Posts by: classicTVlover

If I took up the reins of UKGold and was allowed to run it here's my idea of a typical day's programming(and the channel wouldn't be 24h a day either)
06:00 Rainbow
06:20 Fred Bassett (cartoon)
06:30 Fingerbobs
06:50 Willo The Wisp (cartoon)
07:00 NEW! Goldie (cartoon series featuring the UK Gold dog)
07:30 Never Mind The Quality Feel The Width
08:00 Man About The House
08:30 2 episodes of Classic Top Of The Pops (B/W)
09:30 Nanny
10:30 Family Film from the Children's Film Foundation
12:00 Sit Thi Deawn (a northern studio based folk show with the Houghton Weavers from the 70's produced by BBC Manchester)
12:30 Lunchtime Sounds(a pick of clips/film and video from Beat Club/OGWT and various archive shows from the 60's and 70's digitally restored, remastered and presented for you to relax over whilst having your dinner),
14:00 Adam Adamant Lives! two back to back episodes of this classic drama,
15:00 Playschool
15:30 Cartoon Time (a couple of classic shorts from Tom & Jerry and Bugs Bunny)
15:50 The Tomorrow People
16:20 Crackerjack!
16:50 Morph
17:00 Rhubarb
17:10 two back to back episodes of Doctor Who from the pilot episode
18:00 The Kenny Everett Video Show
18:30 The Benny Hill Show
19:30 Classic B/W Coronation Street
20:00 Classic Tomorrow's World
20:30 Six-Five Special
21:00 The Sweeney
22:00 Classic News At Ten from way back when
22:30 Hazell
23:30 UK Gold Movie TBA
01:00 UK Goldtrax (round off your day with a hour of classic vids!)
02:00 Close

The channel would also feature omnibuses of the classic shows at weekends along with classic Saturday morning kids tv,music concerts,films and various B/W and colour classic archive shows from the vaults.
Plus:
The UK Gold dog and idents would make a return to the channel along with the UK Gold dog in a brand new cartoon series for UK Gold called Goldie,
the channel would be free to all Astra satellite viewers in the UK and in the clear on Astra2D without subscription,
Proper 16:9 on shows done in it as well as films plus live and prerecorded continuity as well as the adbreaks and idents,
In vision presenters AND would have stars introducing shows they starred in,
(as the original UK Gold put it) only 2 breaks an hour,
Everything would be shown in it's unedited form(all in episode order,no slashing to bits to fit time slots;everything would fit the running time as intended),
AND no pushing to the side to fit coming next captions on the end credits and having presenters talkover them either and NO DOG's over the shows, and
there would also be themed weekends and days around programmes at holidaytime ie christmas and weekends and where classic programmes celebrate anniversaries.

That to me would be the ideal UK Gold;true to it's roots delving into the archives to bring the very best of classic television for it's viewers in it's original form-what does anybody else think?

It's NOTHING like what it was when it started;classic B/W and colour shows or various vintages shown in all their glory and unedited too;and when thames left the partnership it was the death of a great station no longer a TRUE Gold channel like it was, and now the Beeb has it all to itself no longer goes back to the older back catalogue of shows tending to show newer and more recent stuff! It should be called UKTV Recent Gold because basically that's what it is!

My favourite retro toy from the 70's was Fisher Price Wind Up Record Player and nursery rhyme records;first introduction to music and record players!

I find it hard to believe that it's 2007, we're in the throes of analogue switchoff and UKTV channels don't transmit true 16:9 format. What will happen when analogue TV is turned off and digital rules the TV airwaves? Will there be a change of plan and UKTV channels will go FULL 16:9?

Anything that's done in 16:9 AND the commercial breaks SHOULD BE 16:9. Old archive stuff that isn't 16:9 should be shown in 4:3 pillarbox format.

It can't go 24:7 on topuptv because of limited bandwidth spectrum capacity on digital terrestrial television.

A TRUE gold channel would show the complete pallet of various b/w and colour classic tv shows from the 50's 60's 70's 80's and 90's on ITV/BBC etc through the years(everything that exists).

NO CALL FOR OLD CLASSIC TV SHOWS? Are Beeb joking? Old classic shows have their fans, and as for the old excuse that UKTV Gold have for not showing them because the quality is poor or dire, who cares if they are scratchy grainy have washed out colours or look blurred or smeary? I certainly don't.

NO there is nothing wrong with my 16:9 TV, UKTV NEVER broadcasts it's programmes in true 16:9 widescreen they always insist on 14:9 anamorphic widescreen presentation on their services-when analogue TV is being switched off and you find channels still doing 14:9 anamorphic widescreen this is old hat. When you stretch a 14:9 anamorphic widescreen presented programme to full 16:9 mode on a widescreen TV it looks AWFUL. In today's multichannel digital TV age it makes sense to go full 16:9 where programmes are shot/produced in that format and if you have or are showing(or are making) a programme that is a mix of old archive 4:3 material and newer 16:9 material say a celebratory programme on TOTP, when you make it, it makes sense to add thin side bars to the old material that isn't widescreen (14:9 pillarboxing) and retain 16:9 for the newer widescreen material and camera interviews rather than stretching to 16:9 for everything(on old material you have to chop a lot of detail out to prepare this for 16:9 transmission and it looks pretty odd).

I agree. UKTV Gold isn't as good as it was when it started when Thames had a hand in it and provided many classic shows from it's vaults in return for BBC classic shows from the Beeb's own archives. It doesn't matter if the old B/W and colour shows from over the years that are shown have washed out colours,grainy images and look and sound scratchy and are blurred and smeary;these artefacts add to the magic and mystique of the classic shows, and I would show them even with those defects.

Will UKTV Gold ever show the brilliant BBC Radiophonic Workshop documentary Alchemists Of Sound? It was the perfect homage to Dr Who and many other shows (the bulk of classic Dr Who sounds and music emanate from the Workshop) until it's demise in the mid 90's. If you're gonna show it UKTV Gold then please don't hack it to bits and cut out the interviews and contributions, leave it intact and show it as is!

I enjoy UKTV's channels BUT what I find annoying is that programmes made for proper 16:9 widescreen and shown on UKTV aren't broadcast this way in proper 16:9;they're done in the awful compromise 14:9 anamorphic widescreen mode instead that you see on analogue tv. Why can't UKTV flick that 16:9 button in it's transmission suites and transmit TRUE 16:9 widescreen on programmes made for it and when it makes programmes for it's own channels (or commissions them from other production houses and broadcast companies) then broadcast them that way? I cannot believe that it's 2007 and UKTV hasn't moved forward with 16:9 programme production/acquisition/transmission;seems stuck in the dark ages!