BBC-2 40th Anniversary

BBC-2 is 40 on the 20th of April. So, what better way to commemorate this, than by… starting off with a photograph of Ricky Gervais dancing. Really sums up 40 years of the channel, doesn’t it? Fucking stupid cunts.

But I’ll get past the hate, because something has pleased me. Next week’s Radio Twats contains a list of 40 classic BBC-2 shows to celebrate the occasion. Now, you can argue about the list all you want – but the nice thing is that Red Dwarf is in there. And it always pleases me when things like this happen; the show is recognised as being as good as it is, despite any number of snide “curry, lager and smeg” put-downs by the less intellectually rigorous members of the population.

On the evening of the anniversary itself, Happy Birthday BBC Two will be on between 8:00pm and 11:00pm, promising “a look back at the people and programmes that have made it what it is today”, and also “featuring behind-the-scenes footage”. Unfortunately it also includes “sketches from the Dead Ringers team”, which I suspect will be what is termed excruciating. (Incidentally, on an unrelated note, remember the Mark Gatiss sketches for Doctor Who Night? They were quite good.) For more info see this Independent article; it looks like Dwarf will feature in the programme too. It’ll be the highlight of the programme, clearly.

Incidentally, I really hope we shall also see glimpses of the recently discovered BBC 2 Aborted Launch Night. A great shame they haven’t scheduled all of it later on in the night, actually…