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Re: (TV) TV in England



--- Keith Allison <keith@marquee.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> In the 70s we only really had _one_ radio station for
> the whole country, and that was the BBC and thus state owned and thus
> not allowed to accept advertising. This is a very small island and word
> gets around pretty quick. I first heard a Television track on The Old
> Grey Whistle Test in '76 or so. It was the only nationwide music show on
> TV.

Keith, this leads me to my theory, formulated during a trip to London in 1988,
about why the British have such great taste in music (compared to their
American cousins): their choices in television (the box, not the band), another
popular form of mass entertainment, are nowhere near the options available in
the US. This has changed quite a bit since 1988, but on that visit, it was
almost impossible to find *anything* worth watching on the very limited number
of UK television stations. My dreams of all-day "Fawlty Towers" and BBC science
specials were rudely crushed. On the other hand, within walking distance of my
hotel there were several excellent music stores, many with selections of
available music that put my home record stores (Boston, at the time) to shame.
I wondered if the poor

Then again, c. 1991, "The Simpsons Sing the Blues" topped the UK charts for
many months, so perhaps the quality of UK television has improved since my
visit (commercially if not critically, to spare us a "UK TV is now like US TV
and US TV is the worst thing in the world after a slow painful death from
disease..." debate)

--Philip


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