archive collumn of the budget plummets completely.

Through the magic of the uploading community several of my programmes are on youtube. Of course I can't condone this, it's just a fact of life in the web age - though I did notice the odd one's been taken down when one of the copyright holders of a piece of archive included in it has got wind of it and complained.

PaulB | 11 May 2008 - 11:54am

HYPOCRITES

The whole Cliff thing is really funny.But the Spanish have short memories. A couple of years back when OT(Spanish Pop Idol) winner Rosa De España didn't win Eurovision,The Media and population went mental and ckaimed it was a fix and anyone caught cheating should be banned especially the Baltic states who they claimed were behind it all.The build up was that Rosa would walk it. The Spanish are like this with everything they can't believe it when they don't win, be it Football,Eurovision or it's a Knockout.They tried to tick all the boxes.Disco beat,Chorus in English and a song about Eurovision.it was Crap,see for yourselves
What goes around comes around Eh ?

paul beard | 10 May 2008 - 11:24pm

If Telly Savalas really

If Telly Savalas really visited the West Midland Police Motorway Control Unit as he claims, then where Mr so called BBC documentary film maker, is the footage? Is this yet another example of the corporation cruelly misleading its viewers? A royal flounce has nothing on this.

Andy Lynes | 11 May 2008 - 4:03pm

It's been very cleverly edited

to make it seem like he wasn't there. And the bald head helped him blend in.

PaulB | 14 May 2008 - 9:33am