1/14/2008

Did anyone actually miss the bongs ?

So ITV have decided to bring back The News at Ten, because there is a dearth of news at that time (I don't know if anyone at ITV realises that there is the BBC ten O'clock news on the other side, and Sky News). The question is did anyone really miss it ?

I am not a fan of Trevor McDonald, in fact I don't know anyone who really is a fan of his. There is little to be a fan of. He is dead pan, comes across as terribly pompous and as can be seen from some of the awful performances he puts in when hosting awards nights, he lacks empathy.

On Radio Five Live earlier they were talking about "The Bongs", as they are referred to, and The Mirror's campaign a few years ago to "Bring Back The Bongs", when they launched a campaign to get ITV to bring the News At Ten back. What apparently surprised The Mirror was that nobody cared. They dropped their campaign pretty quickly.

So what of tonight's rival news programmes with ITV and The BBC going head to head ? I thought the BBC won it hands down. John Simpson's exclusive report live from Zimbabwe was unique, was something ITV had no answer to, and as was made clear in the Simpson report, he had problem over there because even though he was under cover, people kept recognising him.

Like the BBC or loathe it, when it comes to major news and international news, even foreigners tune in to the BBC.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah Bless him. But Iv'e never rated Sir Trevor one of our better news readers. He always comes across as slightly robotic. Remember Reginald Bosinquet. Now there was danger on live air.

I noticed that there were no interrupting commercials on tonight's News At Ten return. Perhaps to stop viewers turning over to the BBC News. Perhaps the commercials will be back tomorrow.

It was clear that both channels were competing with their exclusives. The BBC with Zimbabwe and ITV with Diana's former lover Heart Surgeon interview. My guess is that the BBC won again. But what did John Simpson look like... absolutely ridiculous. Like a walking white whale in a baseball cap. His annual body size increase is becoming somewhat worrying. I dont think that the more vain US networks would use someone like him.
As soon as I saw him on the news tonight I stopped chomping on my hob nobs!

AND FINALLY... Bring back Julia Somerville.

David.

Pages