Is BBC Breakfast in Tatters?
I like BBC Breakfast on the television and generally watch it, as I do my morning chores.
It would appear now, that Sian Williams is to follow others and leave the show, when it goes to Salford.
THe move to Salford is surely one of the most ill-judged moves in British media history, as it will surely mean that many of the best presenters will leave. After all Manchester is not the place many would choose to live and there are many other jobs in London.
I also fear for the quality of other victims of this move, like Radio 5 and BBC Sport.
I feel fairly badly victimised here, as it appears the quality of what I like to watch and listen is about to suffer. As you know, I don’t watch ITV and other channels, unless what is on, is really unmissable, as I’m allergic to adverts.
Why We’re Losing Interest in the FA Cup
I like the FA Cup, but many are losing interest as one match today is on ITV and the other is on the US cable channel, ESPN. The former justs shows adverts interrupted by football and the second is not much better and anyway I don’t have a subscription.
I shall be listening to both matches on the radio and watching the rugby on BBC 1.
Science as Entertainment
There is a science fair called The Big Bang on in East London at the moment.
It was talked about on BBC Breakfast this morning, but they didn’t think it worth saying where and when it was on, and how much it costs to enter.
They were just using the fair as an entertaining program filler.
I have just searched and found the web site, but it would appear that except for Saturday it is sold out. This should have been flagged up earlier in the month, but then most people in the media have no interest in science and believe that most viewers don’t have any either, unless they’re over forty or so!
An E-Mail to the Head of ITV
The head of ITV was on BBC Radio 5 this afternoon and Richard Bacon was soliciting questions.
I sent one in.
I never watch ITV mainly because I’m a coeliac and allergic to gluten, which means no bread, beer, pasta or fast food for me. So most of the food and drink product adverts are for products that make me ill.
I’ve also had a stroke, so I can’t drive and have no interest in betting, except on my own terms, when I have information or have made a reasoned judgement. So that get’s the other adverts onto my not-to-watch list.
So how does a channel like ITV get me to watch football on the channel, rather than listen to it on another medium which gives a quality sound or text commentary, without bombarding me with adverts for things I don’t want or have no interest in?
I might be interested in subscribing to an advert-free ITV!
It was not asked.
The Glasgow Premier League
Who’d be a real football fan in Scotland, as the system is such, that unless you’re Celtic or Rangers no-one else gets a look in.
They will play each other seven times this year and if the other matches are like last night’s ill-tempered affair, how long will it be, before Scottish football fans turn to other sports or the television set in even greater numbers.
But then Rangers against Celtic is not about football. I live close to the Emirates and do we see any trouble, except for a bit of traffic congestion on match days. So peaceful, well-attended matches can be arranged without either an overwhelming police presence or trouble in the UK. So a few clubs do cause the odd problems, but the troublemakers are usually measured in hundreds at the most. And we rarely get matches in England with three players sent off.
One thing I object to is that the BBC, give Rangers/Celtic matches a lot of coverage on both TV and radio, when often there is a more important match or another sport that would be preferred by most people in the UK. If I want to see a fight, then I’d prefer to watch a decent boxing match.
Anne Robinson and Essex Girls
By accident yesterday, I watched a few seconds of the Weakest Link. Anne Robinson was introducing one of the contestants, who was a vicar from Billericay. So was he a Billericay Vickie? She asked him, if Essex Girls prayed round their handbags.
There is a very inappropriate joke linking Robert Maxwell and Essex Girls. As Anne has sometimes been known to defend the odious Bouncing Czech, she ought to mind what she says about females from Essex.
A Plug For BBC Radio Five Live
I may not have had my e-mail about Belarus read out, but this one was used to finish the Silverton programme on the channel this morning.
In hospital in Hong Kong after a stroke, the only news on the TV was CNN. But I was allowed my laptop and Five Live coming through the Internet kept me sane.
As the late great Brian Redhead once said, “If television had been invented first, then radio would be the dominant media, as the pictures are better!” They certainly were when he painted them with his words.
Thinking about Brian and others like him, where are the great female radio broadcasters to rival Ed Morrow, John Snagg, Bryan Johnstone, Peter Jones, Peter Allen and John Arlott?
Make Up for Radio?
Kate Silverton has just disclosed that she went into Make-Up for her morning show on BBC Radio 5.
Does it matter?
No wonder the BBC is inefficient!
Life Starts to Get Back to Normal After Christmas
I always think that Christmas is back in its box for another year, when BBC Breakfast television gets back to the normal studios and presenters.
It’s also nice to see Sian Williams back on the box, as she is very much C’s type in looks, body and dress sense, except that she is sixteen years younger than C would be. C would never have worn the heels Sian does either!
So in a way, Sian reminds me in a very nice way of all the good times we had before C’s untimely death!
And long may I see her brightening up my mornings!
Solving the Problem of Watching Sky or ITV Pictures and Getting Radio 5 Sound
As you may know from this blog, I’m allergic to two things; gluten and adverts. I don’t like having to continually switch whilst watching sport on Sky or ITV to BBC Radio 5, to avoid the annoying adverts and get a continuous commentary. In many cases too, the ITV coverage is not up to scratch and vital parts like goals are missed. To be fair to Sky, there’s nothing wrong with their coverage in general, it’s just the adverts, often for products that contain gluten. So they are a double irritant.
Virgin cable gets around this problem in some ways, because it has a Back button, so you can constantly use it to flip between, your preferred video and audio channels.
For Christmas I was given a pair of wireless headphones by Sennheiser, that plug into the headphone socket of a television or radio and give a good sound quality within range.
So I have plugged them into my Roberts DAB radio for good Radio 5 sound and just put the television on the corresponding video channel.
There are some other advantages.
- I can get good commentary all over my house and even in the road outside.
- The range also solves the tea and toilet break problems, as never do I have to miss any of the action. This works well with sport, but you’d probably need to pause the television for a break, whilst watching a serious drama.
- I’d also be interested to know to, how serious music lovers would find the quality of the sound through the headphones.
- I now adjust the volume on the headphones, so that if say I was watching something very loud, then I’m the only one gets the loud noise.
- Obviously, if you are watching with someone else, you just unplug the headphones and watch normally.
It strikes me that various families would find different ways to use one or more of these devices to avoid problems amongst themselves or with the neighbours.
To be fair, I know that the headphones are a good deal cheaper, than the cost of using a solicitor to fight an ASBO caused by a loud television. And not everybody likes Abba!
But whatever, they made a very good Christmas present for me!
The Anonymous Widower 