The Money Programme

The Money Programme
The logo as of 2008
Genre	Finance & Business Affairs
Presented by	Max Flint & Libby Potter
Opening theme	Main Title from The Carpetbaggers
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC
Original run	5 April 1966 (1966-04-05) – present
External links
Website

The Money Programme is a finance and business affairs television programme on BBC2.

It was first broadcast on 5 April 1966 and presented by "commentators" (financial journalists) William Davis, Erskine Childers and Joe Roeber. At this time David Attenborough was the controller of BBC2. The programme has a memorable theme tune, a version of the main title theme from The Carpetbaggers film by Lalo Schifrin (which appeared on an album by jazz organist Jimmy Smith.)

Since the start the programme used a magazine style, but changed to a single subject documentary in 2001. More recently the programme has formed a partnership with the Open University Business School. The Open University provides input into programmes and supplementary materials written by OU Business School academics).

On 1 June 2007 an episode of the Money Programme called "Virtual World / Real Millions" became the first full BBC programme to have been broadcast inside the virtual world Second Life.^[1] That episode featured an interview with Second Life founder and CEO Philip Rosedale amongst others.

This programme was parodied in Series 3 of Monty Python's Flying Circus as the opening sketch of the third episode in that series first airing on the BBC 3 November 1972.^[2]

Presenters

• Max Flint
• Libby Potter

Former presenters

• James Bellini
• Michael Charlton
• Erskine Childers^{[disambiguation needed ]}
• Adrian Chiles
• Nick Clarke
• Rajan Datar
• William Davis
• Maya Even
• Peter Hobday
• Peter Jay
• Michael Robinson
• Joe Roeber
• Valerie Singleton
• Hugh Stephenson
• Alan Watson
• Brian Widlake

Interviewees

• Jeff Bezos
• Lord Black of Crossharbour
• Tony Blair
• Michael Bloomberg
• Sir Richard Branson
• Lord Browne of Madingley
• Shiatzy Chen
• Michael Dell
• Michael Eisner
• Larry Ellison
• Sir Rocco Forte
• Bill Gates
• Sir Chris Gent
• Sir James Goldsmith^[3]
• Sir Philip Green
• Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
• Robert Maxwell
• Alexander McQueen
• Lakshmi Mittal
• Rupert Murdoch
• Peter Oakley
• Bernd Pischetsrieder
• Sir Paul Smith
• George Soros
• Sir Alan Sugar

References

1. ^ BBC - Press Office - Money Programme is first BBC show to broadcast in Second Life
2. ^ "The Money Programme". recorded 4 December 1971). Monty Python's Flying Circus. BBC. BBC One. 2 November 1972. No. 29, season 3.
3. ^ "Predators vs Aliens II", Adam Curtis "The Medium and the Message" BBC blog, 20 July 2010

External links

• The Money Programme at BBC Online
• The Money Programme partnership with Open University
• BBC's Money Programme series to become one-off specials (The Guardian)