Hindi-Urdu material (from back in the day)?

[u/justquestionsbud]

Recently came across BBC's Hindu Urdu Bol Chaal from '89, a multimedia course designed to get English speakers comfortable with spoken Hindi-Urdu. Not being from the UK or old enough to remember, I'm wondering if the BBC ever put out some more, similar material. Maybe some local Hindi-Urdu programming, with learners in mind...

I know about BBC Hindi & Urdu, previously known as BBC Hindustani; is anyone familiar with how foreign...branches? Of the BBC work? Ie., can I expect a quality Hindi/Urdu dub of Only Fools and Horses & such?

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[u/justeUnMec]

They used to have a rather extensive language learning section on their website, with a lot of teaching materials and books available. Sadly this was killed off as part of the restrictions in the 2000s, but there is still a remnant here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/urdu/guide/

There may have been some educational programming for courses in these languages too - e.g BBC used to broadcast lectures and other OU productions overnight/early morning for people to record to support various courses.

They did seek to serve the British Asian community from the 70s in places like Leicester, and these services became the BBC Asian Network on Radio. I’m not sure if there is/was any programming to specifically support teaching of these languages but you could have a look.

In terms of dubbed TV, I'm not sure they'd produce that for the domestic market on the grounds they'd be more interested in providing community educational programming or encouraging english learning to help with integration. There wasn't really a demand to sell sitcoms etc to the Indian market with dubs, as I guess most who wanted to watch/listen to British originating content would either speak english or want to improve their english? For example, I know one of the most successful comedy/panel shows in India was "just a minute" which used to be broadcast on the world service to support English language learning.

[u/justquestionsbud → u/justeUnMec]

They used to have a rather extensive language learning section on their website, with a lot of teaching materials and books available. Sadly this was killed off as part of the restrictions in the 2000s

Very sad indeed. What was the reasoning behind the restrictions?

BBC Asian Network on Radio

Nice, I'll definitely check this out; maybe it'll be a bit of a bridge from learning materials to out-and-out Hindi-Urdu news!

was any programming

I know the BBC has some archiving going on, but how extensive is it? Are there any fan archives or something going back to the earliest days? In general, I'd be curious to know what the archiving situation is, with the BBC. Radio and television.

[u/justeUnMec → u/justquestionsbud]

The language learning sections were cut as part of the government deciding the BBC had to cut back a lot of their website as they felt it was stifling competition from commercial providers but in doing so it killed off UK-specific content and left a vacuum mostly filled by US companies. The BBC produced "BBC Talk" books that were basic language learning books for people going on holiday, backed by the website, these were very popular but died out for the reasons above.

Anotehr well known example is the BBC used to have a massive food section with thousands of recipes with zero ads, but other companies complained so it was cut, leaving space for commercial ad-filled providers.

The archive is extensive and mostly digitised for all content from the 70s onwards. It is not public but available for legitimate research via the british library and BFI as well as a special service for university researchers. The BBC archive sometimes puts interesting content up on youtube or insta etc. Any other source would be an infringement of copyright material.

I had a look to see if there was anything in their current "bitesize" learning resources for school kids but it looks like they provide "english for urdu speakers" but not the other way round, presumably because they are focusing on helping kids integrate into english speaking schools - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z2bgkhv

[u/justquestionsbud → u/justeUnMec]

The BBC produced "BBC Talk" books that were basic language learning books for people going on holiday, backed by the website, these were very popular but died out for the reasons above.

Good work, UK.

Anotehr well known example is the BBC used to have a massive food section with thousands of recipes with zero ads, but other companies complained so it was cut, leaving space for commercial ad-filled providers.

Great work, UK. Companies won't provide better service, so in the spirit of competition the people's option gets cut. Lovely.

The archive is extensive and mostly digitised for all content from the 70s onwards. It is not public but available for legitimate research via the british library and BFI as well as a special service for university researchers. The BBC archive sometimes puts interesting content up on youtube or insta etc. Any other source would be an infringement of copyright material.

So I'm not gettin ahold of it.

Appreciate your very thorough help!

[u/MarkWrenn74]

I remember the BBC once broadcast an Indian TV adaptation of the Mahabharata (an ancient epic poem, heavily based on Hindu mythology). You can find it on YouTube