Beeb programmers still have us Sitting in Limbo

IT has been a while since I took a look at what BBC iPlayer has to offer.

It was a virtual lifeline during the worst days of winter lockdown, with the added boon of no advertisements.

The April heatwave provided a break from the box, but the May storms forced me back indoors, and back to the Beeb.

Nothing very much had changed. There are still seven pages of drama and soaps, which is where you find the films, ancient and modern. Some of them have been there so long they should have been watched into extinction. How many times can anyone give Cat People a try? Or its follow-up The Curse of the Cat People?

Ditto I Walked with a Zombie. Did you? Same for Les Miserables. They certainly are, on the umpteenth time of viewing. Is Man on the Moon still there? Oh yes.

The Beeb can do repeats like no other broadcaster, though us oldies who now have to pay £157.50 for the privilege of watching might wish for something better.

And the woke brigade should have something to say about Murdered by My Father, Murdered for Being Different and Murdered by My Boyfriend, all steeped in violence against women but still on the menu after many months. Sitting in

Limbo is still sitting there, with Sitting in Limbo – pre-watershed version.

Never have buckles been more swashed than on iPlayer. Choose from The Spanish Main, with flame-haired temptress (as they said in the old days) Maureen O’Hara and Blackbeard the Pirate, with Robert Newton.

Or, like me, you might switch to YouTube, where careful navigation can reap satisfactory results.

Wake up, Beeb programmers!