Motor Racing at the BBC - BBC4 Mon 18th March

I missed this completely as I was away. Does anyone know if a repeat is scheduled?

Sunday 24th March (i.e. tomorrow), 9pm BBC4, followed by part 2 on Monday 25th at 8.30pm, BBC4.

Recorded this and only watched last night - before reading this thread - forgive me if this has been brought up before but one other jarring... er...aspect was the aspect ratio itself. As per modern standards the programme was done in 16:9 widescreen but every scrap of that footage would have been 4:3 so when Raymond Baxter shows us what was in the boot of his DB MkIII....we can't see it as it's been cut off to fill the frame!
That also led to a lot of the footage seeming far worse quality than it really was as it was simply blown-up too much. The ghastly colour side framing bars on many shots reduced this a little but why not just show it AS IT IS? We can all cope with old fashioned square-ish images without being reduced to tears at those nasty black bars along each side of our huge TV screens. Can't we

... Heinz Preisler (?)

Heinz Prüller, Austrian journalist, author and commentator.

I enjoyed the programme, which was well made and generally accurate. However I was very puzzled when they completely failed to mention Hunt's Spanish GP disqualification and later reinstatement, which I thought was one of the pivotal events of that season.

It seems the BBC is not totally hopeless after all. I have just listened to a half hour programme on Radio 4 entitled Hunt/Lauda in which Vicki Butler-Henderson told the story of the 1976 season including comments from Nicki himself, Nigel Roebuck, Murray Walker, and Heinz Preisler (?) with clips of commentary from Barry Gill. Splendid clip of Murray trying to speak to James in the pit lane at the restart of the British GP. 'Not now, we are in a motor race, dear boy.'

So, yet another factually hopeless performance. Not that accuracy counts for anything with the BBC these days. Why is their output so utterly annoying and, ultimately, useless?

Unfortunately no BBC iPlayer outside of the UK- does anyone know of another way to listen to this program? Thank you!

Edited by D-Type, 25 March 2013 - 16:23.

Unfortunately no BBC iPlayer outside of the UK- does anyone know of another way to listen to this program? Thank you!

The twits at the BBC should spend a day at one of your Film Shows...

Edited by Rob29, 25 March 2013 - 09:07.

BBC can make interesting programmes.Found one last night( while looking for something else) that they seem to want to keep secret A one hour biography of Susie Wolff-unfortunately only on BBC2 Scotland.I found I can receive this via Sky satelite system but missed the first half-has anyone else seen this?

Yes, made by a director/ writer who has never heard of Danica Patrick, Michelle Mouton and many others.

Edited by Pullman99, 04 May 2013 - 16:02.

Come on BBC, show the full GPs and not these 30 second snippets

Her brother ...

It's on iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk...n_in_the_World/

Re,last nights prog no indication weather there is a third episode for the 70s.

Part 2 was, thankfully, a lot better than Part 1 with some actual broadcast material in it as well as extracts from programmes like Blue Peter

Agree it was better than the first episode

Only real blue was the statement that Italian cars dominated the 1950s until Vanwall came on the scene. Don't know what Mercedes-Benz would think of that

Yes a whole lot better, but it could hardly have been worse.

I could have done without the Blue Peter footage which didn't contribute a whole lot but I suppose it did show the coverage that the sport was getting across the board.

At least they didn't show an elephant dropping turds and weeing on the car.

On this weekend results F1 teams could try out Simona?

Re,last nights prog no indication weather there is a third episode for the 70s.

Part 2 was, thankfully, a lot better than Part 1 with some actual broadcast material in it as well as extracts from programmes like Blue Peter (featuring the 1968 Lotus 49B being fired up (!) and driven - sort of - by John Noake)s.

That'll be the 4 cylinder DFV, which possibly explaind why he stalled it. Since blue peter was aimed at the youth, this might explain the drop in mathematical standards in the country.

Yes, I found that extraordinary, and can only put it down to nerves. He pointed slowly and methodically at eight trumpets whilst counting to four ! (And our beloved Raymond Baxter called it the Monte Carlo Grand Prix)

I could have done without the Blue Peter footage which didn't contribute a whole lot but I suppose it did show the coverage that the sport was getting across the board.

Nice snippet of Oliver at the '68 French GP after his almighty shunt as well as some interesting footage of the BRMs. I could have done without the Blue Peter footage which didn't contribute a whole lot but I suppose it did show the coverage that the sport was getting across the board.

I found the BP footage interesting from a sociological perspective - how kids' TV was presented back then, at least by the Beeb. Even compared to the rest of the programme it looked old-fashioned, Meccano in the age of Beatlemania.

Nice model 49 though.

Probably just pre-Magpie, which moved the goalposts a bit. Susan Stranks was quite a bit less "mumsy" than Judith Chalmers ;)

I'm guessing it was the work of either Gerald Wingrove or Rex Hays.

At least catching up meant I could understand the critiques of last week's, but despite my advanced pedantry it didn't bother me, as it was in the same vein as other programmes the BBC has done in a similar vein; the music chosen not for historical accuracy but to convey something of the cutting-edge atmosphere. Motor racing being represented via a mainstream soundtrack like Sinatra in 1953 would have been wrong. Although they could have retained historical accuracy by recruiting someone like Big Joe Turner.

Valerie Singleton ? Rumour has it you would have been wasting your time.

I've heard those rumours, but Val denies them. She lived somewhere in Dorset, so if I'm fortunate enough to bump into her, I can ask her myself.

I've heard those rumours, but Val denies them. She lived somewhere in Dorset, so if I'm fortunate enough to bump into her, I can ask her myself.

No, but it was listed as Episode 2 of 5...