“DEAR BBC, I am quite frankly staggered. Yours, quite frankly staggered.” Endless have-your-say soapbox shoutathon keeping voiceover artistes in work for over four decades and helping fill awkward 10-minute schedule slots historically just before the 9pm news. First in the chrome chair was ROBERT “WOULD THAT IT WERE” ROBINSON, establishing a precedent for ubiquitous surname supremacy later supported by KENNETH ROBINSON, ANNE ROBINSON and, erm, TONY ROBINSON. Early years majored in senior common room-style mutterings thanks to Robert’s penchant for pedantry and obscure literary gags. After long hiatus in the 70s, however, the show evolved into the more mass market, mass hysteria beast it remains. BARRY TOOK takes the blame here, pushing jocularity and funny voices well to the fore, topped off with whimsical calliope adaptation of “When I’m 64” as theme tune (in turn prompting a letter every six months wondering “Why have you got ‘When I’m 64’ as your theme tune?”) and having the correspondence unceremoniously torn into bite-size portions and glued to pieces of brown sugar paper, to be comically interrupted at will (“What’s that, Mrs Chateris?” “Surely not!” “Anything else to add?!”). These were the imperial years, continued by Anne with her “them upstairs” routine and shifty winking-to-camera goodnights. Formula got diluted throughout the 90s thanks to ever-changing roster of boring guest hosts, until ultimately it got bumped to Sunday afternoons (bad) and taken over by SIR TERENCE OF WOGAN (good).
Mark
February 14, 2010 at 1:39 am
Must have cost der Beeb a fortune to have ‘When I’m 64’ as the theme tune. Are Beatles songs not notoriously expensive to licence? Still, Television programmes about television programmes are always good. You could usually be sure the comments would be ‘Bravo, more of the same’ along with ‘My husband and I were outraged’, ‘why did the trailer give away next week’s plot’ and to end, ‘could we possibly see this just once more’ …. And just for you Mrs Anderson here is that clip from QED/a Desmond Wilcox doc/some period drama, Goodnight!
Red1
February 14, 2010 at 8:52 am
As the BBC is classed as a Public Service Broadcaster and not a commercial organisation, I believe – like songs that are played on their Radio channels – they do not have to pay any licensing fee. I may be wrong, maybe someone else who is better informed may know.
Ian Jones
February 14, 2010 at 12:02 pm
If that’s the case, why did they switch to the current theme, ‘Blah Booby-Do Bye-Oooh’?
Matthew Rudd
February 14, 2010 at 11:48 pm
“That was disgusting. Can we see it again?”
televisualcabbage
February 15, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Dear BBC,
Why oh why oh why… do you allowed rambling letters which start why oh why…
Barry Took era was always great for a watch, especially with his wry comments interupting the letters for comic effect…
I think Danny Baker would make a different but great host for POV…
Adrian
February 16, 2010 at 9:51 am
“Come on, BBC!”
I recall that ‘Smith & Jones’ (I think) did a piss take of POV, whereby a single letter was read out with voices from about a dozen different accents/genders/ages..
Was it Channel 4 that had the video box whereby members of the public did their pieces to camera?
Applemask
February 16, 2010 at 11:39 am
“We think you’re a load of crap too, Mr Stevenson!”
Gordon Ridout
February 17, 2010 at 11:29 am
Adrian: Yes, it was Channel 4 that had the Video Box. It featured on (the first decade-or-so of) the feedback programme Right To Reply.
David Pascoe
February 22, 2010 at 5:58 pm
I used to record Points of View in the late 80s as there were usually a couple of really funny letters on it. Three stand out in my memory from 1989:
“What is it about the name ‘Gorbacev’ that makes BBC newsreaders break out into a phoney Russian accent? They don’t sound like extras from ‘Allo ‘Allo when they tell us what Monsieur Mitterand has been up to. They don’t sound like J.R. Ewing when they talk about George Bush”
(From a Dutch born man complaining about the dubbing of some Dutch people in a documentary – presumably by those BBC newsreaders) – “If zis is ze vey that you zink the Dutch speak , then ze Beeb has just lost a fan!”
(Anne’s favourite letter of 1989 – Sent from Dublin) – “Dear BBC, Please, please, please, why oh why oh why can’t we have a full 60 minutes of Bergerac? PS: Why do you never show any excerpts from Bergerac?”
Glenn A
February 22, 2010 at 8:19 pm
I have never enjoyed a BBC programme and neither have my friends for years was one letter I remember seeing displayed during 1983. I suppose this was an attempt at balance, but could this letter during a ratings slump pre empted the arrival of Michael Grade and Bill Cotton to save the BBC’s bacon from a certain female politician who wanted it privatised.
Adrian
February 23, 2010 at 8:42 am
“I have never before written to the BBC, however after last night’s episode of * I felt compelled to put pen to paper..”
Matthew Rudd
February 23, 2010 at 11:05 am
I wrote to POV in 1987 to complain about the biased coverage of that year’s Challenge Cup Final. I wasn’t even a fan of rugby league.
THX Kling Klang
July 7, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Who was it who spoofed Points of View by claiming they cut up viewers’ letters and read them out in a funny voice? Then people started writing into the actual show complaining they’d done their accents wrong?
One funny letter I recall followed an appearance by film star Victor Mature on Wogan, where Vic munched on gum throughout – so the viewer renamed him “Victor Machewer”! Ah, simpler times.
Glenn A
September 2, 2017 at 12:57 pm
You have to check out Not The Nine O Clock News send up of Points of View with Griff Rhys Jones as Barry Took, it’s hilarious.
As for Right to Reply, always loved it when some humourless feminist would come on to moan that someone on Channel 4 News had used the expression chairman, when they should have said chairperson, as if it was a major crisis.
Droogie
September 2, 2017 at 9:25 pm
Oh those bloody humourless feminists etc. Why oh why etc. It’s political correctness gone mad etc. Old people moaning about someone else moaning about something they disagree with is what keeps The Daily Mail and Express still in business I guess.
Bendylick Thundercrutch
August 27, 2018 at 9:35 pm
Two things that stick in my mind about Points of View –
1) Jerry Sadowitz’s rant about ‘only the middle classes can afford to piss away twenty-six pence on a stamp to write the kind of shit that they do’, and
2) A letter to Points of View circa the early eighties bemoaning the quality of the now-forgotten Paul Squire’s BBC series, using the highly un-PC phrase ‘this programme is suitable only for flids, morons and cretins’.
Oh, and the Not the Nine O’Clock News parody, so that’s three things. Bugger.