BBC Series .... Icons of the 20th Centuries ..

[Clarets4me]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profil ... -the-icons

Don't even get me started on the PC ******** that went into the shortlisting of these selections !!

[Pimlico_Claret]

Well Thatcher certainly helped shape the future of Britain, there's little doubt there

[SammyBoy]

All seem fairly iconic to me

[duncandisorderly]

To me https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profil ... /tu-youyou" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[duncandisorderly]

To be fair, the only two people I'd never heard of on there are Tanni Grey-Thomson and Tu Youyou so I can't say if they are iconic, but the rest certainly are, no?

[Pimlico_Claret]

[quote="duncandisorderly"]To be fair, the only two people I'd never heard of on there are Tanni Grey-Thomson and Tu Youyou so I can't say if they are iconic, but the rest certainly are, no?[/quote


Tu Youyou and Tu Me me, weren't they the Chinese Chuckle Brothers?

[FactualFrank]

To be fair, the only two people I'd never heard of on there are Tanni Grey-Thomson and Tu Youyou so I can't say if they are iconic, but the rest certainly are, no?

Congratulations to Tu Youyou. Also for being the most confusing person to sing Happy Birthday to.

[Pstotto]

When Burnley wasted any time in midfield, my Grandad always used to say 'from me to you' as a dry remark.

The list is worrying as an attempt to re-write history. What it also shows is that any attempt to build a society on pseudo non-elitist lines, is bound to fail for pandering to mediocrity and championing 3rd rate stuff.

[Acting Claret]

Billie Holliday over Elvis or The Beatles is an eyebrow raiser.

[Clarets4me]

Billie Holliday over Elvis or The Beatles is an eyebrow raiser.

As is Bowie over Elvis or the Beatles, which is what caught my eye ! Tanni Grey Thompson is clearly a PC sop, helped by the fact she's on the BBC payroll, and a number of the others are dubious ... but then you look at the people involved in their selection !!

[ElectroClaret]

Congratulations to Tu Youyou. Also for being the most confusing person to sing Happy Birthday to.

Brilliant.

[CombatClaret]

Billie Holliday over Elvis or The Beatles is an eyebrow raiser.

The Beatles are a band and not an individual icon like this list is.
Elvis though a great performer just took black music and made it acceptable to white america [puts on tin hat]

Don't even get me started on the PC ******** that went into the shortlisting of these selections !!

Should replace some of the women with Alf Garnett and Oswald Mosley.

[Clarets4me]

The Beatles are a band and not an individual icon like this list is.
Elvis though a great performer just took black music and made it acceptable to white america [puts on tin hat]
Should replace some of the women with Alf Garnett and Oswald Mosley.

Your Elvis comment betrays your lack of knowledge, and the other comment is a wilful misrepresentation of what I meant, as well you know !!

[CombatClaret]

Your Elvis comment betrays your lack of knowledge

So his first hits were not covers of songs by black artist who were banned from the radio?

[Buxtonclaret]

Congratulations to Tu Youyou. Also for being the most confusing person to sing Happy Birthday to.

Brilliant!
Still giggling as I type.

[Clarets4me]

So his first hits were not covers of songs by black artist who were banned from the radio?

He was heavily influenced by black " rhythm & blues " artists, as well as Country music, both black and white gospel, as well as crooners like Dean Martin & Sinatra. His first released recording " That's all right, Mama " was indeed a cover of Arthur Crudup's minor blues hit, but the second " Blue Moon of Kentucky " was an old " Bluegrass " Country standard, written by Bill Monroe.

To paint him as just covering black artists music is not giving him the credit he's due. For him to have the courage to do what he did, especially having grown up in the segregated South. was remarkable. As a famous music writer once wrote, " Elvis took music from " How much is that doggy in the window ? " to " Heartbreak Hotel " and " Don't be Cruel " in less than 12 months ". Many black artists of the time credit him for " opening the door " for them . This clip, from many contemporanious black artists of the time, and others who worked with him later, ( Including Cissy Houston, Whitney's mother at 8.01 ) is informative....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_dqfeYWsXc

[Rileybobs]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profil ... -the-icons

Don't even get me started on the PC ******** that went into the shortlisting of these selections !!

I’m sorry, but where exactly is the PC ****. Seems like you’re getting upset about nothing.

[CombatClaret]

He was heavily influenced by black " rhythm & blues " artists, as well as Country music, both black and white gospel, as well as crooners like Dean Martin & Sinatra. His first released recording " That's all right, Mama " was indeed a cover of Arthur Crudup's minor blues hit, but the second " Blue Moon of Kentucky " was an old " Bluegrass " Country standard, written by Bill Monroe.

To paint him as just covering black artists music is not giving him the credit he's due. For him to have the courage to do what he did, especially having grown up in the segregated South. was remarkable. As a famous music writer once wrote, " Elvis took music from " How much is that doggy in the window ? " to " Heartbreak Hotel " and " Don't be Cruel " in less than 12 months ". Many black artists of the time credit him for " opening the door " for them . This clip, from many contemporanious black artists of the time, and others who worked with him later, ( Including Cissy Houston, Whitney's mother at 8.01 ) is informative....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_dqfeYWsXc

I agree with what you say, he wasn't some kind of hack. But he was the acceptable face of music that, in some places wouldn't have otherwise been listened to, that it took him to 'open the door' speaks to the society not the performer. I'd put him in the same list as Frank Sinatra, great voice/performer but never truly created much that changed things.

[Longsider]

Congratulations to Tu Youyou. Also for being the most confusing person to sing Happy Birthday to.

Not often I have a proper laugh on this board at the moment but thankyou, that was a belter.

[tiger76]

This lists are always going to provoke controversy,the one glaring omission from the science camp in my opinion,is John Logie Baird inventor of TV for good or ill it's a major contributor to 20th century society.

If you really wanted to put the cat amongst the pigeons a curveball like Rosa Parks could be suggested.

[Hipper]

'The criteria were: positive achievement and legacy, a degree of recognition for a British audience, and a spread of individuals across the century.'

I would argue that some who we see now as having a negative influence had a greater effect on where we are now, and certainly where all of us where in the twentieth century. Surely, for example, Lenin had the biggest influence on the world in the 1900s.

Of course this programme is above all about television entertainment.