Proposed Theme Park Would Put BBC Shows On Display 80
According to the Guardian, a "developing deal" for a theme park located in Kent could transform various BBC shows into Disney-style in-person experiences. Says the article: BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has struck a deal with a Kuwait-backed property developer to allow a range of its programmes and characters to be “brought to life” at a new £2bn theme park and holiday resort to be built by the Thames estuary in north Kent, in partnership with Paramount Pictures.
London Resort Company Holdings has signed a development agreement with BBC Worldwide to feature the corporation’s intellectual property at the London Paramount Entertainment Resort, which promises to “combine the glamour of Hollywood with the best of British culture."
Shows named include Top Gear, Sherlock, and Dr. Who; I think I'd rather visit a theme park that was entirely based on Monty Python's Flying Circus, but a Top Gear racetrack or simulator would be fun.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm picturing it being funded by the British public who will of course be charged an entry fee and later will see none of the profits.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Hyacinth ... (Score:2)
... don't forget Keeping Up Appearances!
I for one want to meet Mrs. Bucket, ulp, sorry Bouquet ...
Re: (Score:2)
He's a builder and excellent folk-singer who lives and works in North Yorkshire. Answers to "Pete".
No, I'm not joking.
I had to have the programme explained to me, never having watched more than 30 seconds of the repellent waste of electrons, but once I'd seen enough to recognise the character traits of Bucket-gob (the original) and Mrs Bouquet (the fictional derivative), the comparison was obvious. One or other of the (original) script-writers liv
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Like I said, I don't know the programme itself ; I can't stand the oiliness of the loathsome main character for more than a few seconds before I feel the temptation to put boot to face. Spending a week on the hill with the original is by contrast a pleasure.
There's probably a word for "demons
Smegging right! (Score:3, Informative)
Red Dwarf, you smegheads!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm disgusted that the ambulances seen in this show set in the 1950s were 1950s ambulances that don't meet modern safety standards in a crash. They should have insisted on modern ambulances.
Re: (Score:1)
Good point. In the interests of historical accuracy, all shows should include aggressive chain-smoking. To do otherwise would portray a diminished control over the health of the general population.
Re: (Score:2)
Just last night, I was watching some videos taken while Yes were recording Going For The One where they took a break and passed around a joint. Those bits obviously should have been cut out, since nobody does that any more. Oh, wait...
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I watched a series on Netflix from the BBC called "Call the Midwife". It was a story about midwifes in the late fifties. One of the midwifes was a chain smoker and even smoked around children. I find it hard to watch a program where it shows people smoking as it does not in my opinion add anything to the story. It just shows their almost total disregard of their advertising of cigarettes. It is also a sell out to the smoking industry.
It's hard to tell if you're trying to be ironic or something here, but, as you said, the program was set in the 1950's, guess what?, people smoked back then..a lot of them (hard to get an exact figure quickly, but say between 45-50% of the adult population as a lower best guess) and smoked a rather large amount (20-40 a day habit quite common in that generation).
'..even smoked around children..' is a modern affectation, firstly it wasn't perceived to be harmful (thanks to the propaganda campaigns mounted by
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget, it wasn't just ok to smoke around children - it was actually good for you.. or at least, that's what the doctors in the adverts told us [google.co.uk]
See if you can spot the cigarette advert featuring the babies in there!
As for the Disney-fied theme park, you should watch "Churchill: the Hollywood Years", where a (US marine, of course) Winston Churchill first appears with the Enigma machine that's he's single-handedly (well, with his black sidekick's assistance) captured from the Germans, but then visits Lon
Re: (Score:2)
and to remember smoking in TV shows... there was one called "Between the Lines", about 'internal investigations" cops. One of the actors was told he should smoke as it was part of his characters... only the actor had just given up smoking. So he said "sod it" and smoked... famously continually smoking [imdb.com] throughout the show. It gave the show a really "grittier" look about it.
Re: (Score:2)
It was a story about midwifes in the late fifties. One of the midwifes was a chain smoker and even smoked around children.
Yes - in the 1950s, nobody would have batted an eyelid at that (its probably a detail from the real-life memoirs the series was inspired by). My dad was in hospital with a lung infection in the 50s. They came round the ward with a cart handing out free cigarettes.
it does not in my opinion add anything to the story.
Really? It shows one aspect of how social practices and attitudes have changed in the last 50 years which is the whole bloody point of the show! Should they have quietly corrected all the now-discredited medical practices while they were at it? Pe
Re: (Score:2)
The whole bloody point of the show was showing the caring relationship between the midwifes and their patients. It showed women helping each other and their patients. The odds that their would be 4 beautiful young midwifes is less than the odds that they would find 4 non-smoking midwifes. How could the smoking midwife maintain her clothes and buy her makeup and still have money for cigarettes? The smoking doctor had a son who would have been my age at that time. Did they show that boy waking up in the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Bans on smoking in public places and workplaces typically extend to TV studios.
They don't in England. So long as you can justify it dramatically, and there is no reasonable replacement there is an exception for theatrical film and TV smoking indoors.
So a brief shot at a distance you could reasonably be required to use an ecig as a replacement. But a longer close up shot may require the generation of ash, and the diminishing length of a real cigarette.
In Scotland however, there is no such exception.
(This is AFAIK, based on the rules in the year after the smoking ban came in. It's possi
Dont forget to handcuff people before they get in (Score:2)
they could steal stuff! better make rectal spyware control posts at the exit, so that nobody can smuggle something out.
Would be at least consistent with BBC's position towards EME. Not firefox should get the blame and the shitstorm.
better make it indoors (Score:1)
pretty sad.. (Score:1)
that they went overseas to find developers for a theme park project in their own country. surely they could have found uk-based partners, investors and developers?
Re: (Score:2)
surely they could have found uk-based partners, investors and developers?
No, we've actually seen the programmes in question so, apart from Doctor Who, we be uninterested in seeing things that have been on the television for the past twenty-odd years. Domestic developers probably know that this park is something that will get a bit of interest for a few months then devolve into a ghost town, peopled by a handful of foreign tourists who've already been to Buckingham Palace.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
If they can have several successful theme parks based on Lego, I see no reason why they can't for BBC TV shows.
So long as it's more theme park than museum, it'll work.
Re: (Score:2)
They're massive risks and the UK is home to the world's second largest theme park Operator, Merlin Entertainment (probably most famous internationally for running the legoland parks). This theme park will be under an hours drive from 3 different Merlin owned Theme Parks (in addition to the London Dungeons and Madam Tussaud's) .
Re: (Score:2)
mod up. A BBC themed park would be to a padophile like locking a sugar junkie in a candy store.
hell, they'll even have locks on the inside of the Teletubbie Land houses.
plus BBC America? (Score:3)
I'm hoping for a full-on Orphan Black setup.
Re: (Score:2)
Subtle troll is subtle.
Re: (Score:2)
the BBC produces its own content, I think you're thinking of Channel 4 (which doesn't actually produce *anything* - and about 20% of its commission funding comes from the National Lottery).
Here comes some heresy... (Score:2, Funny)
Monty Python isn't actually very funny.
I'm British and let me tell you lot's of us feel that way
I have to remain anonymous otherwise I could be killed for saying this
Re: (Score:2)
No, its tru - most of MP isn't very funny at all, its just that we forget the crap bits and remember the good.
What's most important about Python is that they did it at all, before them there was practically no surreal style comedy, it was all made by men who used to be in the military and were used to entertaining the troops or Victorian variety music hall type stuff. That Python changed the comedy landscape was probably more important than their hit-and-miss show, but that's what you get when you push so f
Re: (Score:1)
Comedy always dates. Morecambe and Wise was hilarious in it's heyday in the 1970s, and well deserved a majority of the population watching the Christmas specials. But anyone watching now would be mildly amused at best. This isn't because 1970s audiences were wrong, or were just enjoying a few highlights. It was virtually all very funny. It's just that comedy dates.
Same goes for The Young ones. Same for League of Gentlemen and Little Britain, which have already dated. Same goes for Red Dwarf and The Office.
I
Monty Python? (Score:2)
I think I'd rather visit a theme park that was entirely based on Monty Python's Flying Circus,
"No, you wouldn't."
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure there would be a long line, um queue, for the complaints department.
Oh! Oh, I'm sorry. This is the argument clinic. Complaints is next door, room 12B.
Re: (Score:2)
It's all in good fun, until someone pulls the lever and releases the bengal tiger...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Since his move occurred just before BBC1 and ITV started colour transmissions, it's safe to say that any "Benny Hill Shows" in colour weren't made by the BBC.
Re: (Score:1)
Start wth "The Avengers", (Steed and Emma Peel).
Then "The Prisoner"
There's plenty more.
Re: (Score:2)
Given the standard of what ITV produces* this isn't surprising. I can't think of a single show that ITV managed to export before Downton Abbey.
What are you talking about? The company "ITV plc" (which has only existed since 2004) or the ITV network?
Remember that "ITV" was originally- and still is- the collective name given to the network of (once independent) regional franchisees for the main commercial TV station.
It was only after the franchisees were allowed to merge- starting in the 90s- that the two largest remaining companies merged to become "ITV plc" in 2004. Before that, there wasn't an ITV company, just a bunch of separate companies th
Re: (Score:2)
uh...
Crown Court
The Bill
Sapphire And Steel
anything made by Gerry Anderson
Peppa Pig
Parade's End
Coronation Street
The Price Is Right
Come Dine With Me
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
BGT/X Factor
Hnnnn.... (Score:2)
The ride for "Coupling" could be fun :)
Re: (Score:2)
Will a giant white ball chase you down?
Not unless they license that show [wikipedia.org], since it was made by ATV/ITC for the ITV network, not the BBC. (*)
;-)
Unless, of course, I misunderstood you, and you were referring to a bizarre episode of It's a Knockout [wikipedia.org].
(*) Ditto this post [slashdot.org] regarding the "all British TV programmes were made by the BBC" fallacy Americans and others seem to hold.
Re: (Score:2)
That show already has a theme park - Portmeirion [portmeirion-village.com] in west Wales. Go visit it... (yes, I know, its a real village first, but I think it only exists now due to the tourist trade)
"The larch...the larch...the larch" (Score:2)
Such a theme park would be a lot more fun if it included references to those derisive Monty Python sketches about BBC culture.
Race the Stig ride (Score:2)
"Race the Stig" ride? ...please please please.
Top Gear? (Score:2)
Doc Martin yes. As Time Goes By no. (Score:2)
ITV already has a theme park for The Prisoner (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Sherlock Holmes themed opium den? (Score:2)
I just want a Sherlock holmes themed opium den.
However. Failing all of that. I could just add a theme park to my mind palace.
Who World (Score:2)
great, giant foam daleks (Score:2)
a la Disneyland.
bbc+theme parks (Score:2)
they're certainly thinking of the children.
Fawlty Towers (Score:2)
Like Disney World, will it also have accompanying lodging.
Peaky Blinders (Score:1)
The Gift Shop.... (Score:1)
...should of course be based on "Are You Being Served?"
Sounds ... less than tempting. (Score:2)
I'd rather boil my own head.