Eine Kleine....

We wrote back in April (number 9 here) about the need for clarification of the roles of BBC2 and BBC4. And it seems that George Entwistle has finally stomped his DQF boots on Richard Klein at BBC4, saying lay off comedy and drama, and stick with arts.

With a tiny budget, but an unerring eye for publicity, the two Sky Arts channels have beaten Klein to it, in terms of reputation, if not audience.  With a handful of cheap and cheerful "new" programmes - notably Mariella Frostrup's Book Show and Laurie Taylor's recreation of the old Face To Face interview, "In Confidence" - there's also a reliable diet of classic rock, jazz, opera and orchestra shows from other people's archives.

And despite his apparent new focus, Klein doesn't get music (noted grumpily here, at the turn of the year, at number 6, under the title Scottish Folk Singers In Country Houses).  His promised highlights for the coming year are thin on classical - a series called "The Symphony" is the only mention of pre-20th Century music; Rick Stein gets to boat the Mississippi in search of blues and presumably gumbo, in a rather tired combination of formulae; and there will be four documentaries about "black music acts of the 1980s".  

All this as Roger Wright at Radio 3 moves back to live music every evening.  Another firm kick or two from Entwistle, and we might have some live tv cameras as well - at least say once a week. Then maybe a few recordings of the jazz artists performing sessions for Jamie Cullum on Radio 2.  Not Scottish, but not expensive...