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Why is Holby City being axed?

Are they making space for a bigger EastEnders Set? Or will they film stuff like Star Wars at Elstree again?
ArishMell · 70-79, M
Very sad really. The theory was that opening up broadcasting as widely as possible woulod encourage new talent and quality; but no-one thought far enough ahead to realise even without the Internet, it would simply dilute everything and drag it all down to cheap and cheerful at best.

Look what happened with commercial radio. Short of becoming a rich tapestry of local stations, as envisaged, it sank into just a few, small central studios tacking together pop-singles play-lists to please the adverising-agencies. The local station simply adds some local news and advertising.

And they won't learn. The Govt. want to privatise Channel Four for no clear reasons, and have admitted no objection to selling it abroad. To whom? Disney? Murdoch? RT? China's broadcasting service?

People who learn I have no TV recover from their surprise then often say, "You're not missing much!"
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@VirginMatchmaker My parents held out for years until our uncle bought them a google-box as a Christmas present! I would watch certain programmes by choice, a few others now and then for relaxation; but over the years I watched less and less. That was by my losing, not due to any drop in programme choice and quality. (Though I did not like the way that the style of worthwhile programmes like [i]Horizon[/i] was being cheapened more and more by the media-studies types!)

Once I bought my own home I did not bother with a TV and have never bothered since, even though I know that as entertainment goes the the TV Licence is ridiculously cheap for what it buys - less than a pint of ale a week. I listen to the radio instead, and that quite selectively, [i]Radio Times[/i] to hand as the only listing magazine that knows there are such things as radio programmes.
VirginMatchmaker · 46-50, M
@ArishMell I've not seen a Radio Times in years. I hardly ever listen to radio, actually today I've not watched any TV at all. But I do have a tendency to watch videos on YouTube, especially for stuff I don't know how to do. It's very good for instructions.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@VirginMatchmaker I did start watching [i]YouTube [/i]videos cited on a forum dedicated to one of my interests - with the caveat that [i]YT[/i] can be addictive!

I gave up though because althougth I did see some very interesting rather than instructive ones, its owner, Google, has ruined the service. Once you've managed to circumvent its barriers designed to make you obey its advertising-agency clients, it ruins the videos themselves with irrelevant, peurile ad breaks every minute or so. You can "skip" the ads but only after they have run for about 10 seconds, it is not always easy to tell if the break is a simple interruption or has cut out part of the video, and you cannot stop them in the first place.

I say "rather than instructive" because correspondents on the forum concerned, for a creative hobby, sometimes warns of them showing poor and occasionally even dangerous workshop practices.

My radios spend their time on BBC Radio Three or Four with occasional forays into Two. I don't listen to One and Five. To know properly what will be on though, and to obtain details about the programmes, you do need a listings magazine and [i]RT[/i] seems to be the only one that includes radio. The rest, and the newspapers, assume "We all" only ever watch TV. The most they offer for radio are times and titles. No previews. No information, not even clues to the programmes's subjects.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
Not for one an idea I had for an [i]EastEnders[/i] tale...

(One of my girfriends enjoyed it. I didn't, and used to call it [i]Deadenders[/i]. Around the same time, our Mam enjoyed what I nick-named [i]Corrosion Street[/i]).

If it's not already been done:

The area's residents are served with notice that the borough council is going to "regenerate" it. One way of writing the serial out of existence.

(What made me think of that? A telephone conversation with a friend facing that situation for real, in Wembley.)
VirginMatchmaker · 46-50, M
@ArishMell I've no idea who lives on them, although I'd suspect it's young professionals who once commuted.
The town I'm from has been turned into a commuter belt as all it's industry has been sold off. Now it's just homes and a Metrolink station able to take them anywhere in Greater Manchester except for Bolton lol. They built houses on the original line there and so now can't put a tram in lol. Somebody obviously had foresight!
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@VirginMatchmaker I have seen an allegation that when British Railways closed many lines in the 1960s, it sold key areas of land to prevent any future re-opening.

I know one case of that rapid sale, obliterating both ends of a branch line that served among things an RN base now a commercial port. I do not know though, if this was general practice and if so, was by BR policy, Government decree or indeed if the allegation was true!

Foresight? Most of 'em wouldn't be able to spell it...
VirginMatchmaker · 46-50, M
@ArishMell Yeah they wouldn't know how to spell it. The Beeching Report was a disaster for infrastructure. Only now can they see how misguided it truly was.
Is the RN base Portland as I know that's now commercial rather than RN.
Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
@VirginMatchmaker I think it’s fair to say the tv market for Doctor and Cop dramas has been [b]MASSIVELY[/b] over-saturated the last fifty years !

What’s truly sad is that we’ve lost some of the best drama writers over the last ten years.
Jimmy McGovern; Alan Bleasdale; Lynda La Plante….. and because tv is now so fragmented into online satellite; cable; streaming….terrestrial tv is unlikely to invest in new writing
VirginMatchmaker · 46-50, M
@Picklebobble2 yeah I agree it's been massively saturated. Can you remember yet another one Holby Blue! Funnily enough ai enjoyed the first series and the second I turned off as did the BBC lol.

I think there's a lot of diluted TV because there's not enough decent writers to go around. Even in the 80s we still only really had 4 channels until Sky and BSB came about. The satellite companies were churning out dreadful TV.

Although I did personally enjoy Men and Motors and Live TV lol.
Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
@VirginMatchmaker I remember topless darts at one point 😅
VirginMatchmaker · 46-50, M
@Picklebobble2 Oh yeah the joys. Although I'm sure they couldn't do that now because it's politically incorrect.
Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
Expensive to make given that the BBC has a declining audience share.

Netflix; More-4 and Amazon tv are stealing more of what was virtually their exclusive domain for the better part of the last 70 years.
VirginMatchmaker · 46-50, M
@Picklebobble2 very true lots of things have changed in relation to how we watch TV especially since the internet. Holby is one of their best rated shows so it doesn't make massive sense. Although they do rehash story lines. I used to watch it wherever I was once upon a time but now I've not watched it in 2 years. Other things in TV have taken it's place.
Not diverse enough apparently.
They are not axing Casualty!
VirginMatchmaker · 46-50, M
@TheSirfurryanimalWales Casualty should've been axed long ago imo.

 
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