NICK Knowles has backed up criticism of the BBC after a Twitter user complained that his 2004 series Historyonics isn’t available.
Nick, 59, is best known for fronting popular BBC show DIY SOS, but he has dabbled in other genres over the years.
Back in 2004, he hosted Historyonics, a tongue in cheek history programme which saw actors recreate famous historical figures or moments in time. Currently, BBC iPlayer only has short one minute clips of the show available.
A history-loving viewer rediscovered the programme, which only ran for one series, and tweeted the presenter yesterday. “Nick, why have I never seen Historyonics repeated? I’d forgotten how funny and Pythonesque it was.”
“Everything else gets repeats – this only short clips on BBC site,” @ TheLarryBanda wrote, while sharing footage from an episode.
“Yes it was all very odd,” Nick, who has 159, 000 followers, replied.
“It was the highest rated history show on BBC1 ever getting up to 7 million viewers, which is unheard of. Factually correct & funny but I wrote it and I’m not posh!” he said.
“Teachers loved it to teach & used it but no second series & not repeated once. Odd. Not Oxbridge,” he went on to claim.
He later retweeted another tweet from the same user, who urged the BBC to make it available to watch. “Come on @BBC – start showing these again,” the post read with a laughing emoji.
“A great way for school kids to learn about history and have some fun – or are you a bit too snobby at the Beeb?”
Backing up the history buff, Nick revealed that in addition to the show not being recommissioned for a second series, it has never been repeated.
“Can you imagine Lovely Dan Snow writing a family history show, getting 7 million viewers and it not getting a second series, never being repeated and not available to download,” he griped.
“Many teachers asked @BBCOne to repeat it or make it available to download but never seen again.”
“You repeat some right old rubbish”
The user replied: “I’m no expert but did some snobby person in BBC history dept decide it was too populist and blackball a second series because you don’t have a history doctorate? Or am I too cynical?
“Come on @BBC – you repeat some right old rubbish so why not a great show like this?”
Nick addressed the class issue in his response, saying: “Couldn’t possibly comment [laughing emoji] but it’s fair to say it’s difficult to imagine any of the posher history types getting those figures and it never being seen again.”
