I was pottering about the BBC archives web site when I came across a 1979 gem of a documentary on aerial archaeology. Digging from the Air is such a solid piece of scholarship and so lacking in any sort of pandering or condescension that I would have happily presented it to one of my university classes. It isn't afraid to assume a certain level of education and intelligence in an audience with an attention span greater than that of a hyperactive meerkat. It really feels like a film made by makers and scientists who genuinely want to teach something. I even learned some new things and I'm supposed to be an expert.It was a delightful nostalgia trip that took me back to the days that saw the start of my own archaeological career. It also showed how great the BBC once was and how far it has fallen from grace.
Today, if they made this programme at all, it would be full of fast cuts, shots of swooping aircraft, flashy CGI graphics, background music that irritates with its relentless pounding, a succession of talking heads who don't actually say anything, and an information content so minimal that one would suspect that the producers were ashamed of being caught teaching anything. If there were a presenter, he would be a very young man in very casual clothes, far too enthusiastic, have the gravitas of a fourteen-year old, have no idea what to do with his hands, and speak with a pronounced regional accent that is 80 percent affectation. Or it would be a very young woman with the put upon air of someone who'd far rather be doing better things, like documentaries on the plight of immigrant Muslim transsexual Hobbits in Notting Hill, and have a pronounced regional accent that is 100 percent affectation and impossible to understand.
Thank God for the BBC archive; a lifeline from a more civilised age.
6 comments:
Something I even notice watching Monty Python, which is not serious (not very serious, anyway), but takes for granted that the viewer has some background education, or at least recognizes certain names or works. When I was a child, being a grown-up seemed like less of an unskilled position.
Care to speculate wildly what happened?
Previous comment deleted for language. Remember, lads, that I try to keep up the thin pretense of this being a family friendly site.
Sorry for that. I'm sure there's been swearing on here before.
And now I have the hilarious image of a family sat around the computer, the pipe-smoking father reading aloud David's rants to the enjoyment of the two children before their bedtime.
"Papa! Please tell us the story about the disgusting and appeasing liberals again, it does so warm the heart!"
(Note: the post basically said, in a snarky tone, that civilisation is obviously spiralling towards a horrible anarchic chaos, and it's all the fault of the previous generations for inventing the television)
Oddly enough, statistics, which I have around here somewhere I'm sure, show that in many parts of the anglophone world, the relating of my rants have become the centre of many families' evenings.
And yet, with very few exceptions, it would still be better than anything produced in the United States.
I've hardly watched television since I started living on my own. It's an expensive luxury I can do without. Of the shows I do enjoy (Quite Interesting, Doctor Who, Mystery Scioence Theater 3000 and Mythbusters), I can watch 3 out of 4 online and without interruption.
I read so much more now.
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