crodonilson
He/Him
Veteran BBC broadcaster and once much loved newsreader, is it time he was forgiven for wearing an inappropriate tie to inform the nation of the news that the Queen Mother had died??
I remember at the time much vitriol and anger, even death threats went the way of Sissons and not long after he dissapeared from our news screens for good which can't have been mere coincidence, here was one news piece at the time..
The BBC’s Peter Sissons discovered last Saturday night that burgundy is not the new black. For senior members of the royal family and millions of viewers, that tie has become a symbol of disrespect, of the night Auntie cocked a snook at Granny.
As it happens, there was not one, but two deaths that night - the Queen Mother, and the career of Peter Sissons. When the dust settles, it will not be the colour of ties, nor the length of royal coverage, that is remembered. It will be the sheer ineptitude of one of the BBC’s most senior presenters, his inability to carry off what must be the most prepared for, most rehearsed and most predicted event in recent British history. The BBC’s first mistake was not to pull him off air after the first half-hour. Privately, senior executives at the BBC are conceding that their anchorman was more of a drag than a secure mooring that night. Looking for all the world like a man who would have preferred to be at home attending his barbecue, Sissons reverted to MPS (male presenter syndrome) - if you start to lose the plot, substitute sneering. Watching Sissons do his James Dean impersonation was unedifying. Sadly, it set the tone for the night’s coverage.
Equally unforgivable was the BBC’s royal correspondent, Jennie Bond, being lost for words. If the most royal of royal correspondents can’t keep up with the story, what hope is there? Bond - shaken but not stirred - stumbled and mumbled her way through the first hour of live coverage. This might have been understandable if it were the sheer emotion of a novice reporter hampering her performance, but there were no tears, just fear.
The BBC was right to revert to normal scheduling when it did: there was neither an appetite nor a need for any more.
And the “black tie” debate is, in the end, a distraction. There is nothing more embarrassing, as the Tory party has discovered, than an institution struggling to modernise itself and appear “normal” in the brutal glare of the public spotlight. This was not the time to experiment with a coloured-tie policy. What next - open-necked shirts for the death of Prince Philip?
And if it is true that the BBC sent more correspondents to the Oscars than it could rustle up on the Saturday the Queen Mother died, then it has some explaining to do to an incredibly angry nation.
In the final analysis, it was not all right on the night. BBC TV, the self-proclaimed “voice of the nation”, was bettered by ITV, Sky and Channel 4. Its tone was at best nonchalant, at worst sneering, its reputation for professionalism damaged. BBC Radio, in its various forms, performed far better. But BBC TV is the flagship, and let us not forget that our licence fee pays for those “professionals”. No one knows better than the director general, Greg Dyke, that this level of performance would not be tolerated in the private sector. Why should the taxpayer have to settle for, and subsidise, second best?
The BBC has a choice - try to be cool and find a future without the licence fee, or fully accept the constraints of being funded by a compulsory levy.
I remember at the time much vitriol and anger, even death threats went the way of Sissons and not long after he dissapeared from our news screens for good which can't have been mere coincidence, here was one news piece at the time..
The BBC’s Peter Sissons discovered last Saturday night that burgundy is not the new black. For senior members of the royal family and millions of viewers, that tie has become a symbol of disrespect, of the night Auntie cocked a snook at Granny.
As it happens, there was not one, but two deaths that night - the Queen Mother, and the career of Peter Sissons. When the dust settles, it will not be the colour of ties, nor the length of royal coverage, that is remembered. It will be the sheer ineptitude of one of the BBC’s most senior presenters, his inability to carry off what must be the most prepared for, most rehearsed and most predicted event in recent British history. The BBC’s first mistake was not to pull him off air after the first half-hour. Privately, senior executives at the BBC are conceding that their anchorman was more of a drag than a secure mooring that night. Looking for all the world like a man who would have preferred to be at home attending his barbecue, Sissons reverted to MPS (male presenter syndrome) - if you start to lose the plot, substitute sneering. Watching Sissons do his James Dean impersonation was unedifying. Sadly, it set the tone for the night’s coverage.
Equally unforgivable was the BBC’s royal correspondent, Jennie Bond, being lost for words. If the most royal of royal correspondents can’t keep up with the story, what hope is there? Bond - shaken but not stirred - stumbled and mumbled her way through the first hour of live coverage. This might have been understandable if it were the sheer emotion of a novice reporter hampering her performance, but there were no tears, just fear.
The BBC was right to revert to normal scheduling when it did: there was neither an appetite nor a need for any more.
And the “black tie” debate is, in the end, a distraction. There is nothing more embarrassing, as the Tory party has discovered, than an institution struggling to modernise itself and appear “normal” in the brutal glare of the public spotlight. This was not the time to experiment with a coloured-tie policy. What next - open-necked shirts for the death of Prince Philip?
And if it is true that the BBC sent more correspondents to the Oscars than it could rustle up on the Saturday the Queen Mother died, then it has some explaining to do to an incredibly angry nation.
In the final analysis, it was not all right on the night. BBC TV, the self-proclaimed “voice of the nation”, was bettered by ITV, Sky and Channel 4. Its tone was at best nonchalant, at worst sneering, its reputation for professionalism damaged. BBC Radio, in its various forms, performed far better. But BBC TV is the flagship, and let us not forget that our licence fee pays for those “professionals”. No one knows better than the director general, Greg Dyke, that this level of performance would not be tolerated in the private sector. Why should the taxpayer have to settle for, and subsidise, second best?
The BBC has a choice - try to be cool and find a future without the licence fee, or fully accept the constraints of being funded by a compulsory levy.
