2000 Today

As we’re approaching 2020 and a brand new decade, who here has any memories, fond or otherwise, of 1999 going into 2000?

The BBC’s centrepiece was of course 2000 Today, a mammoth 28-hour marathon broadcast from 9:15am on Friday 31st December 1999 (New Year’s Eve) to 1:30pm on Saturday 1st January 2000 (New Year’s Day). I know Gaby Roslin was there for the whole thing amazingly, and it was a huge event for me, just full of excitement.

And yes, I know it wasn’t the “true” millennium (that was 2001) but I appreciated the effort the BBC went to, especially with the special Lambie-Nairn idents used throughout the day. There was a 2000 Today website but it’s long since gone offline. Des and Mick (previously TV and Radio Bits) did a small bit about telly years and mentioned BBC2’s efforts on the day too (https://www.desandmick.co.uk/television/tellyyears/1990s/).

Hope it brings back some memories!

The only thing I remember about 2000 Today is the massive lottery draw balls up! (No pun intended)

Fast forward 20 years and sadly Dale is no longer with us and poor Babs has Alzheimer's

Sadly I'm a little too young to remember it, but ever since I found out about 2000 today I've been fascinated by it. I assume someone recorded the entire thing back in the day and I'd like to see that (and scrub through the footage), but that's probably a long shot. Maybe the best we can hope for is someone taking all the new year celebrations and making it into a highlights package.

I do have some questions about it.

People say it was a return to live in-vision continuity (for EastEnders). Are there any clips of this online?

What did the BBC Nations do? I know Wales and NI take network coverage these days but did they opt out for celebrations in Belfast and Cardiff? Did Scotland opt out for Hogmanay? Did they put the network coverage on their respective BBC Two (like they do with election coverage) or simply not bother?

If there were any credits, how long were they?

I was living abroad at the time, and to my lasting annoyance, I set the video recorder incorrectly and missed the local broadcast. It had all the BBC presentation but with the ERT branding - and I didn't get any of it apart from what had been trailed in the lead up to it.

https://www.greektvidents.com/2000_Today.shtml

I was on holiday in Canada at the time, and caught some bits of the CBC's version - same titles, but Peter Mansbridge presenting. (I hadn't seen much of him before, and my family decided he was like Canada's answer to Peter Snow)

As far as I remember, Scotland did their regular Hogmanay programmes on BBC2, Wales and NI didn't do any special programmes. Of course, Jools' Hootenanny that year was on 30th December, so it wouldn't be overshadowed.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbctwo/england/1999-12-31#at-20.45

The BBC2 shows were quite interesting, actually, the TOTP2 90s special was actually repeated the other day, and then at 10.20 you had Goodbye To The Nineties which was an absolutely brilliant compilation of archive clips from the decade arranged in an A-Z. There were no presenters or narrators but a few people popped up to add a bit of context, Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen did a bit about interior design and I remember Ally McCoist was interviewed during the football bit. I remember there were loads of clips of the Armistice in it as well. It was a great show, and they repeated it three months later. Indeed when they did I Love The Nineties eighteen months later I was probably the only person who thought it might be worth doing, based on that show, but it was nowhere near as good.

Then at 11.50 they simulcast BBC1, but one of the most interesting bits of the night was that the Fatboy Slim doc was actually ten minutes shorter than billed and so at 12.45am they showed, unscheduled, the episode of Danny Baker's TV Heroes about the Top of the Pops audience, which was a fantastic show and I desperately scrambled for a tape to record it.

Of course, ITV had Countdown 2000 during the day. This was produced by ITN from the normal news studio, though I remember they had armchairs rather than the desk, and every hour they'd pop up, including in the middle of films and other shows, to link into live pictures of midnight from somewhere, and then they stayed on from 11pm until after midnight.

2000 Today has got a bit forgotten now and I've said this before but it falls in that period between widespread VHS and the rise of digital, so I think many of the clips now only survive in obselete formats on long-abandoned websites. The comedy clips in that video up there are quite interesting, they commissioned a load of comedy sketches with a stellar cast list - including a Two Ronnies reunion - but they got a bit swamped by all the other things going on, and were then compiled into two programmes shown after ten o'clock - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/2000-01-02#at-22.10. Seemed a bit of a waste.

The brilliant VHiStory blog has done a few posts about it including lots of grabs and clips...
https://vhistory.wordpress.com/2018/10/20/bbc-millennium-coverage-tape-2534/
https://vhistory.wordpress.com/2019/11/10/bbc-millennium-coverage-part-2-tape-2456/
The latter includes one of the most memorable bits, Jamie Theakston getting a bit emotional at five in the morning. As I mention in the comments, David Dimbleby said beforehand he was honoured to be given the role of saying the first words of the millennium and had been spending a lot of time thinking about he might say. And in the end he said, er, "Well, it is now the year 2000".

There were no credits, because I remember waiting for them at the end and there weren't any. Of course, when it was announced it was reported Des Lynam and Jill Dando would be doing it, but by the time we got there neither were available, for very different reasons.

Indeed Steve. I started reading the comments as well and noticed you said it

Gaby Roslin to this day still says that this was one of her favourite jobs of her career. She was the only presenter to do the full 27 hour stretch.

Of course the night was a bit shaky in places. The Lottery being no exception. But we were truly entering into the unknown and I think the BBC covered it spectacularly.

Of course, It’s a shame that this prompted them to do their awful BBC Music Live event a few months later.

News wise, Sian Williams, Peter Sissons and Michael Buerk presented the news from a replica BBC News Desk within the main 2000 Today studio. The openers to those bulletins were brilliant: long, sweeping camera runs across the studio, accompanied by an extended version of the news theme “beeps”. It was utterly stunning.

Twenty years ago. Geez........

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!

The two parts if The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything are online:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Probably the most impressive comedy cast list ever assembled. Similar to the “Shaggy Dog Story” trail they aired around Christmas Eve 1999 which had a similarly impressive cast, styled as a comedy version of the “Small People/Future Generations” one they did for children’s programmes and “Perfect Day” for music:

Shaggy Dog Story:

Mammals vs. Insects:

"Goodbye To The Nineties" was, from what I remember of it, a great compilation. Sadly, it's not been repeated since 2000 and I've never been able to find it online.