BBC One HD once again took the London regional opts, which I think came from the main CiN network gallery as there were no changes to the graphics and in 1080i. This year was from Westfield White City inside Kidzania with Riz Lateef and Wendy Hurrell.
It really is missing having a figurehead like Wogan. The team now just come across as rentahosts, and even though Tess has fronted it for probably nearly a decade now the fact she has to leave for Blackpool every year just flags it isn't her number one priority of the week. Even though Wogan was doing his radio show with his TV outings being much rarer it came across as hugely important to him, and viewers bought into that.
Why did they leave the blink and you miss it clip from Doctor Who until after the news, a bit late for the family show. Also the Call the Midwife clip has been pushed to near midnight, even though the three actors appeared with Graham and Mel hours ago. What producer thought of that idea? Bring out the stars and not show the clip until four hours later, was that a mess up?
Thank God the BBC decided to cut the live show from a 2.00am finish to a 12.30am finish, as the last 90 minutes always dragged, and poor Terry tried his best to keep it going, but by 1.45am the whole event was dead in the water.
So, they are now airing the Call the Midwife clip, three hours after the three actors from the show appeared with Graham and Mel. What a joke. And the clip we saw, 90 seconds. What a preview for charity.
It really is missing having a figurehead like Wogan. The team now just come across as rentahosts, and even though Tess has fronted it for probably nearly a decade now the fact she has to leave for Blackpool every year just flags it isn't her number one priority of the week. Even though Wogan was doing his radio show with his TV outings being much rarer it came across as hugely important to him, and viewers bought into that.
What I saw of Ade and Tess earlier was dire. The regional team on BBC London for some reason for the first two segments put a lot of oomph into it this time round, the third, not so much. Great to see so many kids being featured too.
BBC Northern Ireland was awful. Also during the choirs song, Belfast was treated with utter contempt, for some reason the camera could not get a close up shot of the children until three seconds before the song ended and it was too late. All those kids, who thought they would get on TV. Not good enough from BBC Northern Ireland.
Remember the years when Northern Ireland would opt out for hours on end from the network. Thank Christ those years are over.
They really lack in content nowadays. Nearly everything is prerecorded when that used to be a rarity before. And they've started repeating stuff at 11.30. That's if they haven't been showing 'a making of' of stuff seen earlier in the night.
Some of the stuff is clips of TV shows soon to be broadcast just with a little insert referencing Children in Need. Minimal effort required.
They could do with more live music performances, utilising more of the West End musicals like they used to... without the overkill, and more stuff like the Newsreaders and maybe utilise the regions given they're at their disposal.
Otherwise I hardly see the point in continuing past the 10pm break.