I’m really loathe to admit this because it makes me feel that I might be turning into Mrs Colonel Blimp, but I agree almost entirely with something written in the Daily Mail.
And I’m definitely not admitting to the truth here…
Yesterday afternoon we settled down for a patriotic afternoon’s viewing of the Jubilee Pageant. I feel sometimes that I must be getting very old because I have this automatic assumption that the BBC always “does” occasions very well. I was also inculcated with that Victorian belief that everything in Nature has its place and is there for a purpose; realising that there is no apparent purpose for horseflies and mosquitos makes me feel just a bit uneasy, likewise the dawning realisation that the Beeb wasn’t “doing” the Pageant at all well, in fact at times you wondered if they could have done it worse.
This was an event, that nevermind the weather, was always going to be spectacular and done very well indeed, and yes it was. It was a marvellous spectacle that ran like clockwork with some wonderful things in it and if I prefered some parts to others, the rowing boats were great, the commercial passenger boats less so, it was still superb. The presenters were not.
They weren’t just dumbed down and patronising (Tess Daly mixing with the locals in Battersea Park) they were downright ignorant too. In The Apprentice (another programme I’m just a wee bit embarrassed about admitting watching) Lord S quite rightly points the finger and fires those who don’t research the subject or understand what they’re supposed to be doing. On that basis there would have been a lot of BBC presenters going straight out the door. I imagine that they were given a little more than 24 hours notice that they’d be doing the job so why did none of them do any apparent research? ‘That’s the Palace of Westminster founded by Edward the Confessor 500 years ago, oh no, it was bit longer than that wasn’t it…?’ To do him credit he was at least noticing what was on the banks of the Thames unlike most of the other commentators who only appeared to be capable of commenting on can’t-get-it-wrong structures such as the London Eye and Big Ben. The Pageant was organised down to a T so there must have been a strict order of who went when, obviously whoever it was who saw a stunningly elegant thirties pleasure barge and announced, ‘Here comes the first of the Dunkirk little boats,’ hadn’t bothered to look at the list or used his head, it was patently obvious the boat would have sunk the moment it was out in the open sea.
I would have loved to know more about the boats, who was sailing them, what they’d done, how they’d come to be selected, who was on them but we hardly got any of that. We got the occasional, ‘There are the Maoris,’ (as they vanished behind another boat), we got to see John Sergeant and Clare Balding and Tess Daly and Matt Baker, the Queen and her party, the Middletons, a brief glimpse of Princess Anne on the Trinity House Boat and another of one of the Princesses taking pictures with her phone, and John Sergeant and Tess Daly and Clare Balding and Matt Baker… but precious little about anyone else and some of them must have been jolly interesting.
And please does anyone know if Richard E Grant was asked to recite On Westminster Bridge at such short notice he didn’t have time to learn his lines, or did some turnip brain in the BBC think it would be cool to have him reading it off his patriotic ipad? On second thought maybe there was sponsorship involved, ipad got another hefty plug from one of the “artists” on the Millennium Bridge.
Pageant organisers 10/10, BBC 3/10 (and I think that’s being generous). And no, I’m not going to put in the link to the Daily Mail and the article about the BBC coverage, take it from me they didn’t like it. I hope it’s going to be a long time before I agree with the Mail again because otherwise I’ll have been Blimped beyond redemption and may have to change the name of this blog to “Disgusted of France.”
Victoria Corby 
Could not agree more. Who on earth were those two moronic muppet “presenters”? She in the ill-fitting red dress and unbalanced bra, and he whose vocabulary seemed limited to “Amazing.” Dire, dire, dire, disgraceful, shameful, embarrassing and farcical. The filming was crap, too. Shame on the BBC.
“Aghast of sud-Vienne.”
They did it again at the concert last night. We were watching the end and thinking how very well it had been done when a presenter started to talk over the music accompanying the fireworks and then the camera zoomed away to allow a long, long list of credits so we missed a good view of the absolute finale. To add insult to injury it was followed by a trailer for Euro 2012…
I was at a party to watch the river pageant from a balcony flat at Vauxhall Bridge. From time to time I nipped inside for a bit of respite from the rain and to watch the TV coverage for a bit. I thought it was dire and unprofessional. (Rule 1.Do your homework.)
PS I thought the launch from the Britannia was much more elegant and understated than the cheesily decorated barge. I’m not surprised HM refused to sit on those ghastly OTT thrones.
I agree with you. The Gloriana was beautiful, but personally I thought the Queen’s floaty-thing looked like something from a brothel stuck on an oversized bathtub.
We were all wondering why the Queen didn’t go on the Gloriana – such a beautiful boat and she could have sat on a proper throne at the end and see everything and be seen too.
How I agree with you!
Dreadful, unprofessional…and such a waste of an opportunity to comment on Britain’s maritime heritage.
Quite right. But weren’t the choir from the Royal School of Music absolute stars?
The more I think about it, the crosser I’m getting. Whichever dumbnut at the BBC chose those clowns should be fired.
Nah, he/she will be shunted upstairs with a nice fat pay rise.
I haven’t watched TV for quite some time, simply because it is all dumbed down so much, so I do share your anger. We used at least to be able to rely on the BB for decent, intelligent coverage, but no more. I blame political correctness, at least partly, because it’s now deemed inappropriate to praise or elevate intelligence or intelligent speech for fear of offending those unendowed with brains. Makes me sick.
However, I reluctantly have to tell you that they were absolutely right about the 1930s pleasure boat. Two seaside pleasure boats went to Dunkirk.
This is one of them – http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/6915911921/ In case your blog doesn’t accept web links, she is called the Regal Lady, formerly known as Oulton Belle (1930)
This picture shows the other, the Coronia (1927) – http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/6915919679/
And there were also Thames river barges, Woolwich ferries, yachts, even a Thames fire boat. The smallest was just 15 foot long.
Normally I wouldn’t pick you up on this, but forgive me, I do it ‘lest we forget’. To me, the whole Dunkirk ‘little ships’ things was just so amazing. I think people need to remember the people who put their lives on the line crossing the channel in completely unsuitable boats to pick up the stranded troops. Unbelievable it might be (and is!) but they did do it. 😉
On a lighter note, I didn’t see all of the pageant, but I heard today that a gondolier had to be rescued ‘because he got tired’! Hahahaha! Yep, the Thames is not a Venice canal, that’s or sure!
Glad to say in my own defence it wasn’t either of those boats! This one was a long, glass sided barge, very low in the water – it would have been swamped by the smallest of waves as soon as it got into the open sea. I agree with you about the ‘little boats’ – that’s why I wanted to hear about them and not watch preening presenters.
I’m quite glad I couldn’t get the BBC in the end. I had to put up with France2 which had me jumping up and down almost with frustrated rage. They didn’t know anything about anything either. It was the lack of knowledgeable information that got me. There was so much of interest and we didn’t find out about any of it.
As for the concert last night, cutting the show just as the finale of the fireworks started was unbelievable. They couldn’t wait 30 more seconds? I was furious which, at midnight was not a good state to be in. Try going to sleep whilst muttering expletives and plotting the demise of the BBC! 🙂
Having read your post and the comments above, I’m rather glad that we failed completely to watch the event. We don’t get UK TV and I don’t suppose France 2 did any better. Dumbing down – I get absolutely fed up with it. It seems that the main qualification for being a TV presenter these days is to be completely ignorant.
Disgusted of SW France.