Britain From Above

Has anyone else been watching it? I've just got round to watching the first 2 episodes, and I think it's a fascinating show. It was interesting to see how and why London has(n't) really changed over the years. I'm just sorry I missed them on BBC HD.

Here's the website, I don't think the clips will be viewable outside the UK though.

 

I watched the first one when it was re-shown on Sunday. I wanted to be fascinated and amazed and awe-inspired. But I didn't care much for Andrew marr's narration or the tone of the narration. To me it was all a bit doom-laden and critical. I throught the insight into London's nooks and crannies was really interesting, though. Other than that I won't be watching again because it was all a bit negative for me.

 

huh... I didn't get that sense at all. What exactly did you feel he was being critical about?

 

It's not. I tried anyway though, just to torture myself I guess.

Looks pretty neat in any event.

 

I was thinking it seemed negative in the way it was describing loads of lorries on the roads and the overworked public transport system, the over crowded skies and the mass of humanity on the move relentlessly. To me it seemed like the country, the systems and everything was struggling to cope and there was something intrinsictly wrong with it all (in that typically British we're-so-crap vibe the BBC are so good at, I feel). I was hoping the tone would have been more upbeat and optimistic and amazed by how all this happens everyday and how amazing our systems are to cope and how remarkable all this is rather than a kind of mysoginistic inevability to it all. It could be that I associate Andrew Marr with critical interrogation and so when I hear his voice that's what I associate his voice with. Anyway, whether it's my perception or not I won't be watching again. Depressed the hell out of me, when I wanted the opposite.

 

To be honest, I felt he was describing exactly why it was rubbish, rather than condemning it for being so. Such as the railway tracks being hemmed in by city growth, the historical narrow streets, and city plans that grow through necessity rather than strict planning etc.

I'm kinda wondering what you mean by the part I bolded though...

 

Where did misogyny come into it?

I've only seen the London episode. Fascinating stuff.

 

That's misogyny.

Thank you.

I think he meant something else, myself.

 

Fixed.

It's far too early in the fucking morning to expect me to spell masoguny, exostenshal or antidisestablishmentarianusm properly.

 

Ah dry yer eyes and have another coffee.

 

<----- **WIRED**
(o) (O)
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/-----\

 

Why don't American networks allow people to watch their content outside the US?

 

Nope, well sometimes you get to see trailers or whatever, but that's about it.

Here's some of the footage that was on the news.

And here's some more.

 

Maybe it's a bandwidth thing - I should imagine that the BBC website has a lot of visitors, so limiting streamed video could be a way of preventing server problems.

Or something.

On-topic:
I liked it. Pretty cool stuff. And yes, it was downbeat at times. Typical BBC indeed.

 

The short answer is because we pay the license fee, and thus fund the service.

 

I always thought it was a copyright thing. How can you hope to sell rights if everyone can access it anyway?

 

Andrew Marr is unlikely to have the Cheggers approach, is he?