BBC misses Prime Ministerial money shot
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
I just took an early lunch break to watch Tony Blair’s final performance at Prime Minister’s Question Time. It overran by about five minutes and, just before the end, BBC 2 cut back to Andrew Neil in the BBC’s Westminster studio, who apologised and said they were going to have to end the Daily Politics (includes link to view latest programme) in order to handover to Wimbledon.
The panel, which comprised Iain Duncan Smith, Charles Kennedy and Lord Hattersley looked utterly baffled and Neil looked thoroughly embarrassed.
Which scheduler made this decision? Unbelievable, especially since the Beeb then ran a stupid musical interlude featuring Gordon Brown. Why not hang on another five minutes for the tennis or just cut the dodgy concluding montage? We’re talking about a once-in-a-decade moment. They totally missed the money shot.
I switched over to Sky News to see Blair’s concluding words, followed by the remarkable and possibly unprecedented site of the entire House of Commons rising to its feet for a standing ovation. Which, of course, BBC 2’s Daily Politics missed, while BBC 1’s coverage, which was just beginning, featured the unfortunate Huw Edwards intoning something designed to sound monumental outside 10 Downing Street.
Duncan Smith later featured on Sky, where he went to the trouble of mentioning how shite the BBC’s earlier coverage was, and how he was going to make a point he hadn’t been allowed to earlier. Go Iain!
