Thames River Pageant..

[AJLintern]

I was interested to learn that HMS Belfast was '91,000 tonnes'... hmmm more like a 10th of that! Yes I thought the coverage could have been better, though at least the route was long enough that they were plenty of opportunities to show the boats at different points. I guess the BBC were worried that it might get a bit boring for Mr & Mrs Average so had to inject some 'celebrity' drivel to keep them interested. As was said I think they could have selected a few boats taking part and done some background filming prior to the event to use instead of the rubbish fill in.

[Tim Lewis]

KK, passing your flat again soon

[bizzard]

I was interested to learn that HMS Belfast was '91,000 tonnes'... hmmm more like a 10th of that! Yes I thought the coverage could have been better, though at least the route was long enough that they were plenty of opportunities to show the boats at different points. I guess the BBC were worried that it might get a bit boring for Mr & Mrs Average so had to inject some 'celebrity' drivel to keep them interested. As was said I think they could have selected a few boats taking part and done some background filming prior to the event to use instead of the rubbish fill in.

Not sure but i think about 6000 tons

 

I thought they said it fired shells that weighed 91,000 tons.

Edited June 4, 2012 by bizzard

[Laurence Hogg]

It appears papers around the world are grilling the BBC and Mr Dimberley:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9310251/Criticism-grows-of-BBCs-lamentable-coverage-of-Jubilee.html

[blackrose]

It does seem that a lot of people are complaining about the BBC coverage of the event, not only here but on the radio, newspapers, etc.

 

I'm glad I went down and watched some of it. By about 4.30pm I was sitting in a nice warm pub in Hammersmith while the rain started to come down outside and we watched the rest of it on a TV monitor with the sound turned down.

 

I enjoyed the day, but I definitely won't be going down to see the jubilee concert today with pop dinosaurs Sir Elton John, Sir Cliff Richard and Sir Paul McCartney. I don't want to see Robbie Williams, JLS, Kylie Minogue, Annie Lennox or Sir Tom Jones either. Although he's well past his best, for me the only one worth watching would be Stevie Wonder.

Edited June 4, 2012 by blackrose

[Guest]

Not sure but i think about 6000 tons

 

I thought they said it fired shells that weighed 91,000 tons.

 

 

Depends if you believe Wiki or not but it says -

 

"This modified design became the 10,000-ton Edinburgh subclass, named after Belfast's sister ship HMS Edinburgh.[10] Belfast was ordered from Harland and Wolff on 21 September 1936,"

 

Edited June 4, 2012 by MJG

[the grinch]

for me the only one worth watching would be Stevie Wonder.

doubt he'll be watching anything!

 

perhaps belfast weighs that much when the pump out is full!

[Guest]

The abridged version -

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18320076

[bizzard]

Depends if you believe Wiki or not but it says -

 

"This modified design became the 10,000-ton Edinburgh subclass, named after Belfast's sister ship HMS Edinburgh.[10] Belfast was ordered from Harland and Wolff on 21 September 1936,"

 

I have an old friend who served on the Belfast during the Korean war as an Asdic opertator he told me that the Duke of Edinburgh was an officer on it at the time.

[Arthur Brown]

Perhaps the canal fraternity needs to find it's own TV totty presenter with lots of knowledge and all the historic details to hand.

[MartinClark]

Biggest boob by the BBC? One of their number announced that the inland waterways are looked after "magnificently" by British Waterways!

 

I don't think you were listening properly - the BBC commentator said that they were looked after magnificently by the "Inland Waterways Authority". It's so good to know that they have done their research for such an important event.

[Tim Lewis]

Back on the tideway this morning in lovely sunshine, Oh well

[Laurence Hogg]

Perhaps the canal fraternity needs to find it's own TV totty presenter with lots of knowledge and all the historic details to hand.

 

Peraphs sacking all the BBC involved would be better and replcing them with intelligent people who appreciated what they were involved in, wasnt just canal boats badly described it was everything.

[AJLintern]

There's a time-lapse video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18320076 Perhaps they should have had that camera on the Red button so you could switch over to avoid the crap.

[cotswoldsman]

Well I had a long conversation with my Mother this morning and she (90yo) and her friend (93yo) enjoyed every minute of The Pageant and if they enjoyed it that ok by me!!!!!!!

[dor]

Andrew & the tarts got a brief mention, but Edward was conspicuous by his absence. Where was he?

[Steilsteven]

Watched the whole programme from start to finish and, although the event was fantastic in itself, the coverage was very disappointing.

When I tuned in at 1.30 I expected to see and hear something about the boats and the preparations for the event but no, just a lot of waffle about what the other presenters were doing which were nothing to do with the Pageant. Eventually, the subject was raised and we were told the order that the vessels would be travelling in, via a cartoon presentation of the Thames ( this, we would be shown a number of times over the next 4 hours and not once could the commentator keep up with it ).

 

The coverage of the Queen and Royal Family arriving and their journey was ample, as it should be, but there was far too much concentration on the man powered boats at the expense of all other vessels. The camera shots were far too short so that the commentary, such as it was, was unable to keep pace, to the extent that very often it was difficult to know which boat was being talked about. I didn't expect a complete run down on the history of every vessel participating but I did expect an accurate over view of each section. Instead of this there would be a cut to a pair of idiots in a studio talking rubbish or someone attempting to make food in the pouring rain.

 

Time and time again, we were told about The Avenue of Sail but did we ever get to see it? Only as a misty back drop through a studio window and only one vessel being mentioned.

 

Speaking as one who applied, was accepted but unfortunately had to withdraw from the event, I can say that it wasn't easy to be approved and certain criteria had to be met. To say ( as has been said in this thread ) that it wasn't intended for boaty anoraks is verging on insult to all that took part. I'm sure that many of them will be disappointed when they get to see what B.B.C. did with all their efforts.

 

Keith

[Midnight Rider]

Just had a look at the Saga Zone forum. Non boaty people are also in agreement that the BBC presentation was dire & Sky did a much better job.

 

ETA --- Hesitate to quote D***y M**l, but there are over 1500 posts on the Rightminds site. Haven't been through the lot but most of them seem to be critical of the BBC coverage.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Midnight Rider

[Guest]

Just had a look at the Saga Zone forum. Non boaty people are also in agreement that the BBC presentation was dire & Sky did a much better job.

 

Staffie??

[Laurence Hogg]

Another condemnation of the BBC : http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/324451/Diamond-Jubilee-BBC-under-fire-over-tedious-coverage

[jake_crew]

Good boat handling by the helmsman of the Royal "Barge" both at the point he joined and left the procession.

It must have had bow, stern and midships thrusters the size of buses, but certainly wasn't pretty.

 

I suspect they intended to use the "Gloriana" for the Royal party but decided (rather late in the day) it wasn't big enough so had to find a larger vessel - so the 'The Spirit of Chartwell' was used.

Edited June 4, 2012 by jake_crew

[Tiny]

I did feel sorry for the London Phil Choir having to sing whilst being absolutely soaked through, one of the young ladies was visibly shivering at times.

 

It was lovely to see Mr & Mrs Windsor enjoying the event though.

On my non BBC feed from the daily telegraph the Philo boat turned in front of the queen and the choir belted out Rule Britannia and God Save the Queen - bless them. And bless dear old queen - ever more wrapped against the wind - standing there for hours though near the end she did lean on some bit of furniture. Phil and Charles even danced a jig to the Philos hornpipe as they turned but the army and airforce didn't I noted.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Tiny

[Guest]

It must have had bow, stern and midships thrusters the size of buses, but certainly wasn't pretty.

 

I suspect they intended to use the "Spirit of Chartwell" for the Royal party but decided (rather late in the day) it wasn't big enough so had to find a larger vessel quick-smart.

 

It was 'The Spirit of Chartwell'

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9023432/How-the-Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-boat-will-be-transformed.html

 

With a few bits stuck on with superglue....

[Tiny]

What a fantastic event, pity about the flypast but to all who were involved a big, very big well done.

 

As for the BBC, they need to go back and review one of the worst presentations in recent times. With all the information readily available on the pageant website their lack of intelligent interpretaion of what was on camera was inexcusable.

I wasnt interested in the narrowboats in particular, thats part of my day job, I would have liked to have heard more about the other vessels, indeed "Gloriana" was a real marvel so a bit about how she came to be would have been great.

All the side shows and cake making was scorn on the event IMHO, what was the real focus of the event? The queen and the boats, they were struggling to find facts about the queen at times.

The Sky footage was the same if you could put up with the adverts but at least they stayed on the focus of the event.

I really hope some independant gets the footage together and makes a decent programme looking at the vessels portrayed, the owners and the history so that all the effort of those who took part can be laid out in a splendid and correctly annotated film.

 

and aagain congrats to those involved a serious spectacle to remember.

 

BTW: NB "Gort" seen in one very good shot is a wooden motor, I think of all the narrowboats she was probably the most interesting in the fact so few are now around in the condition to take on the tidal Thames.

 

Queenie had a good laugh at something on/near Gort as it went by with Phil pointing at it and saying something. Fame

[Tiny]

I agree. Banal drivel from shallow know-nothings.

 

Bring back Richard Dimbleby.

 

To true. Doing the cenotaph David is cut to non-march bits all the time when we want to see tha marchers. And they know to the minute when it fisihs yet every year cut that finish off by doing a stiring music BBC film bit then go straight to the all important snooker or whatever - BBC just hate not being in control of what we see and then not showing what we want. After all they have our money so tough lets dumb it down to a level we consider you should be at with an iq of about 30 or so.