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Short Measures !
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Message 1.Â
Posted by roger100449 (U3929899) on Sunday, 20th April 2008
Back in the 50's and 60's an episode used to be a definite 15minutes, now, if you listen to a previous episode on line, you will notice that episodes are usually 12 minutes, have been 11mins plus, but never ever come to 15minutes, - why is this, when did it change, and how do the Beeb explain this - surely the pre 7pm news trailer for Backrow could be cut so that Archers long standing loyal listeners aren't short changed ?
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Message 2
Posted by mike (U2254029) on Sunday, 20th April 2008
Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:30 GMT, in reply to roger100449 in message 1
This changed when the Sunday episode was introduced. We get exactly the same time as before (75 mins = 6 x 12.5 = 5 x 15) so we are not, in fact, being "short-changed". -
Message 3
Posted by HoraceTabor (U7857756) on Sunday, 20th April 2008
Ten years ago this week. At least Broadcasting House are celebrating the decade, which was all part of James (since lanced)Boil's plan to take away everything which needed a brain, and replace it with blah. We have been clawing it back ever since he went
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Message 4
Posted by GT49er (U1745246) on Sunday, 20th April 2008
I think it changed when it was moved from the 6:45 to 7:00 slot.
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Message 5
Posted by barredfromthebull (U10830830) on Monday, 21st April 2008
6.45? That was in the days of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Light Programme, wasn't it? Followed at 7 by Radio Newsreel with it's wonderful 'Imperial Echoes' signature tune?
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Message 6
Posted by GT49er (U1745246) on Monday, 21st April 2008
Indeed, followed by the splendid Radio Newsreel. Those were the days!
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Message 7
Posted by Keri Davies (U2219620) ** on Monday, 21st April 2008
>I think it changed when it was moved from the 6:45 to 7:00 slot.
No, Mike has it correctly. -
Message 8
Posted by eristheapplethrower (U9524346) on Monday, 21st April 2008
I for one am not celebrating the decade of 6 episodes per week. I think the actual day of the Boyle was reformation was 6 April 1998. On the 6th April 2008, I wore my sackcloth and ashes.
The change from 1845 to 1900 hour preceded the 1998 "reformation".
IMO the 1998 changes were a ladies girdle solution - in short, you don't get rid of problems you just end up moving the fat around. (eg are enough people listening to Woman's Hour in the afternoon, do we need a play at 3.00 pm?, how can we capture the young listener - oh, let's go for it and , how do we bring new comedy to Radio 4, etc, etc). Do more people listen to WH, do people miss the afternoon play?, do young listeners tune in. And I can't tell what what joy the phrase "and now for another new comedy on Radio 4" brings to me. There is such a wonderful wall of silence in the house of Eris between 6.30 and 7.00 most weekday nights.
Returning to TA while per second we may not have "lost" time. IMO we lost other things.
What we lost was the Friday cliffhanger, and there is now often a feeling that episodes are being rushed, characters aren't developed. IMO I would rather have the extra two and a half minutes...and TA five nights a week than the 6 episode format. Furthermore if there was no Sunday episode there would be less of a temptation to pad it out with boring cricket.
Though on reflection I might miss Mark Lawson's trail for whatever programme comes after TA. -
Message 9
Posted by Mustafa Grumble (U8596785) on Monday, 21st April 2008
Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:24 GMT, in reply to eristheapplethrower
FWIW, I enjoy the 6epw format, and wish only that they had retained the 15m duration of each episode. I do not feel that the Friday cliff-hangar has gone, simply that it is - thank heavens - not so over-used.
Where I think there has been an undeniable change (and I have done the analysis, in an attempt to combat insomnia) is in the number of proper characters appearing in each episode.
Going back only to 2003, there were 2168 character appearances at an average of 6.93 per episode (a character appears "once" regardless of whether they appear in only one, or in all, of that evening's scenes).
In 2007 there were only 2029 appearances - an average of 6.48 per episode.
Now, that "half" a character may not seem significant, but as you can see that's 139 fewer distinct characters appearing throughout 2007 than in 2003. The equivalent of a further 21 episodes, if you will.
In fact, if you strip-out those pre-teen &/or "speaking" children from whom (quite reasonably since they contribute very little, but take up airtime) one would not have heard quite so much a decade or more ago (Ben, Josh, Ruairi, Jamie, Daniel, Freddie, Lilly & Phoebe), then in 2007 there were only 1974 appearances, at an average of 6.31/episode.
I suggest that there can only be one reason for cutting down on the numbers & variety of adult characters appearing through a year: to save money. And I guess that if that is the price we must pay to keep TA, then it is - sadly - a price worth paying.
As for cricket, I enjoy those scenes & do not consider them to be filler: cricket is very much a part of the calendar for "that sort of village" for some 6 months of the year, so the more we hear of it the better!
Anything, just anything, rather than risible SLs such as the snake, the over-size family portrait, and Phil's bluddy telescope: now /those/ were fillers. -
Message 10
Posted by GT49er (U1745246) on Monday, 21st April 2008
>I think it changed when it was moved from the 6:45 to 7:00 slot.
No, Mike has it correctly.Â
Did it actually run from 7:00 to 7:15 then Keri? I seem to remember there was always a news bulletin before it. -
Message 11
Posted by eristheapplethrower (U9524346) on Monday, 21st April 2008
I know my name is not Keri, but the Archers used to run from 7.05 pm until 7.20 pm. After their move from the 6.45 pm slot. There was no Front Row afterwards. There was usually a programme which ran for forty minutes until 8.00. Can't remember anything which ran after the Archers...oddly enough didn't tend to listen. Switched off at 7.20 pm and talked about the epi with the long suffering OH.
There was a five minute news bulletin from 7.00 pm until curtain up at 7.05 pm. -
Message 12
Posted by GT49er (U1745246) on Monday, 21st April 2008
Ah, that would explain it. Thanks!
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Message 13
Posted by LJG1410 (U10452997) on Tuesday, 22nd April 2008
There was a science programme after The Archers on Thursdays, wasn't there? that was how I got sucked in.
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Message 14
Posted by theImprobablyNamed (U7123337) on Tuesday, 22nd April 2008
Science Now. Seem to remember the bathwater going cold by then.
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