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Proposed Theme Park Would Put BBC Shows On Display
According to the Guardian, a "developing deal" for a theme park located in Kent could transform various BBC shows into Disney-style in-person experiences. Says the article: BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has struck a deal with a Kuwait-backed property developer to allow a range of its programmes and characters to be “brought to life” at a new £2bn theme park and holiday resort to be built by the Thames estuary in north Kent, in partnership with Paramount Pictures.
London Resort Company Holdings has signed a development agreement with BBC Worldwide to feature the corporation’s intellectual property at the London Paramount Entertainment Resort, which promises to “combine the glamour of Hollywood with the best of British culture."
Shows named include Top Gear, Sherlock, and Dr. Who; I think I'd rather visit a theme park that was entirely based on Monty Python's Flying Circus, but a Top Gear racetrack or simulator would be fun.
... don't forget Keeping Up Appearances!
I for one want to meet Mrs. Bucket, ulp, sorry Bouquet ...
Red Dwarf, you smegheads!
-- Jeff Woods
they could steal stuff! better make rectal spyware control posts at the exit, so that nobody can smuggle something out.
Would be at least consistent with BBC's position towards EME. Not firefox should get the blame and the shitstorm.
'cos the weather is shit round here.
that they went overseas to find developers for a theme park project in their own country. surely they could have found uk-based partners, investors and developers?
I'm hoping for a full-on Orphan Black setup.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
I'm picturing it being funded by the British public who will of course be charged an entry fee and later will see none of the profits.
Monty Python isn't actually very funny.
I'm British and let me tell you lot's of us feel that way
I have to remain anonymous otherwise I could be killed for saying this
I think I'd rather visit a theme park that was entirely based on Monty Python's Flying Circus,
"No, you wouldn't."
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
I'm disgusted that the ambulances seen in this show set in the 1950s were 1950s ambulances that don't meet modern safety standards in a crash. They should have insisted on modern ambulances.
Fortunately, The Benny Hill Show was shown on ITV (specifically, produced by Thames Television)...
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"RED DWARF"... "make it so"?!
:-)
Subtle troll is subtle.
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The ride for "Coupling" could be fun :)
I watched a series on Netflix from the BBC called "Call the Midwife". It was a story about midwifes in the late fifties. One of the midwifes was a chain smoker and even smoked around children. I find it hard to watch a program where it shows people smoking as it does not in my opinion add anything to the story. It just shows their almost total disregard of their advertising of cigarettes. It is also a sell out to the smoking industry.
It's hard to tell if you're trying to be ironic or something here, but, as you said, the program was set in the 1950's, guess what?, people smoked back then..a lot of them (hard to get an exact figure quickly, but say between 45-50% of the adult population as a lower best guess) and smoked a rather large amount (20-40 a day habit quite common in that generation).
'..even smoked around children..' is a modern affectation, firstly it wasn't perceived to be harmful (thanks to the propaganda campaigns mounted by the tobacco companies) besides, even children smoked (and still do), it was perceived as being part of growing up..yer first fag..(In my case, being a contrary bugger, my first cigar..aged 9 or so)
A drama set in that period where no-one smoked wouldn't look echt..
It's drama, attempting to portray another time and place based on someone's memoirs of said time and place, so what do you want?, revisionist history where none of the things we now consider 'wrong' to exist?, a nicer, happier, Disneyfied past c/w a nice clean London East end, full of nice clean, healthy smiling ragamuffins and unrealistically nice, clean non-smoking adults?
Btw, I'm a non-smoker..despite the cigar incident alluded to above, despite being brought up in, and around households where every adult smoked (bar one of my grandmothers, the other, as they say here, she 'smoked like a lum').
It was a story about midwifes in the late fifties. One of the midwifes was a chain smoker and even smoked around children.
Yes - in the 1950s, nobody would have batted an eyelid at that (its probably a detail from the real-life memoirs the series was inspired by). My dad was in hospital with a lung infection in the 50s. They came round the ward with a cart handing out free cigarettes.
it does not in my opinion add anything to the story.
Really? It shows one aspect of how social practices and attitudes have changed in the last 50 years which is the whole bloody point of the show! Should they have quietly corrected all the now-discredited medical practices while they were at it? Perhaps they should have shown more women in senior positions instead type-casting them as midwifes and nurses?
Perhaps you should stick to watching Life on Mars instead - then you have a modern-day avatar to call the 1970s characters out on any behaviour which would not be acceptable in 2010, lest you thought the producers were endorsing it.
It is also a sell out to the smoking industry.
Just because they really are out to get you, it doesn't mean that you're not paranoid.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
The article does claim that he was on the BBC- albeit even then not exclusively- in his early career, but moved to Thames in the late 60s. Still, this is another example of how Americans(?) always assume that British Television = BBC.
Since his move occurred just before BBC1 and ITV started colour transmissions, it's safe to say that any "Benny Hill Shows" in colour weren't made by the BBC.
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Will a giant white ball chase you down?
Not unless they license that show, since it was made by ATV/ITC for the ITV network, not the BBC. (*)
;-)
Unless, of course, I misunderstood you, and you were referring to a bizarre episode of It's a Knockout.
(*) Ditto this post regarding the "all British TV programmes were made by the BBC" fallacy Americans and others seem to hold.
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Good point. In the interests of historical accuracy, all shows should include aggressive chain-smoking. To do otherwise would portray a diminished control over the health of the general population.
Requiem for the American Dream
Don't forget, it wasn't just ok to smoke around children - it was actually good for you.. or at least, that's what the doctors in the adverts told us
See if you can spot the cigarette advert featuring the babies in there!
As for the Disney-fied theme park, you should watch "Churchill: the Hollywood Years", where a (US marine, of course) Winston Churchill first appears with the Enigma machine that's he's single-handedly (well, with his black sidekick's assistance) captured from the Germans, but then visits London's East End which, as every American Hollywood person knows, was populated entirely with happy, singing, Irish Cockneys.
That show already has a theme park - Portmeirion in west Wales. Go visit it... (yes, I know, its a real village first, but I think it only exists now due to the tourist trade)
and to remember smoking in TV shows... there was one called "Between the Lines", about 'internal investigations" cops. One of the actors was told he should smoke as it was part of his characters... only the actor had just given up smoking. So he said "sod it" and smoked... famously continually smoking throughout the show. It gave the show a really "grittier" look about it.
Such a theme park would be a lot more fun if it included references to those derisive Monty Python sketches about BBC culture.
"Race the Stig" ride? ...please please please.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
I'd like to point out that almost certainly the smoke seen on screen would have been CGI. Bans on smoking in public places and workplaces typically extend to TV studios. Furthermore, if there's children in shot, there's no way they'd have real smoke.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Start wth "The Avengers", (Steed and Emma Peel).
Then "The Prisoner"
There's plenty more.
BBC Worldwide is a commercial entity that gets money by reselling BBC content oversees. It gets no part of the license fee or any other public funding. It is arguable that it has unfair advantage in that the production costs of most of its assets were covered by the BBC; however, it's a fair stretch to say that the public will be paying for this theme park, particularly given that they're looking to outside investors to fund it.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Which leads to an interesting question -- why limit it to BBC? Alice in Wonderland is out of copyright, and the Disney production borrowed its aesthetic very heavily from the original illustrations. Why not be some kind of "Britainland" for American tourists?
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Top Gear themed rides? Well, I suppose it gives an excuse to be a little shit. The "Be a Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" roller coaster: not quite as fast or thrilling as the "Ferraris" at other theme parks....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Bans on smoking in public places and workplaces typically extend to TV studios.
They don't in England. So long as you can justify it dramatically, and there is no reasonable replacement there is an exception for theatrical film and TV smoking indoors.
So a brief shot at a distance you could reasonably be required to use an ecig as a replacement. But a longer close up shot may require the generation of ash, and the diminishing length of a real cigarette.
In Scotland however, there is no such exception.
(This is AFAIK, based on the rules in the year after the smoking ban came in. It's possible that it's changed, but I doubt it.)
Given the standard of what ITV produces* this isn't surprising. I can't think of a single show that ITV managed to export before Downton Abbey.
What are you talking about? The company "ITV plc" (which has only existed since 2004) or the ITV network?
Remember that "ITV" was originally- and still is- the collective name given to the network of (once independent) regional franchisees for the main commercial TV station.
It was only after the franchisees were allowed to merge- starting in the 90s- that the two largest remaining companies merged to become "ITV plc" in 2004. Before that, there wasn't an ITV company, just a bunch of separate companies that generally cooperated. And there are still two companies (STV and UTV) that are on the ITV network but not part of "ITV plc".
So, yeah, there were plenty of "ITV" shows exported before 2004, but those were made by various different companies.
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Am picturing "The Thick of it" exibit. You get screamed at by Capaldi yelling and insulting you until you break and leave.
Just put Doc in the park infirmary. Think of the money saved.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Just last night, I was watching some videos taken while Yes were recording Going For The One where they took a break and passed around a joint. Those bits obviously should have been cut out, since nobody does that any more. Oh, wait...
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I just want a Sherlock holmes themed opium den.
However. Failing all of that. I could just add a theme park to my mind palace.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
For the Doctor Who ride, you would just get into the Tardis, which would then appear in some other part of the park, at which point you will be attacked by Cybermen or Sontarans.
a la Disneyland.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
they're certainly thinking of the children.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
mod up. A BBC themed park would be to a padophile like locking a sugar junkie in a candy store.
hell, they'll even have locks on the inside of the Teletubbie Land houses.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
the BBC produces its own content, I think you're thinking of Channel 4 (which doesn't actually produce *anything* - and about 20% of its commission funding comes from the National Lottery).
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
uh...
Crown Court
The Bill
Sapphire And Steel
anything made by Gerry Anderson
Peppa Pig
Parade's End
Coronation Street
The Price Is Right
Come Dine With Me
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
BGT/X Factor
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Like Disney World, will it also have accompanying lodging.
Get mugged by a brummie character?
...should of course be based on "Are You Being Served?"
The whole bloody point of the show was showing the caring relationship between the midwifes and their patients. It showed women helping each other and their patients. The odds that their would be 4 beautiful young midwifes is less than the odds that they would find 4 non-smoking midwifes. How could the smoking midwife maintain her clothes and buy her makeup and still have money for cigarettes? The smoking doctor had a son who would have been my age at that time. Did they show that boy waking up in the middle of the night because his father was coughing uncontrollably? No! it did not. I know I did and I experienced the fear that it gave me. The midwifes lived together in very modest home. It would have taken just one time where the smoking midwife fell asleep with a lit cigarette to burn that home down. It happened and is still happening today. They chose to show smoking but they also chose not to show any of the negative effects of smoking. It could have shown the smoking midwife at a store choosing to buy cigarettes instead of buying makeup, clothes, or even a birthday present for a fellow midwife or even a member of her family. If they chose to show accuracy, people would have not watched it. The question is whether more people would have watched the program if they left out the smoking than watched it because of the smoking. I think people watched the program to see the midwifes dedication to their patients and to each other and not because one of the midwives and the doctor smoked. I know I did.
I'd rather boil my own head.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"