I wish I was as clever as the BBC

Are you referring to the happy survival of the 'street piano' on R4 Today Programme?

James

I think Harry's referring to BBC Breakfast.

Having said that I think that Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams are the best presenter-combo on the programme, it's just the crap material they're expected to work with from time to time.

Right on Jon. Why do I watch this? I do feel sorry for the presenters - everything on Drop The Dead Donkey has come true.

Sorry to be such a misery guts – just felt like sharing. Must be the weather.....

Well, the heat usually begets the silly season, does it not?

Actually Jon that would explain a lot.

On balance best not go there.....

Harry
Stick to Radio 4! "Today" can be tooth grindingly irritating but at least you don't have to watch! And at it's best it is still able to deliver a great interview or debate.
I just wish that the production staff drummed into contributors that talking over somebody is (a) rude and (b) delivers a horrible cacophony to the listener. This morning's debate (or dialogue of the deaf) between Jack Dromey and some guy from ImmigrationWatch was a case in point.

I like News 24. It's the little touches like the half-screen "breaking news" banners that come up whilst they broadcast live pictures of Discovery soaring upwards just to inform you "Discovery has blasted off".

On News 24 - or News in Length rather than News in Depth
I wish the important news banners did not hide about the third of the picturew - leaving only the sky or treetops visible.

quote:

Originally posted by JWM:
Are you referring to the happy survival of the 'street piano' on R4 Today Programme?

James

I rather enjoyed that (though it might perhaps have been better suited to PM - I think Eddie Muir would have had fun with it).

regards, Tam

Chris - I agree. Although the interviewing is little more than brow beating and the news “gathering” seems to be mainly regurgitated press releases that isn’t really the fault of Radio 4 – it’s all gone that way. The program still commands some gravitas (relatively) and has accompanied me to work for many years. But at the moment I’m working from home and there is no FM where I live. Breakfast TV is a cunning ploy I use to make me get out of bed – the earlier I can switch it on, the quicker I tire of/get irritated with it and stumble downstairs into the office. It never seems to occur to me to listen to Today over Broadband – can’t think why. Habit I suppose.

Cheers

Personally I think the best interviewing on Radio 4 does not take place on the Today programme, but rather when Nick Clarke is in the chair on the World at One (it was great to hear him in the chair of Any Questions again last week after his battle with cancer) - sadly I rarely am in front of a radio at One.

regards, Tam

Tam
I agree totally. Like Harry I often work from home these days (ain't technology grand1) so I do see the odd bit of TV but I almost invariably switch back to Radio4. Harry's comments about "Today" are spot on but I'd rather listen to Humphreys at his most vituperative or Naughtie at his most long winded than waqtch the vapid fare on the box.

That said, I have a pet aversion to Carolin Quinn, so when she's on "Today" or "PM" I have to find alternatives.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Kelly:
That said, I have a pet aversion to Carolin Quinn, so when she's on "Today" or "PM" I have to find alternatives.

Glad that's just not me - it really bugs me that she doesn't actually seem to listen to the answers and just runs through the script of questions she has prepared. I recall one interview the interviewee answered her second question in the first one, but she asked the second anyway, in exasperation he said "I've just told you......"

I think their choice of female presenters on Today (I don't care for Montague either) reflects pretty badly on the Beeb - it's their flagship current affairs programme and I cannot believe that there are not better female journalists out there (in fact, I'm sure there are because I've heard them on other programmes).

regards, Tam

I was impressed with a BBC reporters quote on asked why many of their staff had not returned to England after our glorious defeat to Portugal and he replied "You know the BBC, never knowingly understaffed". John Lewis would have approved

Diccus

quote:

Originally posted by Tam:
Glad that's just not me - it really bugs me that she doesn't actually seem to listen to the answers and just runs through the script of questions she has prepared. I recall one interview the interviewee answered her second question in the first one, but she asked the second anyway, in exasperation he said "I've just told you......"

So THAT'S why I tune her out when I'm driving! Yanno, it's never actually hit me before but I think you're right.

Cheers

I saw in another forum today a claim that BBC on line published pictures of today's 2 min silence at 11.45 this morning. Don't know if that's true but I wouldn't be suprised.

Cheers

This level of news reporting was foretold and satirised in the early 60s in the "That Was the Week That Was" (TW3) program

when the prase Lord Privy Seal was accompanied by a picture of a collection of Lords in wigs and cloaks, a picture of an outside privy (dunny) and a picture of a seal (a fish-eating aquatic mammal)

So that's where Simon Shuster (sp?) got his presentation format from.

quote:

Originally posted by Harry K:
So that's where Simon Shuster (sp?) got his presentation format from.

One of the many wonderful things in Alan Bennett's play the History Boys is a wonderful spoof of TV Historians.

regards, Tam

La Quinn has had some truly low moments. She nominated Jean Paul Sartre as the most famous Belgian (doh!). Her interview with the gruesome John Reid sometime after the Hutton report, when he was Health Secretary and was there to talk about NHS dentistry, was my lowest ever point listening to "Today". She had obviously been told by the producer to quiz him on Hutton as it was "Today" that kicked off the whole sequence of events which led to the death Of Dr David Kelly (no relation). She was probably just following orders but it was truly awful.

Whenever she is in sole charge of the PM program I have to switch stations. Just can't stand it.
End of GOM rant!

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Kelly:
Whenever she is in sole charge of the PM program I have to switch stations. Just can't stand it.
End of GOM rant!

Which is such a shame, because Eddie Muir has the measure of exactly what is required from a news programme at tea time - my heart sinks when the radio times informs me he's away and she's filling in.

regards, Tam

Tam
Couldn't agree more. Eddie Mair is brilliant at treading the fine line between irreverence and mockery. Once he left Broadcasting House it lost its spark.
La Quinn is unworthy to so much as tie EM's shoelaces.

Really - I didn't think Fi Glover was too bad (however since she's been having a baby it hasn't been too worth listening to).

The best thing I ever heard on BH was just post Hutton. One of the things the government had made a fuss of was that the BBC hadn't run the Giligan interview by them first so BH sent it's entire running order to Downing Street and them posted a man at the gates to wait for comment. They kept cutting back to him "has anyone from downing street offered a comment yet?" throughout the show. It was sheer genius.

regards, Tam