Unfounded fears

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So for the last twenty years we have all been fearing what will happen when the Queen Mum dies. Not in a civilization way but in the mass media overload - blackout of TV/Radio kinda way.

Has it happened? No. Obviously the "Diana Mass Outpouring of Grief"TM and the subsequent "Mass Outpouring Of Grief Embarrassement"TM has affected this but do you think that (shock) out media sources have got it right?

I was particularly pleased to hear that TalkSport did not canceltheir usual 8-10pm Staurdaynight pro-wrestling show.

― Pete, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It was reported a few months ago that the BBC had revised their plans away from the blanket coverage approach to something more modern. I thought it was great, yeah. I sat catching up on the first four episodes of 24 on Saturday night and was as happy as Larry.

― N., Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was particularly pleased that the Stenders omnibus was on as I had a whole week to catch up on. I still missed the first one though as I was busy eating.

My parent's Telegraph informed me that while the BBC had announced last year that it would scale down the mourning they had not actually decided on a precise level of mourning hence the absolute shambles which ensued on the BBC. Was there a shambles? I do not know as I was on the beach drinking beer and watching kites and French dogs then drinking Pastis then eating lots of moules, ha ha.

― Emma, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

on the bus the headline on someone's paper said ROYAL FURY AT THE BBC!! What was this about? I noticed the queen-mum clip- recycle watershed came quite quickly on Sat night: lady di of course had much more footage available, being a "modern" princess

if we'd had a week of it even royalists would be gibbering with exhaustion, seeing the same b/w newsreels ovah and ovah and ovah and ovah

― mark s, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Poor Peter Sissons. That sounds like a song from a musical.

― Jonnie, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Metro today sez that someone haf left a bottle of GIN outside the gates of yer palace - so if anyone wants FREE SPIRITS hooray cheers cheers for les royalistes say I.

― Sarah, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Channel 4 made me miss Krapp's Last Tape for the Queen Mum thing. The basts.

Anyone see the Sun website on the day she died? The whole thing got a complete makeoever. Black banners etc. Then I suppose they realised there wasn't anything in it for them.

― thom, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Regarding music radio stations - Radio 1, Kiss and Xfm - all canned their regular schedule on Saturday evening - to play mournful, chilled, downbeat or bland music. All three got it wrong, it was forced, false, contrived, OTT and out of place. The only reason these stations did this was to uphold a dignified "media reputation" rather than considering the opinions of the listeners of these stations. It would have been OK if they introduced 1 hourly news slots - but what they did was a cop out to appease/uphold their PR reputation. These are MUSIC stations not NEWS oriented - if people want to react to NEWS than go to a media format that reflects this - but to suddenly abandon regular output - to enforced mourning was OTT, come on Xfm and Kiss are harldly associated with the Queen Mum - so why suddenly embrace it.

I would be most interested to read any article in a broadsheet newspaper this week that looks at Radio 1/ Kiss/ Xfm and audience reaction to this issue.

Even worse, apparently 6 Music had a punk weekend that was interrupted. Anarchy in the UK Not!

― DJ Martian, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

does anyone know if they showed krapp's last tape in the end or not, btw? i had to go out before 9, but they hadn't started by then, and channel 4's website was as ever unhelpful...

― toby, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was interested in the report in The Times today that the BBC complaints desk received 100 complaints from members of the public about the lack or coverage and tenor of reporting of the death of qm (if memory serves correct, 100 complaints is usually indicative of a fairly major - in tv terms - complaint e.g. the brass eye paedophilia special). However, during the same period there were *700* complaints of too much coverage / coverage interrupting scheduled programming

― geoff, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

my mother complained to the beeb (by email, which she's just getting in to) about peter sissons interviewing the lady-in-waiting, and even SWITCHED OVER TO ITV (this is *entirely* unprecedented during time of national emergency/mourning/celebration), so i think it can be said that the beeb got it wrong...

I was on a ferry listening to some very bad crooners (father and son in fact) so missed most of it.

― CarsmileSteve, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

on the bus the headline on someone's paper said ROYAL FURY AT THE BBC!! What was this about?

I am surprised that in your fevered state you did not read it as FURRY ROYAL AT THE BBC!!

― N., Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Metro today sez that someone haf left a bottle of GIN outside the gates of yer palace - so if anyone wants FREE SPIRITS hooray cheers cheers for les royalistes say I.

Maybe it was my old college roommate Laura who left it there. I'd lost track of her and then a few years ago one night on the news I saw her being interviewed outside the palace, saying she had a bottle of gin she wanted to give HM for her birthday. I'll try to swing by the British Embassy tonight and see if anyone's left flowers or...other forms of tribute.

― j.lu, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was hugely disappointed that on-ferry crooners Father And Son (the last people in the world not to have heard of grunge!) did not sing "Father And Son". They struck the right mark of QM respect though with their version of "Hey Baby" by DJ Otzi.

― Tom, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The ferries to Ireland have bands called things like "The Shankhill 5" or "The Canary Wharfers" playing Whiskey in the Jar and a million songs about Johnny O Hooley who died for Oiiiiiireland on a cold December morn after fighting the crown.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

that sounds awful

― anthony, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three years pass...

Can this thread be for other unfounded fears than royals/ferries? I seem to have this remote yet niggling sensation whenever sitting on a swivel-type office chair that my weight (not excessive actually) might make the seat give in and make the stem SPEAR MY TORSO in an unpleasant manner.

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 28 August 2005 03:29 (eighteen years ago) link

haha! no more to add.

― , Sunday, 28 August 2005 20:38 (eighteen years ago) link

six years pass...

I have still have a residual fear from childhood of being sucked into and torn up by the gears under the escalator if I don't step off in time.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Tuesday, 5 June 2012 15:04 (eleven years ago) link

This happened once. Then a doberman pinscher got ahold of one of his torn-off hands and choked on it.

― Aimless, Tuesday, 5 June 2012 17:45 (eleven years ago) link

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