Well, that Jubilee river pageant yesterday really was rather amazing, wasn't it? A bold and imaginative conception, it was realised with flair and precise efficiency. This spectacle - and the ongoing celebrations - demonstrate what can be done by the remnants of the traditional 'ruling class', the armed services and the unencumbered British public, if they're allowed to get on with it. Leave this kind of thing to Government and you end up (at vast expense) with something along the lines of the Millennium Fiasco. Leave it to the IOC and its acolytes, and you end up (at even vaster expense) with a gridlocked city living under temporary totalitarian rule. Yesterday's event, by contrast, was a very English triumph, achieved in the teeth of very English weather. The BBC television coverage, on the other hand, was a shambles, with frequent technical breakdowns, loss of sound, loss of picture, no one seeming quite sure whether or not they were on camera - and far, far too many wittering celebs. As for the commentary - whoever was doing that seemed to be channeling Alan Partridge, filling in with desperate banalities and largely erroneous 'facts', repeatedly telling us what we already knew, and seeming to be quite unaware half the time of what was on screen. I suspect that if the people who organised the pageant had also handled the TV coverage, it would have gone like clockwork. Monday, 4 June 2012
Jubilee Thoughts
Well, that Jubilee river pageant yesterday really was rather amazing, wasn't it? A bold and imaginative conception, it was realised with flair and precise efficiency. This spectacle - and the ongoing celebrations - demonstrate what can be done by the remnants of the traditional 'ruling class', the armed services and the unencumbered British public, if they're allowed to get on with it. Leave this kind of thing to Government and you end up (at vast expense) with something along the lines of the Millennium Fiasco. Leave it to the IOC and its acolytes, and you end up (at even vaster expense) with a gridlocked city living under temporary totalitarian rule. Yesterday's event, by contrast, was a very English triumph, achieved in the teeth of very English weather. The BBC television coverage, on the other hand, was a shambles, with frequent technical breakdowns, loss of sound, loss of picture, no one seeming quite sure whether or not they were on camera - and far, far too many wittering celebs. As for the commentary - whoever was doing that seemed to be channeling Alan Partridge, filling in with desperate banalities and largely erroneous 'facts', repeatedly telling us what we already knew, and seeming to be quite unaware half the time of what was on screen. I suspect that if the people who organised the pageant had also handled the TV coverage, it would have gone like clockwork. 
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Interesting how others see us, from the Berliner Zeitung and not exactly up to the Daily Mail's usual high standards..'The British Queen commenced the celebrations surrounded by those she feels most comfortable with', describing the Epsom Derby and her four legged subjects. Madge, it would seem, is only at home when placing five bob each way on a nag running in the four thirty at Chepstow. 'Robbie Williams rockt für die Queen' it said, in a later edition.
ReplyDeleteTad envious perhaps, The Bundeskanzlerin, from the east, is not exactly a class act on the breeding front nor the epitome of elegance and recently their president was unceremoniously forced out of office after brown envelopes were found in his back pocket, allegedly.