In the news ... Bricks from India for the BBC. ?

Well I must have missed it the first time around. No matter.
I was just shocked today when I saw the amount!
?

The figures quoted are those quoted in 2018, nothing different. Yet again old news!

Again, with respect Casdon I just think it’s in the news now because the project has been completed and the final figures are in.

Goodness, at £87 million the BBC could have purchased a square plus houses here in Manchester for a lot less! They’d probably have to rename the pub though.

I’m still struggling to understand why people are exercising themselves about this now. I found the NAO report, which is dated December 2018, over three years ago, and there doesn’t seem to be any new revelation about it since.
www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/E20-renewing-the-Eastenders-set.pdf

Getting obsessed with absolutely the right bricks to look authentic, in a situation where such total authenicity is unnecessary is a classic example of the BBC gettinget so wound up with their self-generated idea of the need for authenticity

To be honest I have never really understood what they, or most of theb people who keep using the word actually mean when they talk of authenicity. I think it is a nicw woolly word that enables the BBC and others to avoid using words like honest and truthful, when events aren't but they want to pretend they are.

East Enders is a fictitious drama, what is authentic about that?

Any excuse to bash the BBC - the World Service is much admired throughout the world bringing news and one British thing we should be proud of. Popular programmes like EE maybe not be to everyone’s taste but do bring in revenue as they flog it elsewhere. Yes they could have built the set out of cardboard like Acorn Antiques, but I guess they are hoping it looks more professional and enables the to sell the series elsewhere and cover the costs quite easily.

I watched Eastenders from the very first programme, for about three years, then intermittently; my daughter became addicted to it, (benefits of a university education), and I had to endure it for about ten more years until it sickened her too; now I see the tail end of the programme if I am watching the following one.
Dreadful.

Correction - How is the BBC irrelevant.

I know now why the Beeb is becoming irrelevant today.

During the pandemic the BBC almost immediately provided a broad range of educational programmes for schools and this very day there are BBC journalists risking their lives to report the horrors of war.

How is the BBC is it not irrelevant?

They get so wound up with their self-generated idea of the need for authenticity

Surely in a world where everything is transient and 'fake news' abounds authenticity is more vital than ever. The search for authenticity is something I never thought I would see used as a criticism.

I think people can probably cope, in the same way I dont believe that everyone on Australia has a long lost relative who will turn up to wreck their lives, just because I have seen Neighbours.

eazybee

Eastenders is not real; it is a drama, and in my opinion, an appalling programme. I wonder how much its portrayal of east end life influences foreign viewers' idea of life in Britain today.
Wasting so much money on a set for any programme is absurd, but amazing how criticism of it can be twisted into yet another attack on the government.

Presumably you watch it to know it is an appalling programme ?

taked taken

eazybee

Eastenders is not real; it is a drama, and in my opinion, an appalling programme. I wonder how much its portrayal of east end life influences foreign viewers' idea of life in Britain today.
Wasting so much money on a set for any programme is absurd, but amazing how criticism of it can be twisted into yet another attack on the government.

It was not "twisted into yet another attack on the government". The attack from the government was in the OP.

"... has been criticised by MPs and the National Audit Office."

This lying, undemocratic government does not have the right to be taked serioiusly, in my biased opinion. Get your facts straight before pushing your own bias

Casdon

Strangely this is old news.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6651283/How-weeks-dithering-bricks-use-helped-push-cost-new-EastEnders-set.html
One wonders why it is published today in the Telegraph over two years later, with the same figures quoted. Are the government planning a BBC announcement while everybody is distracted by what’s happening in Ukraine, or am I just cynical?

I think it’s because the project took four years to complete Casdon.

Eastenders is not real; it is a drama, and in my opinion, an appalling programme. I wonder how much its portrayal of east end life influences foreign viewers' idea of life in Britain today.
Wasting so much money on a set for any programme is absurd, but amazing how criticism of it can be twisted into yet another attack on the government.

Casdon

Strangely this is old news.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6651283/How-weeks-dithering-bricks-use-helped-push-cost-new-EastEnders-set.html
One wonders why it is published today in the Telegraph over two years later, with the same figures quoted. Are the government planning a BBC announcement while everybody is distracted by what’s happening in Ukraine, or am I just cynical?

I don't think you could be cynical about this lot we have been lumbered with.

Yes I spent quite a bit of yesterday thinking how fortunate we are to have such brave people.

Strangely this is old news.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6651283/How-weeks-dithering-bricks-use-helped-push-cost-new-EastEnders-set.html
One wonders why it is published today in the Telegraph over two years later, with the same figures quoted. Are the government planning a BBC announcement while everybody is distracted by what’s happening in Ukraine, or am I just cynical?

I don't care. The government and the BBC can fight it out. This government and the right always need something to attack the Beeb with - they will be rubbing their hands with glee.

Meanwhile, I watch their correspondents bravely letting the world know what is happening in Ukraine. I watch the BBC pulling out all the stops to let us know - far too politely - that this lying Dirty Parliament, put in place by Russian money is still up to its nasty tricks and lying to Parliament. Yesterday they lied about an elderly woman seeking to find sanctuary with her own family in the UK. That could be your or my mother in other circumstances. It could be your children's granny.

The bought and paid for press who publish this stuff as their main articles may be at the top of some peoples adgenda; it simply isn't mine.

The BBC make £millions from flogging Eastenders.

It is typical of the way the BBC is completely cloth-eared when dealing with matters like this. They get so wound up with their self-generated idea of the need for authenticity that they completely fail to think about how these things play out with the public.

With the corporation under threat from the culture secretary and the renewal of its charter iminent, words like 'turkeys', 'voting', and 'Chtistmas' come to mind.

I wonder if someone at the top has shares/directorships etc in the supplier or carrier? This is the way our world seems to work these days, making money off our backs for personal gain!

There's been a shortage of building materials generally here. My friend struggled to get some for work she was having done. I believe the cost of all such material has risen astronomically.

It surely wouldn’t have cost 87 million to knock down and rebuild the old set and make it secure. Typical of our today throw away society. In the meantime, my 93 year old Aunt has to find money to pay for this now her free licence fee has been taken off her. I know now why the Beeb is becoming irrelevant today.

I don’t think where the bricks came from has any relevance whatsoever, but the cost is extortionate, unless they are planning for the new set to be a tourist attraction as well so the costs can be recouped?