I've arrived at the farm I stay on near Lyme Regis, and it's mid-evening. Outside it's windy with the odd rain shower, but in my caravan it's cosy.
I noticed that the 4G signal was good, so I tried tethering phone and laptop together with a USB cable, and it worked beautifully. So this post is coming to you from a farmer's field exposed to the wild elements. How amazing is that?
It's only a short post this time.
I was trying to locate BBC 4 TV at home last night, so that I could watch Professor Mary Beard present a programme about Julius Caesar. I have a satellite dish and a Sky TV box, leftovers from when Dad subscribed to an extensive package from Sky up to May 2009, before he died. Dad had had the full sports package, as he loved his golf and snooker. It had cost him over £40 a month - that would be around £60 a month in today's money. Of course I stopped this at once after I took over as executrix. Sky were sad to see me end the subscription, and hoped (in vain, as it turned out) that I'd reconsider at some future date. I could however keep the equipment: dish, box, and remote control. So I could still get all the Freeview channels - although I've found less and less reason to switch the TV on. I will do it to see something on culture and history; or the occasional special-interest programme that takes my fancy; or a film I want to see; or the odd detective drama series like Vera (for the stories) and Death in Paradise (for the characters).
Using the Sky box instead of a straightforward aerial transmission is actually a bit of a rigmarole, involving a lot of button-pressing. I have to turn the TV on, activate the Sky box, get up the Sky TV Guide, and then navigate to the channel I want. That navigation is very clunky, at least on my elderly equipment. Sometimes - with films, for example - I can get to the right channel faster if I select the 'Films' category and delve into the shorter list of channels there. With this in mind, I thought it might be quicker to locate Mary Beard's programme by selecting 'Lifestyle and Culture'. But Sky gave me only this:
That's right. No Culture on Sky TV. And this was not during the day, when non-serious, easy-to-watch programmes for obese couch potatoes predominate. This was after 9 o'clock at night, when relatively fit, alert, intelligent and educated grown-ups might wish to view more substantial fare. Not on Sky, though! Proof enough to me that Sky is incorrigibly lowbrow and populist, and not at all interested in commissioning programmes that could appeal to people who went to school. I dare say it's a rational commercial decision. Why alienate the air-headed mass audience? Let's face it, lively and fun though Mary Beard may be, the classical world of two thousand years ago is irrelevant to most people's lives, whatever its ongoing legacy.
Disgusted, but not really surprised, I went back to the 'All Channels' menu and found BBC 4, and the programme I wanted, with not too much scrolling. I was just in time to catch the start.
I've had a go at Sky, but have little doubt that all the other subscription TV services you can sign up to - Virgin, Amazon, BT are some that come to mind - have a no-nonsense business model that puts programming into a strait-jacket, with only output likely to be gawped at by millions of sofa-dwelling pizza-eaters being aired. Such as major football matches, programmes like (or based on) Top Gear, and the most popular sci-fi and fantasy dramas.
Limited-interest stuff, which would of course include everything to do with culture, is not funded. It can't bring in the viewers and the vital advertising revenue. So serious stuff gets left to the BBC. Just as well the Beeb has the Licence Fee to itself.
Back in February I did a post on what I might do if the BBC moved over to a subscription model too - would I be prepared to pay for much? I worked out that I'd want to see so little that my imaginary personal subscription, based on that little, would be much less than the current Licence Fee - and the Beeb would make a thumping loss on me (and indeed, all people like me). I'm thinking they know that, and have already done their sums. It would have seemed like looking into the Abyss. The once-proud Beeb would be dumbed down to no avail. It wouldn't survive in the face of all the slicker commercial competition already fighting in the bear pit.
Many people must have blessed the TV during the lockdown. But the special circumstances gave the various programme providers an excuse to churn out mountains of uninspiring vapidity. And it continues. Well, I can't be bothered with it.
