I wonder why the incidental music is a particular problem... after all the BBC use such
music in many programmes and as far as I understand there's a mechanism in place
whereby a payment is made for each piece used. I might be wrong of course!
Having seen Ray's programmes 'live' on the TV and on DVD it's clear that different music
can be played so I wonder why that's not an option - though perhaps it's a bit of a palaver
if there isn't much enthusiasm for releasing older material. There's a lovely bit used in the
Sweden TV episode (I think it's Ulrich Schnauss) but it's not on the DVD.
It did occur to me that using a Pledgebank type of campaign might work as a place where
people can sign up to persuade the BBC - it seems to have been a contributory factor in
getting a Mitchell and Webb series released (
http://www.pledgebank.com/Mitchell-W).
But it would be a bit hopeless I think if loads of people wrote to the BBC because then
they'd have to write back and say yes or no - if 100 people wrote and they replied it would
cost them 100 x 20p (I'm assuming they've got some bulk deal with a franking machine!)
or £2,000... Plan B I suspect!
They do seem to be on YouTube - surprisingly an awful lot of Ray's stuff has been put up
there by the BBC itself (snippets of, rather than the full thing though).