The last time I did this...
...the BBC replaced the 404 Page Not Found message with an official Press Office release a couple of days later. The Merlin website is up and running properly now, of course: http://www.bbc.co.uk/merlin
So, for The 39 Steps, and leaping forward in time a little further to Christmas, I'll just give you the Press Office page now...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/08_august/21/39steps.shtml
...and tell you that they've clung desperately to convention by inserting female characters into the women-free story yet again, on the somewhat sexist assumption that ladies won't want to watch something which doesn't feature representatives of their gender. (How absurdly insulting to women. I can just imagine Andy D smirking, and saying "Didn't you know? Men don't read Jane Austen novels, either.")
Poor old Buchan. The Beeb never quite know what to do with him, as we learnt three years ago with their radio adaptation of Greenmantle:
'...in July 2005, following the London tube and bus bombings, the BBC cancelled its broadcast of Greenmantle because of its "unsuitable and insensitive" theme.' - http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/19867.html
So, for The 39 Steps, and leaping forward in time a little further to Christmas, I'll just give you the Press Office page now...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/08_august/21/39steps.shtml
...and tell you that they've clung desperately to convention by inserting female characters into the women-free story yet again, on the somewhat sexist assumption that ladies won't want to watch something which doesn't feature representatives of their gender. (How absurdly insulting to women. I can just imagine Andy D smirking, and saying "Didn't you know? Men don't read Jane Austen novels, either.")
Poor old Buchan. The Beeb never quite know what to do with him, as we learnt three years ago with their radio adaptation of Greenmantle:
'...in July 2005, following the London tube and bus bombings, the BBC cancelled its broadcast of Greenmantle because of its "unsuitable and insensitive" theme.' - http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/19867.html