A few Saturdays ago I settled down on my chaise shorte (even if I could afford a chaise longue it wouldn’t fit in my living room!) to watch “George Michael In London” on BBC2.
Imagine my disappointment – go on, imagine it – when BBC 2 Wales replaced the concert with “Today At The Test”!
As it was ‘George Michael Night’, BBC2, having earlier screened a “George Michael At The BBC” compilation, replacing his concert with cricket seemed illogical.
But as we know, sport always takes priority at BBC Wales.
Fortunately, in this digital age we can tune in (do we still ‘tune in’?) to all BBC regions and I found the concert on BBC 2 London.
Hardly a third-world problem, admittedly, but it took me back to the bad old, pre-digital, pre-satellite, pre-streaming days when we only had three TV channels.
Being young-ish at the time, I wasn’t aware if other UK regions opted-out from the mainstream schedules as BBC Wales did.
But I remember that quite often, when BBC One showed a late-night thriller film, invariably BBC Wales would replace it with some dull (to a youngster) discussion programme, followed by The News In Welsh and Close Down!
Beatle fans of all ages will recall with amusement, Victor Spinetti’s harassed TV director character in “A Hard Day’s Night” predicting “The News In Welsh” would be his next and probably final job after The Fab Four had wreaked havoc in his studio.
And, before anyone writes in, the film’s brilliantly witty screenplay was penned by Alun Owen – a Welshman born in Menai Bridge.
And it was made almost 60 years ago!
Greater minds than mine noticed that opting-out meant missing-out.
A well-observed comedy sketch in a 1980s TV show (possibly ‘Not The Nine O’ Clock News’?) began with a shot of waves lapping against a sandy beach as a male announcer said “And now, BBC Television is proud to present the British television premier of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie ‘Jaws’!”
A PAUSE
“Except for viewers in Wales, who can watch a documentary about cheese making in the 19th century”.
Cheese. Cricket. Nothing much changes, does it!