Last night BBC2 was 40, and in celebration they aired a three programme detailing some of the highlights of its history to date, as well as one or two lowlights. All in all it was a really good look back at the channel – and given the recent deterioration of Channel 4, probably the best channel we have in the UK.
All the major dramas and strands were covered, and they didn’t just do the stuff you expected. Fawlty Towers just got a brief clip, while The Borgias got an extended interview. Slightly annoying that Ian Richardson gave away the ending of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, but we’ll let that go.
I just had one grievance with the programme. Unless I blinked or something, they seemed to entirely miss out one of my favourite programmes, and nearly the only serious look at non-natural history science on British television – Horizon. I suspect that Horizon was probably a BBC1 transfer to BBC2. But for as long as I can remember it has been a mainstay of BBC2 so probably deserved to be covered.
The other obvious exclusion was any mention of imported programming. So barely a mention of Star Trek and certainly no Simpsons.
Go here for a really thorough history of BBC2 from Off The Telly.