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Old May 9th 13, 08:44 AM posted to uk.media.tv.misc,uk.sci.astronomy
Dave Liquorice[_2_]
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Posts: 29
Default The Sky at Night since Patrick's death

On Thu, 09 May 2013 06:13:45 +0100, Basil Jet wrote:

The ones I've seen sinc Mr Moores death have been
reasonable and more in the "lets encourage people to look" line than a
monthly science magazine about the latest astronomy news.


They have realised that every edition is watched by a million men who
have seen every edition since 1955 and one woman who is tuning in for
the first and last time, and they have decided that the million men can
go hang themselves because from now on, every programme should serve
the needs of this month's one female viewer.


Wasn't the orginal remit of the programme to encourage people to look?

Back in "1955" (*) the BBC stuck to the order of their mission statement
to "inform, educate and entertain" rather better than they do now. The
Sky at Night has not yet degenerated to the "entertainment" level. It's
still informative and shows "ordinary" people looking at and enjoying the
night sky without spending vast amounts of money.

I very much doubt The Sky at Night gets a million viewers in total and
those that have watched every edition since 1957 really will be in the
minority. If only because many will have died and those who started
watching at say 10 years old will be in their mid 60's now. Not to
mention that in 1957 having a TV was anything but the norm.

(*) Actually 24 April 1957.

--
Cheers
Dave.