St Peter's, Rome...the singers

[VodkaDilc]

Hmmm, on BBC2 at 2.30, 'setting the scene', Huw Edwards, no red button option that I can see. It doesn't bode well does it? No doubt we will have the warblings of Edwards spoiling the music. Pity but no surprise.

I've just read that Alastair Bruce was turned down by the BBC because he sounded too posh. He really is Sky News's trump card on ceremonial occasions - detailed knowledge + sensitivity to when he needs to shut up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2155621/Diamond-Jubilee-coverage-Skys-posh-Alastair-Bruce-effortlessly-superior-BBC.html

[Miles Coverdale]

I've just read that Alastair Bruce was turned down by the BBC because he sounded too posh.

Well, it's in the Daily Mail, so it must be true.

[Mr Pee]

Well, it's in the Daily Mail, so it must be true.

It quotes Alastair Bruce himself, so are you accusing him of lying?

And it certainly fits with the BBC's dumbed-down approach to practically every aspect of their output.

[Miles Coverdale]

It quotes Alastair Bruce himself, so are you accusing him of lying?

It quotes him as saying ’Sky swept me in, blind to any of that’. He is not quoted as saying that the BBC thought his accent was too posh. That is how the paper expressed it.

[Julien Sorel]

I've just read that Alastair Bruce was turned down by the BBC because he sounded too posh. He really is Sky News's trump card on ceremonial occasions - detailed knowledge + sensitivity to when he needs to shut up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...erior-BBC.html

This is a good one of him being a trump card. I love the bit where he says "they lived" for the gossip from upstairs, centre of "their lives." Detailed knowledge. Hmm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XStCrVRqVo

[Mr Pee]

This is a good one of him being a trump card. I love the bit where he says "they lived" for the gossip from upstairs, centre of "their lives." Detailed knowledge. Hmm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XStCrVRqVo

The only Downton episode I've watched was the Christmas one where wotsisname died in a car accident at the end- very festive! - but I found that clip fascinating nonetheless.

[Julien Sorel]

The only Downton episode I've watched was the Christmas one where wotsisname died in a car accident at the end- very festive! - but I found that clip fascinating nonetheless.

"... centre of their lives, they existed to look after the family so everything that affected the family was the core of their lives ... if you managed to get a job here your life was safe."

It's the grim, snobbish assumptions about "them" I find objectionable. How the hell does he know how people 'in service' felt? It's peddling a horrible nostalgia / deference myth.

As for your life being safe, my maternal grandmother was 'in service' as a parlour maid. One of the young gentlemen upstairs got her pregnant and she was kicked out. Scum that they were for abandoning her. This was in 1919. She met a man who'd survived the slaughter of war 15 years her senior who didn't care about the then stigma of her being a single mother, who loved her and cared for her and 10 years later my mother was born. But anything could have happened to my gran, Elsie. She was a very intelligent woman, but in her situation and penniless she'd have stood no chance.

Horrible, snobbish tosh he's promoting. And I don't blame the BBC if they rejected him because of his accent. He's got a silly voice.

Just my opinion .

[ardcarp]

...I find the word 'inverted' floating around in my head.

[DracoM]

...I find the word 'inverted' floating around in my head.

Drat! Beat me to it!

[Julien Sorel]

Drat! Beat me to it!

I suppose given the astonishing levels of wit and intelligence evident on these message boards, now and again two great minds are going to stumble upon the same thought. Never mind. Next time perhaps you'll get in first .

[ardcarp]

...and I'll bet we're both scrabbling around for that old saw about something-or-other being the lowest form of whatsitsname. C'mon Draco, help me out here.

[Julien Sorel]

...and I'll bet we're both scrabbling around for that old saw about something-or-other being the lowest form of whatsitsname. C'mon Draco, help me out here.

Scar tissue is the slowest farm of grit?

[ardcarp]

Phew. Thanks JS.