Anyone else watching this? Just finishing now with a great rendition of Insect Nation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kj2r2

try to catch it on iplayer if you didn't see it, it's been really fun.

Today I learned that bassoons are pointless!

WHAT??

I really enjoyed it, thought it was very amusing.
x

I LOVE Bill Bailey

That they could play absolutely anything and knowone would be able to hear them anyway.

It had my husband and I in hysterics it was so funny. I loved the swan done by cow bells. It was just so funny.

Hehehe, this did make me chuckle when I watched it on iPlayer might watch it again later!!

Tremendous stuff. I was delighted to hear Mr. B. pouring vitriol on the Eastenders theme and loved the cockney version of William Tell.

Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention - I would have missed it otherwise and it is a gem of the highest order

Yep - I love playing completely random stuff in concert band, since no one can hear me.
But - bassoons are good as solo instruments with piano - or in stuff like the rite of spring, where it's only them playing!
I watched this on iplayer - it was great

I'm watching it now
'I go into a building... into a room... i see a light... i go into the light... and i'm in... A LIFT!!'

I loved it too especially the cow bells

Does anyone know (or can do!!!) how you can 'keep' a copy and put on DVD, its the kind of thing I could use in the classroom. Any ideas? Preferably in the next 5 and a half days.

I've never tried downloading anything from Iplayer, but there must be some way of copying the file so that it lasts more than a month (or whatever the limit on downloaded files is).

This was an entertaining program - he's a funny man. I did enjoy watching it for the most part, although parts of it just came across as dumbed down. It also annoyed me when he incorrectly said during the oboe section that the bassoon has a cylindrical bore rather than conical.

But, yeah, I enjoyed watching it for the most part.

I am obviously a boring old stick. I watched for about 20 minutes but became increasingly irritated by the way Bill Bailey loves the sound of his own voice - it would have been nice to hear more of the instruments playing and less of Bill!

Anyway, I'm glad so many others appreciated it. Makes me feel my share of the licence fee wasn't wasted!

I've just watched it again. My favourite bit has got to be 'Exterminez vous!! non, parce que je suis doctor qui...'

It had some great bits (the first few minutes, the bells, the Dr Who jazz-style piano), some okay bits, some intensely boring bits (e,g, the American cop show car chase), a lot of factual inaccuracies, rather too much of Bill Bailey (like the excruciating voice-over, you can't call it singing, on the News theme) and not enough about the (magnificent) orchestra and its instruments.

And if you listen properly you can hear the bassoon playing BeeGees numbers even when the rest of the orchestra is playing, even if Bill would like you to believe that you can't.

On balance, a wasted opportunity. It could have been so much better.

I didnt smile once, programme was a load of rubbish !

I thought it was great.. not brilliant, but really good fun in parts. It's not something I would watch again though because once was enough.. but I did enjoy it.

I loved Dr. Qui, the handbells (I really did laugh out loud) and the Belgian jazz.

I like Bill Bailey but not in too big a dose and he really shouldn't sing for his supper - it's not his strongest talent (but his piano playing is good)....

I enjoyed it, especially the cowbells

get_iplayer is your friend, although it has a bit of an awkward interface

Bill Bailey!!!!

Yeah... Like my signature??!

When I was watching it I said to my boyfriend "Someone on the forum has this as their signature"

Thank goodness! I was beginning to think it was only me!

To be fair, I didn't watch much of it I'm afraid. Am I the only person on the forum who doesn't like Bill Bailey - I put him in the same school as Bill Oddie for irritating, sorry Bill Bailey fans

I think you'll find that the only way to do this is to record it while it's being broadcast. The iplayer files are very heavily protected - I found that you can't even play them if you've saved them to your hard drive unless you've got internet connection when you want to play them as each file checks its status with the BBC before playing.

Overall, I enjoyed the programme. It was somewhat tongue in cheek and a bit of a send-up - a good chance for people who might not otherwise be tempted to watch/listen to orchestral music, see that classical musicians aren't stuffy or boring.

I particularly liked The Swan on cowbells and the Dr Who theme converted into a jazz number

For those of you who feel critical about the programme - and that Bill Bailey liked the sound of his own voice - remember, he's a comedian in his day job.

Well it is one of the best sketches... His 'love song' is pretty hilarious, too! And the Kraftwerk one... I think I just have his sense of humour

There is software to do the job.

The best is I've seen is "Iplayer Downloader" (unsurprisingly) at http://www.lawrencedudley.co.uk/iplayer/ for which you need a mac running OS X 10.5. It works just like a browser to display the iPlayer website. You pick the programme you want and it downloads as a Quicktime file, stripping the protection. It handles audio streams too.

There is also a version for Windows which is a bit more fiddly, not having the fancy graphic front-end of the mac one. It works fine though, you just have to copy the URL of the movie you want from the iPlayer website into the application. You can get that one from http://po-ru.com/projects/iplayer-downloader/

I have to say I think it is extraordinary that the Beeb attempt to go to so much trouble to protect this stuff. If you record it off the tele or radio there is no protection. I believe it's largely to do with licensing as it's a 3rd party (not the Beeb) who look after streamed content.



I agree with Amanda, but then I like Bill Bailey and I believe "humour does belong in music" (a phrase coined by my hero Frank Zappa - oh sorry I've said that before).

I rather enjoyed the comment from some 16th century book (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the oboe is "pleasing and not much inferior to the trumpet".

i think there was some fuss a while ago about the BBC making content available to people who aren't paying license fees (i.e. foreigners). since digital content is so easy to copy, that might explain why they take some extra precautions.

as for the program; well, i was hoping for a bit more orchestra and a bit less Bill Bailey. as an hour-long comedy act, i didn't find it especially amusing.

I really loved that Strings on holiday piece.
I think if you were watching and expecting a concert or even an enlightening guide to the orchestra then you would have been very dissapointed but as a piece of entertainment I think it was really good. I also think that it really showed off the orchestra.

It was all right. I liked the cockney "William Tell". Sometimes I did feel that he talked too much, though.

his "Docter Qui" was really good and i was really annoyed because I had insect nation stuck in my head for ages!!
and bassons are useless in loud bits of orchestral and band music.

Absolutely

I thought his news headlines read out to the background of the old ITN News theme music was hilarious Funny to listen to, but also rather true that jolly music accompanying the really depressing news we hear now wouldn't work for real these days.

Brill, thanks for this. Downloaded everything last night without any hitch so far and managed to watch the start without any difficulty. All I need to work out now is how to get it in iPod friendly file so I can watch the rest on train to London on Thursday.

As usual, as its for a Mac, it works with minimum fuss and a great front end.

The rest of the chap's photography site is also quite interesting. Up till yesterday, I wasn't aware there was a Mac Chick of the Month competition....

Well if you have a mac and a video ipod, all you need to do is stick the video in iTunes.

I hadn't spotted that. Would it be too awful of me to say that the sexiest thing in the photos was the macbook?

Do I just drag the file into iTunes? I'm always a bit nervous of Quick Time files, they don't always come with Apple's blessing.

On your second point, mostly agree, except perhaps for one shot...but I'm not saying which one...

I don't think there should be a problem. I just stick all my videos in iTunes. I don't have a video iPOD though but I'm sure synching videos must be pretty much automatic. Failing that, there is a "Share" option in iTunes which enables you to convert videos to various standards suitable for TV, Web and iPOD use. I'm in the office at the moment surrounded by Microdross. When I get back to Happy Mac Land I'll have a look.

I'll take another peek when everyone's gone home.

OK the office is emptying so out comes the mac.
Yes, just drag the mov files into Itunes. To synchronise to a video ipod have a look at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1333 - it looks as though it's automatic.
I was a bit wrong about "Share" (I think that's iMovie). But in itunes under Advanced, you will find options to create ipod and TV versions of videos if you need to.

Ooh er. Maybe I was a bit hasty with my earlier comment.

OK, more success, have moved the movies over to iTunes and did the conversion to iPod/iPhone version (takes quite a while). Tommorrow, will try sync with iPod and iPhone. Just for good measure, I also recorded the British Music thing on Sunday night on Purcell.

My next project will be to find a good Mac programme that allows me to copy parts of a DVD into iTunes and play a number of different extracts back in class. When we do the film music lessons, its always a bit fiddly shoving discs in and out of the machine.

Then perhaps, I might see if I can find this months Mac Chick of the Month.

It's just struck me that Bill Bailey is supposed to have perfect pitch (I'm not doubting this), but played the Eastenders theme in the wrong key with particular reference to the note F, which normally would have been an Ab. Also, why did he need to ask the orchestra leader for an F# for the theremin jellyfish piece?

I think terms of irony and showmanship have be thought of here.

How many people would know what key the original Eastenders theme is in anyway? - I don't for one! It's a dire piece of music anyway. A GCSE or Grade 5 theory candidate could have composed something more interesting.

Probably , but then how would you get your hand in the right position without someone giving you the pitch?

Like the theme to Emmerdale Farm?

I really enjoyed this show, particularly the bassoonists playing Staying Alive, and The Swan on cowbells - it was really good to see those folks in the BBC Concert Orchestra are up for some fun! Like him or not, Bill Bailey is a very clever man.

That's why they opt for the Concert Orchestra instead of the others, they do the fun stuff. Still, maybe too much fun and they get bored? Perhaps after a night of that, Eric Coates and Leroy Anderson they yearn for some Ligeti and Mahler 8?

I've found that TV themes have been a good starting point for GCSE melody and terminal task options. By starting with something familiar, they can see that all the rather abstract concepts we try to teach them actually apply in real life.

Erm, anyone with perfect pitch, or anyone who was subjected to learning it at some point (it's often in 'all the pieces you never wanted to play' type books.) I just thought it strange that he'd changed the key, as, given he has perfect pitch, it must have been a conscious decision to do so.

Yup, Doctor Qui and the cowbells were the best part of it I think - very clever! (I did a similar style piano duet with a friend - changing places on the piano stool etc at different parts of the music....) And his William Tell was also pretty funny too. I didn't think the whole hour was as funny though - just those bits. Some of it seemed like he was trying too hard to be funny........ which is a shame, because he can be extremely funny.......

I agree

OK, pleased to report the whole thing has worked superbly following advice re: dowloading stuff using iPlayer. Had to go to London for INSET yesterday and watched on laptop (excellent quality), then watched the Purcell programme on iPod on way home. Again, quality excellent, but unlike kids at school, I found the screen too small for lengthy watching.

Next task, try to import into iMovie, chapter it, then burn on DVD. Fingers crossed. As its a Mac, even if it doesn't work, unlikely to do any damage.

I enjoyed the programme, some bits were a bit predictable if you're a musician, but if it gets non-musicians talking about it, that can only be good.

I'm hoping the Handel programme tommorrow will match the Purcell one.