Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 167 posts

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#81

Post by hardlianotion »

stevage wrote: post #72
mellosouls wrote: post #35

Its odd that when places like HN or Reddit ask for favourite podcasts the amazing resources of BBC radio (that precede all modern internet podcasts and the best of which still wipe the floor with most of them) are often forgotten. In Our Time represents the best of the form, and the BBC, and that's significantly down to the excellence of Bragg. The archive (you may need a VPN outside the UK): https://www.bbc.co.uk/pr…

> Its odd that ...the amazing resources of BBC radio ... are often forgotten. > you may need a VPN outside the UK Not that odd, really.

That's a very recent feature. I agree it was a foolish decision to require it.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#82

Post by frereubu »

hanslub42 wrote: post #61
gorgoiler wrote: post #30

I love this programme and have listened to it since its inception. My goodness though is it guilty of reinforcing two quite negative parts of British media culture to which I am quite sensitive: let’s call them boffinphobia and basicism . Boffinphobia is where an otherwise interesting scientific topic gets downplayed by a programme or news presenter as being too difficult for them to understand, and in particular sai…

For me, with a STEM background (and, I, suspect for many people here) the science episodes were never the most informative (though I would still learn a great deal about the history of the subject) I'm not sure whether someone with a background in arts or history would say the same about the other episodes. For those who want something entirely outside the STEM-heavy HN sphere of interest, there is another great BBC…

Likewise - I always skip the science episodes and wondered whether there were hordes of historians tutting their way through the other episodes. It feels to me like there are two types of science episodes though - one where it's pure science, and one where it's the history of a particular branch of science. Like you, the second I could generally stick for the historical perspective, but I always wondered why they have the first type on what is ostensibly a programme about history.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#83

Post by frereubu »

beerws wrote: post #8

Sad news. 'In Our Time' episodes are actually timeless, I am frequently amazed by the quality of episodes from over twenty years ago. Frankly, I believe that instead of finding a new presenter, the BBC could be retire the whole series and its legend. Let the new presenter start a new series, even if the set-up remains the same (including having further discussions with a cup of tea after the radio time limit has ende…

I know what you mean, but I have a feeling that if this series ends it's not going to be replaced by anything that's its equal in terms of intellectual depth. Feels to be like keeping the brand would keep the producers focused on what makes it great.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#86

Post by frereubu »

Sad news - I hope it continues and they manage to get someone who keeps the quality high. As others have pointed out, the thing that makes In Our Time great is it assumes the people listening are interested in learning something without pointless fluff.

I was watching the first episode of the new-ish BBC TV series Human last night and, although there was some interesting information in there, it was unbearably slow and overwrought - 20 minutes of interesting content stretched out to 60 minutes by overly dramatic speech and pointless visual interstitials with soaring music. Such a stark contrast in terms of information density if you watch the original big BBC documentary series like Life On Earth or Civilisation.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#87

Post by frereubu »

sherr wrote: post #58
dghf wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that to be precise they check for the Today programme, the Radio 4 current-affairs slot where Cabinet ministers go to get monstered.

The Today program is a shadow of its former self I think, as is a lot of BBC News today.

Yes, feels like it's just a grandstanding format for both presenter and interviewees with very little meaningful content.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#88

Post by stevoski »

OskarS wrote: post #57
stevoski wrote: post #56

You could see this coming with his voice weakening over the years. It’s nice that he was able to continue for as long as he did. My weekly dose of highbrow-ness from the UK: 1. In Our Time 2. University Challenge I highly recommend the back catalog In Our Time if you want some good brain fodder on an amazingly wide range of subjects.

If you want to add to that list, check out Only Connect on the BBC. Best quiz show for smart people in the world.

Thanks! I watched a few episodes recently and did enjoy how smart everyone was, and the questions too.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#89

Post by arethuza »

frereubu wrote: post #86

Sad news - I hope it continues and they manage to get someone who keeps the quality high. As others have pointed out, the thing that makes In Our Time great is it assumes the people listening are interested in learning something without pointless fluff. I was watching the first episode of the new-ish BBC TV series Human last night and, although there was some interesting information in there, it was unbearably slow a…

I think the finest BBC documentary series was The Ascent of Man - probably because my father made me watch it when I was about 8:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Man

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#90

Post by irthomasthomas »

benrutter wrote: post #12

I looked, and there's more than 1000 available episodes of IOT on the BBC, they're all (at least every one I've heard) brilliant. I'm curious if anyone here has any particular favourites? I remember really enjoying the Plankton episode because it took me the classic IOT route of "That doesn't sound interesting, but I'll give it a listen" to looking up all the reading list. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001r1t5

The Photon

Climate Change

Cryptography

Electrickery

The one about Shakespeare featuring Harold Bloom.

Post reply on HN