Hooray for Freeview

atching some of the Freeview digital channels in this house recently has overtaken the mainstream terrestrial programmes. Admittedly, many of the programmes have previously been shown on the big four and there's a lot of repetition, but if you're careful, you can dig up some real treasures.

Grand Designs and (older and better) ER can be found on More4, but it's UKTV History that I watch the most. It has The World at War and gems like the programme recently on the last debutante season before WW2. Since Christmas, there has been the series Inventing the Modern World, which is good, though with a touch too much dramatisation. On the down side, though, there has also been a surfeit of Fred Dibnah.

Nevertheless, I've been enjoying A History of Britain, Meet the Ancestors, and What the Ancients/ Romans/ Stuarts/ Tudors/ Elizabethans/ Victorians Did for Us. In the last of these, I particularly liked the reconstuction of the Tempest Prognosticator, a Victorian machine that used leeches to warn of impending storms by ringing bells.

Overall, though, what I like best about the digital channels is that they show old programmes. The static cameras and slow pacing of dramas such as Brideshead Revisited and The Jewel in the Crown are thoughtful compared to the hurried wobblings and part-dramatised frenzy that programme makers assume we need nowadays to maintain our attention. Unfortunately, although ITV2 was broadcasting these as part of its celebrations of 50 years of ITV, its lukewarm commitment to these triumphs led to scheduling late them on Sunday and Monday nights, so I missed most of them.