''Points of View'' is a long-running

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

television series broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

. It started in 1961 and features the letters of viewers offering praise, criticism and observations on BBC television programmes of recent weeks.

History

''Points of View'' began in 1961 with Robert Robinson presenting viewers' letters to the BBC. It was originally designed as an occasional five-minute "filler" to plug gaps between shows. Kenneth Robinson (1925–1994) took over in 1965, though Robert Robinson returned in 1969 before the show was dropped in 1971. During the 1960s there was also a spin-off, ''Junior Points of View''. The show returned in 1979 after a hiatus of eight years, with the dry humour of

Barry Took Barry Took (19 June 192831 March 2002) was an English writer, television presenter and comedian. His decade-and-a-half writing partnership with Marty Feldman led to the television series ''Bootsie and Snudge'', the radio comedy ''Round the Hor ...

at the helm. Originally only being broadcast in the London area as a five-minute filler part of the regional programming, by 1980 it was broadcast across the whole of the UK. Took left in 1986 and was replaced by guest presenters including

Tony Robinson Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series ''Blackadder'' and has presented several historical documentarie ...

, Alan Titchmarsh and

Chris Serle Christopher Richard Serle (born 13 July 1943 in Bristol, England) is a former BBC TV presenter, reporter and actor. Biography Serle was educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied modern languages. He appeared a ...

, until

Anne Robinson Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is an English television presenter and journalist. She was the host of BBC game show '' The Weakest Link'' (2000–2017). She presented the Channel 4 game show ''Countdown'' from June 2021 to Jul ...

took over as presenter in 1987. For many years during this period, the programme held a slot of 20:50 on Wednesday evenings. In 1997

left the series to concentrate on ''

Watchdog Watchdog or watch dog may refer to: Animals *Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence * Portuguese Watch Dog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed * Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet ...

''. Following another period with guest presenters,

Carol Vorderman Carol Jean Vorderman, HonFIET (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh media personality, best known for appearing on the game show ''Countdown'' for 26 years from 1982 until 2008, as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet ...

becomes the next regular presenter in April 1998 but is later replaced by

Des Lynam Desmond Michael Lynam, (born 17 September 1942) is an Irish-born television and radio presenter. In a broadcasting career spanning more than forty years, he has hosted television coverage of many of the world's major sporting events, presentin ...

in February 1999. By October 1999, ''Points of View'' had moved to a Sunday early evening slot, being presented by

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 week ...

and now included emails in addition to letters and telephone calls. In the 2007 series, ''Points of View'' featured diverse films, such as students from Sussex University making a passionate plea for the BBC to keep the

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

'' Neighbours'', John Leivers interviewing Roly Keating (the controller of BBC Two) on the channel's direction, and Jill Parkinson asking why there aren't more people with disabilities featured in BBC programmes. In April 2008,

Jeremy Vine Jeremy Guy Vine (born 17 May 1965) is an English television and radio personality, presenter, broadcaster and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guest ...

became the regular presenter of the series. From April 2013, production switched to BBC Northern Ireland. On the last show of the present series on 1 July 2018, Vine announced his retirement from the show. In order to refresh the series, which returned in the autumn, and allow more time for audience feedback the show no longer was presenter-led, instead being narrated by

Tina Daheley Tina Daheley (born ) is a British journalist, newsreader and presenter who works for the BBC, both on television and radio. She currently reads the news on '' The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' with Zoe Ball, often contributing to discussions during ...

; however the show returned to the presenter format, whilst retaining Daheley, in 2022. The 2021 series was narrated by Nicki Chapman, a stand-in for Daheley who was absent due to pregnancy.

Public perception

The show has been seen as representing a certain passive-aggressive aspect of

British culture British culture is influenced by the combined nations' history; its historically Christian religious life, its interaction with the cultures of Europe, the traditions of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and the impact of the British Empire ...

;

Victoria Wood Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 – 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over se ...

once said "When the Russians feel strongly about an issue they form a bloody revolution – the British write a strongly worded letter to ''Points of View''". Although, much less common now, the show has over the decades featured many a letter beginning "Why, oh why, oh why..." and signed "Upset of

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxb ...

" or " Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells", or something similar (these days, most, if not all, simply use their real names). Along the way the show has catered for those who wish to see particular parts of programmes again, featuring letters asking "Please, please, please could you show the clip where

Vera Lynn Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 191718 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is honorifically known as the " Forces' Sweetheart", having giv ...

sang to the troops on the 50th anniversary of D-Day last week", and the like. The series has been criticised for featuring too much praise of the BBC and its programmes, and playing down criticism. This tendency has been sent up by many comedians over the years, including memorable skits in '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'' and ''

Not the Nine O'Clock News ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' is a British television sketch comedy show which was broadcast on BBC2 from 1979 to 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the '' Nine O'Clock News'' on BBC1, it features satirical sketches on then-cur ...

''. In the latter, positive letters said such things as "I think the (television licence) fee is far too low. I would willingly sell my house and all its contents to help the BBC." Further criticism came from comedians

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

and

Hugh Laurie James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in ...

in their sketch comedy show ''

A Bit of Fry and Laurie ''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series and t ...

''. In a sketch where Fry had supposedly removed Laurie's brain, Laurie said that he was "off to write a letter to ''Points of View''". In a later episode, a woman claims she has had two letters read out on ''Points of View'', and that "they say if you get three, you're automatically sectioned under the Mental Health Act." The programme became (around 1994) the first BBC TV show to invite contributions by

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

, and at one point, its producer Bernard Newnham had the only Internet connection in

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC) is a building complex in White City, West London, that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. After a refurbishment, the complex reopened in 2017 with three studios in use for TV production, opera ...

Presenters

* Robert Robinson (1961–1965; 1969–1971) * Kenneth Robinson (1965–1969) *

(1979–1986) *

(January 1987 – September 1997) * Guest presenters (September 1997 – March 1998) *

(April – August 1998) *

(February – May 1999) *

(October 1999 – September 2007) *

(April 2008 – July 2018) *

(September 2018–present) * Nicki Chapman (April – October 2021, stand-in)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:1200 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:80 top:0 right:20 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1961 till:31/12/2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1961 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1961 BarData = bar:RRobinson text:"Robert Robinson" bar:KRobinson text:"Kenneth Robinson" bar:Took text:"Barry Took" bar:ARobinson text:"Anne Robinson" bar:Guest text:"Guest" bar:Vorderman text:"Carol Vordeman" bar:Lynam text:"Des Lynam" bar:Wogan text:"Terry Wogan" bar:Vine text:"Jeremy Vine" bar:Daheley text:"Tina Daheley" bar:Chapman text:"Nicki Chapman" PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:RRobinson from:02/10/1961 till:30/06/1965 bar:KRobinson from:01/07/1965 till:30/06/1969 bar:RRobinson from:01/07/1969 till:30/06/1971 bar:Took from:01/07/1979 till:17/12/1986 bar:ARobinson from:07/01/1987 till:17/09/1997 bar:Guest from:24/09/1997 till:25/03/1998 bar:Vorderman from:01/04/1998 till:26/08/1998 bar:Lynam from:18/02/1999 till:13/05/1999 bar:Wogan from:24/10/1999 till:30/09/2007 bar:Vine from:01/01/2008 till:01/07/2018 bar:Daheley from:01/09/2018 till:08/11/2020 bar:Chapman from:25/04/2021 till:31/10/2021 bar:Daheley from:24/04/2022 till:31/12/2022

''Junior Points of View''

Between 1963 and 1970, Robert Robinson (later replaced by Sarah Ward, and Gaynor Morgan Rees) presented a version designed for children's letters entitled ''Junior Points of View''.

Theme

The original theme tune to the programme was the first 13 seconds of

Kid Ory Edward "Kid" Ory (December 25, 1886 – January 23, 1973) was an American jazz composer, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans jazz. He was ...

trad jazz Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, played by musicians such as Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine, based on a re ...

piece "Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula", played by the Dutch Swing College Band. When the series returned in 1979 a new piece called "Northern soul" was used before switching in 1982 to adopted

the Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

' "

When I'm Sixty-Four "When I'm Sixty-Four" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released on their 1967 album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. McCartney wrote the song when he was ab ...

" as its theme tune (because of the lyric "Send me a postcard, drop me a line, stating point of view"). This was dropped by the early 90s. In the early 2000's, a bespoke acapella theme tune, entitled "Blah Blah" or "Blah Boopity Baya" was introduced, alongside a new title sequence featuring members of the public talking to a screen showing BBC programmes, set against a black background with streaks of light flying past. The composers and performers involved in the creation of this theme tune are unknown. In 2009, the theme gained notoriety when it was featured on

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

's Adam and Joe radio show, with the presenters mocking the theme tune's upbeat sound compared to the overall serious tone of ''Points of View'' at the time (then presented by Jeremy Vine; though the show became more light-hearted across Vine's overall run as presenter), adding that "the BBC's been in some quite serious trouble of late, so this is just a suggestion to our colleagues at the castle [

]... you might want to change that music". In 2011, an alternative mix of the previous theme came into use, with the acapella vocals being swapped for a synthesizer and background strings.

References

External links

* *{{BBC programme 1961 British television series debuts 1960s British television series 1970s British television series 1980s British television series 1990s British television series 2000s British television series 2010s British television series 2020s British television series BBC Birmingham productions BBC Television shows Criticism of journalism English-language television shows Television series about the media