Modern presentation

[HighlandDougie]

There is also ‘Point of View’ on R4, which is scripted and, which, in the hands of, e.g. Sarah Dunant, is both serious and relevant to what’s going on in the world

[Retune]

A few years ago the Parliament channel repeated the original seven-hour telecast of the 1953 Coronation, and I was struck by the way the camera was allowed to rest silently on an object, such as a fluttering flag, when there was nothing actually happening. This I felt more efectively helped the viewer to feel as if they were there, waiting with the spectators. Nowadays of course we'd be treated to presenters laughing round a table or asking celebrities how they feel, which for me quite spoils the mood. It's become a sort of religious dogma. And (I'm speculating here) I think it just doesn' occur to them to do anything else because they don't actually think creatively. They're part of a sort of cloned, Brave-new-world generation that daren't question the order.

In practice, I think the live broadcasts of the 2022 Coronation were done well, and in the digital age the BBC offered something extra they could not have done in 1953, a separate stream entirely free of commentary. Which, given the subsequent disgrace of Huw Edwards, is a rather useful thing to have in the archive. Perhaps we need more of this 'unmediated content' in general. It can be refreshing to watch some sports streams (tennis, say) without the constant chatter. There is some really inane incidental commentary on the main BBC Wimbledon broadcasts, and I really don't care who is in the Royal Box that day.

[french frank]

There is also ‘Point of View’ on R4, which is scripted and, which, in the hands of, e.g. Sarah Dunant, is both serious and relevant to what’s going on in the world

I'm sure these programmes are 'of their kind' very good. A Point of View looks a bit like opinion pieces on contemporary topics - more like newspaper columnists, CIFs &c. For R3 I was thinking more in terms of 'Pictish stones in NE Scotland' or 'The building of the Rhaetian railway in Graubünden' or 'Howell Harris and the 18th-century Trefeca Community'. Interesting things like that.

[smittims]

Yes, the Red Button is often the pleasantest way to watch Wimbledon.

My first experience of TV was at a neighbour's house in 1955. It was a horse race but because there was no racing at that moment the camera rested silently on the winning post. It was pleasanlt and peacefu to have a quiet interval between the races, just the ambient sound . I was reminded of this when I discovered the red button option for Wimbledon.

[Serial_Apologist]

"Navigating a career in politics is a tricky business and in this series, Michael Gove talks to fellow politicians about the strengths and skills needed to help weather the storm."

It probably embodies everything that I dislike most about 'serious' broadcasting nowadays .

Equal in importance with manner and format of presentation is choice of subject (either person or issue). Everyday commonplace regurgitatings of the apparently insoluble - (like vaping in public, obesity, cell phones in schools, AI) - impose an exclusive choice to limit public scrutiny within narrowly defined boundaries. It explains why compared with a figure like Gove, who is to be treated as exonerated, Jeremy Corbyn never gets offers or coverage. I've also mentioned in the past felicitous opinions posed by presenters masquerading as being in the name of balanced opinion, and feeding politicians their lines when opponents in discussions fail to do this.

[Nick Armstrong]

Is the ranine Michael Gove & co. more your cup of tea?

It seems apposite to post this recent comment on X-Twitter from the excellent Richard Williams:

[Ein Heldenleben]

In practice, I think the live broadcasts of the 2022 Coronation were done well, and in the digital age the BBC offered something extra they could not have done in 1953, a separate stream entirely free of commentary. Which, given the subsequent disgrace of Huw Edwards, is a rather useful thing to have in the archive. Perhaps we need more of this 'unmediated content' in general. It can be refreshing to watch some sports streams (tennis, say) without the constant chatter. There is some really inane incidental commentary on the main BBC Wimbledon broadcasts, and I really don't care who is in the Royal Box that day.

In an unprecedented stroke of luck our names came up in the Wimbledon ballot and we’ve got two quarter final tickets fro next year. Sorry but I had to tell somebody . The cost is approximately equivalent to the cheapest side stalls at the upcoming Die Walküre at Covent Garden I,e, ridiculous but it’ll never happen again ….

[oddoneout]

Had to look this up (though I shouldn't: Italian rana); wonderful.

In the Gove context it's an insult to frogs, but the pianist Beatrice Rana helps to offset the image...

[Mandryka]

I

Oh, how I miss the kind of talk where an informed, authoritative speaker tells me (not via an intermediary) in an undramatic voice about a subject that interests me. If I ask myself why presentation of serious subjects is done this way, it's not a rhetorical question: why is it felt that it must be done this way now?

There are some things on French radio, this for example

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/serie-en-finir-avec-la-democratie

[french frank]

There are some things on French radio

I don't know if they're all the same - I couldn't resist the one about 'l'extrême centre' - but that one was still an interview rather than a scripted (I prefer the concept of 'structured') talk, albeit the interviewee was allowed plenty of time to respond fully (R3 might learn from that). TED is probably the closest online analogy, but a lecture isn't quite the same as a talk. Not sure why I say that.

[Retune]

In an unprecedented stroke of luck our names came up in the Wimbledon ballot and we’ve got two quarter final tickets fro next year. Sorry but I had to tell somebody . The cost is approximately equivalent to the cheapest side stalls at the upcoming Die Walküre at Covent Garden I,e, ridiculous but it’ll never happen again ….

I think my ballot luck ran out after 2023 - semi-finals, only a few rows back from the court, with Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev and Djokovic! Only Sinner had not yet won a slam, and he's taken two since. Alcaraz the most impressive player on the day, as he proved again in the final. Nothing in the main 2024 ballot, and 'not yet successful' for 2025, which probably means I've had it. Last time I did manage to get returned 4th round tickets, which they offered to unsuccessful entrants to the separate LTA ballot. I also had to resort to a return to get into the sold out Covent Garden Rheingold - I should try to book the next installment earlier...

[Ein Heldenleben]

I think my ballot luck ran out after 2023 - semi-finals, only a few rows back from the court, with Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev and Djokovic! Only Sinner had not yet won a slam, and he's taken two since. Alcaraz the most impressive player on the day, as he proved again in the final. Nothing in the main 2024 ballot, and 'not yet successful' for 2025, which probably means I've had it. Last time I did manage to get returned 4th round tickets, which they offered to unsuccessful entrants to the separate LTA ballot. I also had to resort to a return to get into the sold out Covent Garden Rheingold - I should try to book the next installment earlier...

So a fellow Wimbledon / Wagner fan …excellent. They have so much in common of course (seriously ) not least the length , the heroism , the sudden reversal of fortune.
Have to say I’m recoiling at £230 for the cheapest stalls tickets for Die Walküre but , like Wimbledon , how many have I got left?
There is a theory that losing out on the ballot leaves you better placed on the returns for the days and courts you really want.I could well have ended up with court 3 on a rainy day.
As you may well be aware Covent Garden once had a ballot system for popular performances like Wagner and in my view it was much fairer and less time consuming than the infuriating internet booking we have now.

[mopsus]

There is a theory that losing out on the ballot leaves you better placed on the returns for the days and courts you really want.I could well have ended up with court 3 on a rainy day.
As you may well be aware Covent Garden once had a ballot system for popular performances like Wagner and in my view it was much fairer and less time consuming than the infuriating internet booking we have now.

Wimbledon emulated Covent Garden in 2021 when there was a designated day for booking tickets over the internet and no ballot.

I have not been lucky since then - I used to have about a 50% success rate in the ballot (which I'm told was on the lucky side), in the days when the procedure was one of the last redoubts of the stamped self-addressed envelope. You had to be organised in those days to enter it - it's easier now, so more people do and chances of getting tickets that way are (in my experience) lower.

[HighlandDougie]

I'm sure these programmes are 'of their kind' very good. A Point of View looks a bit like opinion pieces on contemporary topics - more like newspaper columnists, CIFs &c. For R3 I was thinking more in terms of 'Pictish stones in NE Scotland' or 'The building of the Rhaetian railway in Graubünden' or 'Howell Harris and the 18th-century Trefeca Community'. Interesting things like that.

I was responding to EH's remark about 'scripted' talks, rather than putting the programme forward as an exemplar of telling us about interesting stuff in which we never knew we were interested*. They are indeed the radio equivalent of the OpEd pieces I read in the New York Times. But a gold star to FF for the rather 'de haut en bas' opening sentence!

* Arte TV is a great source of short programmes about seemingly mundane but surprisingly interesting topics, e.g. the history of spectacles.

[smittims]

I was reminded of this thread when reading 'Trains and Buttered Toast'. a (posthumously-edited) collection of John Betjeman essays. Many of them were scripted radio talks, e.g. for the BBC West of England Home Service in the 1940s. If we have anything of this calibre today I've yet to hear it.

I know scripted talks and discussions were criticised for their 'stilted' feel,but I think the BBc has gone too far in the other direction. A lot of what I hear on Radio 4 is unthinking waffle, full of 'Yunnow, kine-of like incredible, I mean, if I'm honest, yunnow...'