iPlayer Tags 'shortened' v.v 'original'

[Chris Brady]

I'm trying to rationalse what's going on in Brit. comedy re-airings on
iPlayer. Judging by the rubbish that goes under the name of 'comedy'
today how dare they mess with our old-time classics.

This year and last year the Beeb has been re-airing series 8, 9 and 10
of the Navy Lark at 320 kbps. Previously all we had were poor versions
at 64 kbps.

However bearing in mind the increasing left wing PC bias of the Beeb,
so many Brit classic comedy programmes have had the tag ' shortened'
in the metadata. This nonsense started in about 2019. Why?

Hancock, I'm Sorry ..., Ken Dodd, Steptoe, Harry Worth, Yes Minister,
are only a few of many others affected. All have random episodes that
have been tagged 'shortened'

Here are examples from The Navy Lark:

14/02/2019  20:32        72,104,643 The Navy Lark - S07E03 -
Mr_Murray_Is_Victimised_b00lmqts_shortened.m4a
15/02/2019  00:58        72,587,480 The Navy Lark - S07E05 -
Captain_Povey_Reports_Sick_b00lqzs5_shortened.m4a
27/02/2019  15:23        71,904,930 The Navy Lark - S07E07 -
Let_Loose_with_a_Chopper_b014tpqj_shortened.m4a
29/03/2019  18:13        71,462,532 The Navy Lark - S07E09 -
The_Mysterious_Pudding_Mine_b0151xwx_shortened.m4a
29/03/2019  18:14        71,583,260 The Navy Lark - S07E10 -
The_Hovercraft_Training_Course_b015frjy_shortened.m4a
09/05/2019  14:02        68,407,730 The Navy Lark - S08E03 -
Gumming_Up_The_Works_m00051vc_shortened.m4a
09/05/2019  14:01        68,729,516 The Navy Lark - S08E04 -
Buoying_Up_b0082hrd_shortened.m4a
16/05/2019  13:51        68,086,410 The Navy Lark - S08E05 -
Charitably_Taking_Part_b01sjs44_shortened.m4a
23/05/2019  14:06        68,448,179 The Navy Lark - S08E06 -
Drifting_Through_b007vkkg_shortened.m4a
31/05/2019  14:13        69,654,487 The Navy Lark - S08E07 -
Blowing_Themselves_Up_b007k108_shortened.m4a
07/06/2019  15:45        71,189,112 The Navy Lark - S08E08 -
Buying_Tickets_b007s848_shortened.m4a
21/06/2019  14:39        79,580,157 The Navy Lark - S08E10 -
Pertwee_and_the_Tratvian_Beer_b007k2gt_shortened.m4a
02/07/2019  15:13        67,885,818 The Navy Lark - S08E11 -
The_PM_Papa_b007s84c_shortened.m4a

All of the other eps aired from S08/09/10 have been tagged 'original'
- which is obvious.

But what is going on?

Cheers - CJB