Even in 2001, you'd have to have wondered what nutcase thought Savile was a workable caricature - or even reference point - for an audience of under-fives.

Even so, isn't the BBC taking self-flagellation to the extreme here? This is absolutely ridiculous.

Alderman Barnes wrote:


No, it's an appallingly stupid editorial decision by the CBeebies team. Making it in 2001 before it all came out is one thing. Putting in on this morning is unbelievably dumb. My jaw pretty much dropped when I saw it.

The BBC is going to have to treat a lot of the Savile parody stuff like it's radioactive. WWE and Chris Benoit springs to mind in terms of non-factual programming.

I'm out of the country so maybe I'm misjudging it, but it seems like a hysterical overreaction to me. Are they going to have to fine-comb their entire output in case it contains traces of Savile?

I think there's a difference between Savile in context and a parody, however innocent at the time, of a paedophile of huge proportions on a channel whose output is aimed squarely at kids. I have no doubt my daughter has no concept of Savile or sex but given the fearful pasting the BBC has taken over the affair you'd think they'd not hand fresh ammo to those who are less than complimentary about them at the best of times.

Alderman Barnes wrote:

I propose replacing 'Dieu et mon droit' with 'What will people say?!'

The 'mistake' is in mass-production of programmes and then turning kids' channels into conveyor belts of said product. I shouldn't think those closest to what is broadcast on CBeebies have much idea of the specific content of any of their shows, they trot them out so many times. I wouldn't have thought 'editorial decision' enters into it: '10am (or whenever) is Tweenies-time - give them some Tweenies'.

It was a daft mistake and worthy of no more than a slapped wrist, IMO. (But - like I said upthread - what were they thinking anyway?)

I'm with Jah. (heh!)

I strongly suspect that nobody checks the content of many programmes they re-run, and it was only after it was broadcast that anybody realised. Only an amoeba would have put that out if they had had any knowledge of what it contained.
'Tweenies series 2, Sun 10am slot, 13 programmes so that is 1/4 of the year covered. Sorted. Dig out the tapes would you, Susan?'

Alderman Barnes wrote:


Pretty much. The tape in question will now have a great big toxic label on, if it hasn't already been destroyed. And some poor sods will be spending the next few weeks watching everything that these channels are going to broadcast over the next year in case there is anything similar in them.

My kid was watching the show and I found it funny. I paused it and took a screengrab to show my friends for yucks. She complained at the inconvenience. She is 3 years old and has no idea who Savile was. She just thought Max was dressing up funny. Won't somebody think of the children?!?

indysleaze wrote:


Somebody did. Entirely too much...

I used to assume that someone was employed at the BBC to vet all recorded output that was repeated. Maybe that person went when the Beeb started cutting costs, and maybe now that position will be restored?

On the other hand, I can recall stuff falling through the net in the 80s, like a Laurel & Hardy episode in which they are in blackface. The older the material, the more likely to offend, but it tends to be that old stuff that just gets showed into the schedule unvetted.

Guidelines exist for producers in the first instance of course, and, as one might expect, are pretty stringent as regards kids' shows. However - if Tweenies for example was 'passed' back in 2001, it's highly unlikely that anyone at the top would've considered needing to reappraise every single episode in the time since. Attitudes haven't changed that much in the past dozen years. (Unlike the way that they have since Laurel & Hardy's films were produced...)

Still, this was one very rare instance in which an episode should have been double-checked, obviously, and highlights my earlier point about the mass-production and wall-to-wall nature of kids' channels per se...

No, it's an appallingly stupid editorial decision by the CBeebies team. Making it in 2001 before it all came out is one thing. Putting in on this morning is unbelievably dumb. My jaw pretty much dropped when I saw it.

I'm with Jah when he says it's a mistake. For the sake of plonking anything on to fill them, I suggest schedules are thrown together with abandon and lack of thought. I refer to the complaints that followed an episode of Taggart that was shown in the afternoon on ITV1, I think, which contained a scene showing someone being force-fed bleach. It's also an indictment of shit, uncaring broadcasting which says that you can chuck any old crap on as long as there's someone who'll stick around to watch it.

Another arrest. 82 year old in Berkshire.

Lots of people seem to know who it is. More shit for the BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21972689

Jim Davidson also got rearrested a few weeks ago.

So this latest arrest is a big name then Tubby?

Can you tell who it is yet, AE?

NHH wrote:


Ah the rumoured one. That was a clue and a half, well early for me to have caught that one. Cheers.

The entertainment stuff feels like a sideshow for the really toxic stuff around Elm House in Barnes - there's lots of people writing about this - including the press for 10 days in 1982 then they stopped. It's difficult to keep the right side of conspiracy theory-itis, but there's some stuff on the political cover ups of the guest list for the house which need urgent action, involving as it does a current minister, judges, former senior diplomats and spies.

The danger is that it gets into conspiracy stuff (which may be true, but feel more like stretching the linkages) and includes Michael Fagin's break-in to Buckingham Palace and the Westland Helicopter affair. That said, the thing about these networks is that they're pervasive and compel actions from people because everybody is beholden to everyone else, so it's certainly plausible.

Is Operation Yewtree just investigating kiddy fiddling or is it all sorts of molesty type stuff?

Channel 5 has just announced an episode of "Rolf's Animal Clinic" by saying that anyone nervous needs to know that from the start Rolf is going to be handling a big python.

I'm not joking it's on now