Rare WW2 footage

I found this fascinating - a glimpse of life in a POW camp inside Britain during the Second World War:

BBC R&D new video podcast

Today we launch a new trial aimed at exploring new ways to create, edit and distribute online video. It's called R&DTV. We've done this in collaboration with colleagues in BBC Backstage, part of BBC R&D.

It's a pilot show, designed to be sharable, remixable and redistributable. It's released under a Creative Commons Attribution (Non-Commercial) licence, and looks at interesting tech stories inside and outside the BBC. The first episode features Nicholas Negroponte (talking about the OLPC project), Kevin Rose from digg.com, Graham Thomas from BBC Research and Ant Miller / George Auckland from the BBC discussing the BBC Micro. Hemmy Cho and Rain Ashford were the producers.

Strictly come confusion

Well done BBC Three

Sunday night on BBC Three was an absolutely fabulous live production based on the nativity of Jesus. Set in Liverpool, and featuring the music and landmarks of Liverpool, it was a wonderully creative and contemporary retelling of the lovely truth of the coming of the Messiah. Now there may be some trying to ridicule or rid Britain of biblical Christianity, but I think the message of hope and the love of God shined through this production. Knowing a little bit about production (just enough to be highly dangerous) I can say that this must have been a huge undertaking by the BBC, and I tip my hat to all involved. I was really glad that work colleague, Keith Partington, told me about this, and doubly glad that we have time-shifted television here.

It is on again over Christmas weekend on BBC One and BBC Three: details here

One thing I wonder if others noticed was the irony in using John Lennon songs, after he once declared the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, to announce the birth of Jesus.

BBC podcasts

Rose and I quickly became fans of BBC Radio 4 when we moved to Worthing - 'thinking people's radio' I have heard it called, and that sounds nice to us! People living around the world who cannot tune in to Radio 4 by terrestrial radio can get a great selection of their programmes via podcasts. Fancy hearing the longest running radio drama in Britian (maybe the world) - you can get The Archers via podcast now.

BBC policy is to make their programming available online for 7 days after broadcast, but if you subscribe via a podcast, you will get it and be able to keep the MP3 permanently. I always travel with a great selection of podcasts on my ageing but trusty old iPod mini, and having some good radio to listen to on demand in some pretty remote places, is always fun and often comforting.

Treasury of Information

BBC Radio 4 often has programmes based on new government documents recently released into the public domain, and that made me interested in looking at what the British National Archives has to offer. As expected, a great deal. There are many records that can be freely browsed, old government films, interesting timelines, and the like. For example, Sir Winston Churchill had a tough time in 1953 when trying to advise on who would become Regent if the young Queen Elizabeth II died. He was opposed to Prince Phillip and Princess Margaret, describing them both as unsuitable. Queen Elizabeth wanted Phil the Greek to succeed her (proof that Churchill was right, here). Also, there was a consideration that in post-war austerity, guests to the Coronation would be charged 16 Shillings a head to cover the costs. Churchill dismissed this as a 'shabby' idea.

BBC iPlayer

I am looking forward to the launch of the BBC iPlayer at the end of this month.

Although I have already played with Joost and 4oD, the internet TV services from the Skype people and Channel 4, I am hopeful that the BBC offering will win on content. And content is king as they say. Convergence of media is the buzz-phrase, and there is a helpful article on the future of TV on the BBC site.

Clive James has a Point of View

Clive James is an Australian relocated mostly to the UK whose work I have long admired. Writer, poet, documentary maker, speaker ... see his own understated website. At the beginning of this year he started presenting A POINT OF VIEW on BBC's Radio 4. You can read some of them here or listen to them here. Why do I like his work when he often sounds like a miserable and sarcastic fellow with a cautionary and typically Oz view of life? I guess it is because for the most part, whenever I listen to Clive or watch something he has done, it simply rings true. It often cuts through the PC nonesense that so occupies people's minds these days. I wish he would do something current on King Robert of Jongwe, aka Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

The man who gave his name to a city

Pietro Di Brazza, Italian explorer in the period just after David Livingstone,
is largely unknown as the man behind the name of the Congo capital, Brazzaville. He was a conservationist, believed in sustainable development, and wanted freedom and justice for Africans. Ideas many decades ahead of their time, for which he was largely shunned by political power in Europe. Reluctantly offered a heroe's funeral by the French, his wife declined and he was buried in Algiers. Now the Congolese are to fly his remains to Brazzaville, to honour an interesting and progressive man. See the full story from the BBC here.