The Alternative Histories of the Old Firm

[Bluedell 5,907]

A series on Radio Scotland. First one is on Wednesday.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t8dwy

 

However with Tom Devine and Graham Spiers on the first two, I'm not rushing to listen.

 

After been reprimanded and taken off the air by Radio Clyde, it looks like Spiers has had to switch sides (again) to supplement his income.

 

Devine, in case you are wondering, is the one who came up with "We should be calling this for what it is: it isn't sectarianism, it is anti-Catholicism".

 

Yet again BBC Scotland showing its impariality.

[mainstandbear 0]

Doesn't fill you with encouragement does it....I think there could be some drastic revisionism from the contributors.

[26th of foot 6,179]

A series on Radio Scotland. First one is on Wednesday.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t8dwy

 

However with Tom Devine and Graham Spiers on the first two, I'm not rushing to listen.

 

After been reprimanded and taken off the air by Radio Clyde, it looks like Spiers has had to switch sides (again) to supplement his income.

 

Devine, in case you are wondering, is the one who came up with "We should be calling this for what it is: it isn't sectarianism, it is anti-Catholicism".

 

Yet again BBC Scotland showing its impariality.

 

Well said, good warning.

 

Last evening, I sat down and attempted to watch Brendan O'Hara's take on season 98/99. The Football Years contains lots of good footage, but the intervening commentary provided by the likes of Spiers, ensured it was turned over after several minutes. Spiers summing up on the arrival of Advocaat, "immediately, we took to calling him wee Dick". Accompanied by a wry smile.

 

Seriously, anything done by BBC Scotland these last twenty years, is dominated absolutely by a Not the View mindset.

[mainstandbear 0]

Speirs was at his smarmy worst during that...Bert Van Lingen was 'ludicrous', the fans were a 'baying mob' and his 'wee dick' comment...

 

Speirs is truly a worm of a man..

[26th of foot 6,179]

'And if you know your history' is Tom Devine's title, one word away from a line in ra Sellik Song.

 

Even the Alternative History thing is derivitive of former Sellik View columnist, Matt McGloan's 'zine, 'the Alternative View'.

 

Who is the Producer?

[Stimpy 0]

This is what we pay our license fee for:(

[Frankie 8,843]

Thanks for posting this BD...

 

I think it is pretty obvious what outlook this programme will have so it will be interesting to see if our understandable pre-conceptions are met by the imbalanced nature of the production.

[26th of foot 6,179]

Three years past, BBC Radio Scotland did a half hour documentary on the derivation of the song, 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. Fair enough; however, it was scheduled for broadcast at 11.30am on a Sunday morning. The particular Sunday morning utilised was immediately before their live commentary broadcast from Ibrox, of an old firm game(kick-off 12.30pm).

 

I listened to the ducumentary whilst travelling to the match, it was much as expected. After exploring it's stage and screen musical beginnings and glossing over Liverpool's ownership of the song in the 50's and 60's, we got into the real meat for twenty minutes, ra Sellik's obsession. Richard Gordon told how the hairs on the back of his neck would react during a Stydome rendition, Spiers proclaimed it as the greatest football anthem, and Begg told of the inability of hearing oneself during it's singing. All of this over a background of the song in constant refrain.

 

The best bit was two Sellik supporters(that is how they were presented) eulogised the song, one stating he thought of his dead mother whilst singing it at ra Stydome. I noted both Sellik supporters names and Googled them the next day, here's the surprise, both of them were/are senior Producers at BBC Scotland. This was during the scandal of BBC Producers in the rest of the country falling on their swords because they were posing as ordinary members of the public whilst telephoning shows they were producing.

 

You couldn't make it up!