Comics Britannia (BBC Four - September)

[Milky Tears]

Spotted it on Teletext earlier and the BBC Press Release is up:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pre...0/comics.shtml

Press Releases
Comics Britannia season launches on BBC Four

BBC Four is set to explore the wonderful world of comic books in a new three-part series celebrating one the of most powerful achievements of British popular culture the classic comic strips generations of us have grown up with over the past 70 years.

From the Beano to Bunty, Commando to Viz, The Eagle to 2000AD, British comics have captivated generations from the Thirties to the present day.

Narrated by comedy writer Armando Iannucci (The Thick Of It) Comics Britannia will feature comics legends who wrote and drew the original strips, comics experts and a range of celebrity fans who re-live their favourite comic strip moments and characters.

Bash Street Kids, Dennis the Menace, Roy of The Rovers, Fat Slags, Watchmen, V for Vendetta and many more are brought to life using a special graphics style that allows the audience literally to step inside the comics.

Comics Britannia forms the centrepiece of BBC Four's comics season which also includes a one-off film, In Search Of Steve Ditko, which sees Jonathan Ross go in search of his hero comic book legend, Steve Ditko.

Other programmes within the season include Adam West's Batman series and Modesty Blaise.

George Entwistle, acting Controller, BBC Four, says: "Whether you grew up on the Beano or Jackie or wished you'd been allowed to this season offers a trip down memory lane, peppered with the customary wit and intelligence of BBC Four."

Comics Britannia was commissioned by Adam Kemp and is a BBC Vision Studios Production from BBC Bristol. Michael Poole is the Executive Producer and Alastair Laurence is Series Producer.

In Search Of Steve Ditko was commissioned by Adam Kemp and has been made by Hot Sauce TV. Jonathan Ross and Deborah Cox are Executive Producers.

The season broadcasts in September on BBC Four.

I knew there had to be a reason for the Adam West Batman repeats mentioned on their Have Your Say page the other day:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/yoursay/

Should be worth a look.

[Wayne]

Should be worth a look.

Yep.
Thanks for another heads up, James.

[Milky Tears]

I've probably started the thread too early... again!

It'll be on Page 4 by the time the season starts.

[SiHart]

I thought this was about stand up comedians!

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

I hope there's stuff on 2000AD. And Alan Moore.

But alas, it seems to be a 'penny dreadful' fest.

[Paul Monk]

Bash Street Kids, Dennis the Menace, Roy of The Rovers, Fat Slags, Watchmen, V for Vendetta and many more are brought to life using a special graphics style that allows the audience literally to step inside the comics.

Well there's a bit of Alan Moore in there!

[SiHart]

The Eagle to 2000AD

And a bit of 2000AD there!

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

Bash Street Kids, Dennis the Menace, Roy of The Rovers, Fat Slags,

"Whether you grew up on the Beano or Jackie – or wished you'd been allowed to – this season offers a trip down memory lane, peppered with the customary wit and intelligence of BBC Four."

These were the bits I paid attention to!

[Milky Tears]

Trailers are now showing and the season seems to start on 10th September:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pro...tml#mon_comics

Comics Britannia The Fun Factory Ep 1/3
Monday 10 September
9.00-10.00pm BBC FOUR
www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

From The Beano to Bunty, Commando to Viz, Eagle to 2000AD, British comics have captivated generations from the Thirties to the present day.

Now BBC Four delves into the world of the British comic, exploring the art and craft of the industry in a celebration of this British comics tradition.

The series features those who wrote and drew the original strips, comics experts and a range of fans whose lives have been shaped by reading "classic strips".

Comics Britannia is a rich mix of interviews, strips and archive illuminated by a unique graphics style which allows viewers to step into the world of comics.

The Fun Factory explores the world of the children's humour comic and the revolution which began with the first publication of The Dandy in 1937.

The series explains why colourful, cheap publications like The Dandy, and then The Beano, enchanted a generation living through the effects of the Depression, the Second World War and post-war austerity.

Comics Britannia revisits the golden age of comics in the Fifties and early Sixties and looks at the work of great comic artists Dudley Watkins, Davey Law, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid, revealing how a new, subversive and anarchic humour emerged from the pages of The Beano and The Dandy.

Children's Laureate Michael Rosen, writer Jacqueline Wilson, Oscar-winning animator Nick Park and cartoonist Steve Bell discuss their passion for comics, with some surprising revelations.

BBC Four site has started updating its Comics Britannia section.

[Milky Tears]

Bumping this thread as Comics Britannia starts tonight @ 9pm.

Documentary of the Week (?) in the Radio Times and a good review over at the OTT Blog (bottom of page). "One of the best things on telly this year."

Batman repeats start tomorrow night.

BB Four site now contains video interviews (including Alan Moore):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/comicsb...ritannia.shtml

[Wayne]

I enjoyed that!
I remember most the comics mentioned, so it was quite nostalgic for me. I was disappointed that Topper & Beezer were passed over, but the Beano stuff was great fun.
Loads of characters to remember! I guess as a younger child i was quite lucky, because i had an Uncle that was only about 8 or 9 years older than me, so i ended up with hoardes of his Beano comics from the late fifties & early 60's when they were still in their prime. It's funny to see & be reminded of little things like what Minnie the Minx's Dad looked like, & the headmaster from the Bash Street Kids. Stuff you'd totally forgotten about.
Very interesting to learn the background & story of these comics, & the totally different sociological climate in which they were produced.

[Andrew Curnow]

I caught the repeat at 11 last night and, like Wayne, I really enjoyed it. Although obviously I couldn't have ever put a name to the artwork, I did recognise the Little Plum and Three Bears style from when I was wee. A shame that it seemed to focus solely on Beano and Dandy for 95% of the time, and then pretty much rushed over the rest (did Buster even get a mention?) but it was still a very enjoyable, and interesting programme.

When are the other programmes on (it's 1 of 3 isn't it)?

[SiHart]

The episodes are on Monday evenings at 9pm on BBC4, Abdrew.

Si xx

[Alex]

I liked it too, though like everyone else wished they had covered more of the other comics on the market. Just as they got to the late seventies they seemed to jump about a decade and so didn't really cover 'my era' of the Beano too, which was a shame. Still, it was still fascinating stuff, I didn't know that DC Thompson used to treat the creative staff so badly for one thing, you could definitely notice the decline of both The Dandy and The Beano as they exhausted the really talented. Anyway, I hope the next two are a bit more indepth as that's when I started getting in to comics properly, but this was still all good stuff.

[Milky Tears]

Last night's Jonathan Ross in Search of Steve Ditko was the best programme so far... even though it's sod all to do with Britannia.

Some Dan Dare action tonight:

Comics Britannia
2/3. Boys and Girls

This programme explores the new generation of comics that offered a more realistic and at times darker stories from the Eagle and Bunty through to Jackie and Commando.

Comics for boys included the exploits of space adventurer Dan Dare, ace footballer Roy of the Rovers, Battle and fighting machine Captain Hurricane, while girls could get lost in The Silent Three, The Four Marys and Belle of the Ballet.

Fans such as Posy Simmonds, Gerald Scarfe, Max Hastings, Jacqueline Wilson and Frank Skinner reveal their favourite comic characters. [S]

[Alex]

Yeah I enjoyed the Ditko one, though with 15 minutes to go it became apparent that we weren't going to get the hoped for interview with him. I imagine the only reason Ross got to speak to him was because he brought Gaiman along with him as well. Still, I was always a big fan of his quirkier work like The Question and The Creeper rather than old spidey, so it was nice to see them covered in some detail - and I'm really going to have to try and find that pilot of Doctor Strange online too as that looked like fun stuff.

As much as I'm enjoying this season so far, I get the feeling that it could be a bit of a missed opportunity - Gaiman especially deserves a similar one hour show devoted to him, and I'd love to see programmes on Grant Morrison and Peter Milligan too, whilst Alan Moore should have a whole night covering his work!

[MacNimon]

As a fan of Ditko's work, this was one of my viewing highlights of the month. Sadly, we weren't granted an interview with the great man himself, but did anyone really expect to see one?

That interview with Stan Lee made up for it, though. I enjoyed seeing Stan (The Man) squirming his way through Ross's questions about whether or not Ditko had a valid claim to be Spideys co-creator. And trying to be diplomatic about the whole thing...that's one exasperated man there, when it comes to Steve Ditko! Stan Lee is rightly regarded as a legend in the industry, and I'm not knocking him in the slightest, but I found this short interview to be pretty compulsive stuff!

[Captain Tancredi]

I ended up with the impression that Lee and Ditko were ultimately starting from different definitions of what it meant to create something and so could never agree completely in a million years. But it was an interesting insight into something I knew next to nothing about- as far as I knew Ditko could have vanished off the face of the earth after his Marvel work- and some of the more philosophical aspects reminded me of the exhibition of Josh Kirby's work (the Discworld covers as well as more conventional pulp sci-fi covers) I went to on Saturday. Asks the interesting question of how much we expect an overtly commercial piece of work like a comic book or cover art to convey a philosophy- and conversely, whether we can expect philosophical or political ideas to work in a commercial format.

[MacNimon]

I'm really going to have to try and find that pilot of Doctor Strange online too as that looked like fun

Check your inbox!

[Wayne]

I'll have to catch the repeat of tonight's show. I was watching 'Hindenburg' on C4.

[Alex]

Check your inbox!

Cheers for that, have just replied.

I was thinking about the whole ownership of a character thing after the programme last night, and I think I side with Stan Lee. Of course it all depends on just how much of a synopsis Lee gave Ditko, but even if it was a pretty brief description initially, as long as it included the main points - Young geeky student, lives with aunt, wants to date cute girl, bitten by radioactive spider, gets spidery-powers, makes red and black webby costume and fights crime - I'd credit Lee as the actual creator of the character. After all, no one gives the costume or set designer a co-created by credit on a tv series or film, or even the cinematographer for that matter, and it's sort of along the same lines.

[MacNimon]

Cheers for that, have just replied.

I was thinking about the whole ownership of a character thing after the programme last night, and I think I side with Stan Lee. Of course it all depends on just how much of a synopsis Lee gave Ditko, but even if it was a pretty brief description initially, as long as it included the main points - Young geeky student, lives with aunt, wants to date cute girl, bitten by radioactive spider, gets spidery-powers, makes red and black webby costume and fights crime - I'd credit Lee as the actual creator of the character. After all, no one gives the costume or set designer a co-created by credit on a tv series or film, or even the cinematographer for that matter, and it's sort of along the same lines.

On a similar note...

Did Jack Kirby ever ask, in a similar way to Ditko, to be regarded as the co-creator of The Fantastic Four? Or of Captain America back in the 40s?

And over at DC, Superman is credited as being created by Jerry Seigel and Joe Schuster, but Batman is credited only to Bob Kane. I know Bob Kane was the artist, but did he actually create the character? Bill Finger (I think that was his name)wrote many Batman stories in the 40s, but who actually wrote the first one?

[Stuart Wallis]

I gather that Finger wrote, and Kane drew, the first strip. Finger died in 1974, never having got any official recognition from DC other than a salary, and Kane only got credited because he'd swapped his share of the copyright for a creator's byline.