What a load of old anus.

It's even an incorrect way of conveying what (I assume) they mean. Surely what they intended to say was "OTH will not be repeated because it is not topical enough any more"?

Either way it's absolute rubbish and it stinks. Where's my letter writing pen?

Right then, what time is "Have I got Old News For You" on? I love that.

They obviously haven't actually listened to it then...

Admittedly not R4 - but if On The Hour cannot be repeated because it's 'too topical' (despite the fact that it is plainly lampooning the media, news coverage and BBC Radio in general) why is 'Drop The Dead Donkey' always repeated when it seems to consist of piss poor characters reading that week's newspapers out loud?

It's utter tripe, that is! Let's all move to Tunbridge Wells!

As a writer of On The Hour I can quite categorically state that no attention whatsoever was paid to what was going on in actual news, only to news stylings. Saying it's too topical is like saying you can't repeat The Sweeney because there might be a reference to a 1970's labour government. That said, I am glad it won't be on.

>That said, I am glad it won't be on.


Not intended as a provocative question Stew - I'm just interested to know: why not?

And would you be similarly unhappy with a full release?

Even if R4 did repeat it, they'd chop out any Brian Redhead links (not out of respect, just 'no-one would know who he is/was'), stuff about the Government (all R4 listeners are clearly too dim to know that in 1991/92 there was a Conservative government led by someone called Major) and I'll bet that, post-Dunblane, they'd be too lily-livered to run the Newsbanger siege report. To give examples.

But anyway: they're not repeating it, then. Roll on the Best Of Dead Ringers. Isn't it just so fucking clever? (Although it must be going off the boil - Roger Bolton didn't give it a plug on last week's Feedback, just for a change.)

Audacious plan No.1 - is there ANY way we could get permission from the BBC to repeat it ourselves on net radio???

The other reason for not repeating it concerns the expense of tracking down all the writers/performers and paying them. Which is why R4 only tends to repeat comedy that's less than a year old (ie, covered by the same contract).

There's no difference between this and BBC1 repeating Only Fools & Horses, though. Commercial interest in a show *should* mean that said expense is irrelevant.

It would hardly be difficult to track down all writers and performers of OTH

>It would hardly be difficult to track down all writers and performers of OTH

However, to follow up on your earlier remark, I assume that you're glad they're not bothering. If they try to get in touch, will you move house to avoid them or just cover your ears and scuttle off yelling 'run away! run away!'?

>It would hardly be difficult to track down all writers and performers of OTH

I suppose a full commercial CD release would be out of the question too with so many snippets of music and the inadvertent contributors to clear.

Ahh well, we have our memories.

>>That said, I am glad it won't be on.
>
>
>Not intended as a provocative question Stew - I'm just interested to know: why not?
>
>And would you be similarly unhappy with a full release?
>

Cos it's a rich source of recyclable old material?

>Audacious plan No.1 - is there ANY way we could get permission from the BBC to repeat it ourselves on net radio???

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

HaHa.

>>Audacious plan No.1 - is there ANY way we could get permission from the BBC to repeat it ourselves on net radio???
>
>HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
>
>HaHa.

HaHa, your opinion ain't welcome here. My suggestion was a genuine and potentially feasible one. At least I'm trying to do something about this sorry situation, and as such I don't wish to be mocked for my efforts.

Incidentally, bad news I'm afraid. I have been informed that we would be within our rights to broadcast the released compilations (ie the pants BBC Radio Collection ones) through a recognised net radio provider as long as we didn't actually promote the fact. The original episodes are well and truly legally off limits. Shame...

Pete Baikie made a much funnier 'Laughing Man'...

>Pete Baikie made a much funnier 'Laughing Man'...


"You don't have to be mad to work here but it helps"

'clever, i'm terribly clever...'

stewart - you don't dislike OTH because they shafted you, do they? that would be a long-standing row, if ever i heard one...

j xxx

ps. - stewart - 'attention scum' looks AWESOME.

The BBC are very poor with their excuses, they probably released this as the same reason for not repeatin gthe Clangers.

>The BBC are very poor with their excuses, they probably released this as the same reason for not repeatin gthe Clangers.


At least with TV programmes, other networks can buy them years later and screen them (albeit in the middle of the night on C4 in the case of The Clangers). Shall we write to Heart FM and see if they want to serialise OTH within the Pat Sharp Show, or something?

There's no chance that anyone on this site happens to own a pirate radio station is there? Or perhaps be controller of radio 4 or something, and we could bribe them or something?

To sum up we either solve the problem, or go to plan of action B: or something.

I might just go lie down for a bit actually.

While we're on this topic, I should point out that PlayUK will be screening The Day Today as part of their 'Alan Partridge Night'. So there.

>There's no chance that anyone on this site happens to own a pirate radio station is there? Or perhaps be controller of radio 4 or something, and we could bribe them or something?
>
I did try on two separate occasions to become a comedy producer at Radio Light Entertainment. Perhaps I failed on the grounds that, during the interviews, I firmly believed On The Hour to be the best radio comedy of the 1990s, which may have put the board's noses out of joint, given they'd already stopped repeating it. (Alternatively, it may have been that I was an incapable twat, of course.)

In answer to someone (Al?) who mentioned Drop the Dead Donkey being repeated despite it being supposedly topical, C4 always began with a resume of "This episode was first transmitted in [insert date], before alerting semi-dead viewers to who Nicholas Ridley was or something." In which case, On The Hour doesn't stand a chance. (Margaret WHO???)

>While we're on this topic, I should point out that PlayUK will be screening The Day Today as part of their 'Alan Partridge Night'. So there.

Including mininews???

"Including mininews???"

Come on, this is PlayUK we're talking about - the mininews' are too short to have adverts in the middle, that won't work.

>>While we're on this topic, I should point out that PlayUK will be screening The Day Today as part of their 'Alan Partridge Night'. So there.

First time since 1995. Fair play. Mind you, we believed E4 would show Brass Eye. Didn't we?

I'll repeat TJ's enquiry, though: Including mini-news?

When is this AP night anyway?

No mininews. Sorry.