The Concorde Final Day Thread

<waves>

It was when I was 13, and I even got a flight certificate with a lovely embossed Concorde logo on it, signed by the Captain and First Officer. It's been in a box somewhere ever since I moved four years ago - I really must dig it out (and sell it on eBay).

However, as much as I would love to say that I flew with the rest of the glitterati across the Atlantic at Mach 2, it was nothing more than a shakedown cruise after a minor engineering overhaul - courtesy of a family friend at British Airways Engineering - which took us down to the South Coast and back. Despite the lack of supersonic travel - and no more than BA peanuts and orange juice to indulge in - it was a great experience.

Sorry -- but Jon Sopel is one of the best, he can turn his hand to anything, and know what to say about it, how to say it, and can make it quite intresting.

As for ITVNC, the coverage was average. Yes the presenters and reporters were OK, especially Nicholas Owen, but BBC and even Sky had more resources, more camera, and Sky had their Skycopter up, and the Beeb had their copter up as well. Where was ITN's blue helicopter? More costcutting?

And, sad perhaps, ITVNC is still down at 0.1% BARB rating share along with the others like CNBC, CNN, and EuroNews, and sometimes doesn't register on the ratings system when it should. Really its not getting enough exposure on ITV1 for more people to tune in.

Jeremy Clarkson was on board too, one of the American channels did a brief interview with him before he got on board at New york. He said "It's one small step for man, one giant leap back for mankind"! Sums it up. I feel really depressed it won't fly again - my greatest transport dream scuppered......

Didn't see it live but it looked to be 14:9 cropped, was that a cockup or were they using 4:3 kit?

One of the cameras was but most of them were 16:9

Pictures taken from over central London and of Concorde coming into land as well as the pictures around Heathrow were in widescreen, but the actual touchdown onto the runway and the pictures of Jon Sopel talking with studio guests were cropped into 14:9.

Was Jon Sopel in the same makeshift studio as Dermot Murnaghan was at Breakfast? I'm fairly sure that Breakfast was in 16:9

There was a certain amount of footage that was shared ('pooled') between ITN, Sky and the BBC

Please, Jon Sopel is dire. He just stands there, has a very annoying manor and bores you to hell. Always forces me away from the BBC, Matthew Am<outhfullofwords> is much better.

I didn't see any of Sky's Coverage, but I can confidently say that ITV's coverage was far more entertaining, and although it didn't have a helicopter it was still better.

Exactly. From what I have heard ITV's made people laugh, full of jokes and witty humour. TV's not all about who relays the most up-to-date coverage. Hours and hours of the same newsreaders uttering the words 'en of an era' and repeating the same things doesn't appeal to anyone except news anoraks.

During the BBC News Special, nothing was repeated - it was all live (apart from about 2 reports looking back at Concorde). It wasn't just the resources they had available that made it good, rather it was the questions that were asked of several experienced stuido guests and the interesting discussions which followed that made it. Admittedly, for the rest of N24's day, they were repeating things, but isn't that the nature of a rolling news channel?

All of this SO sucks - Concorde shouldn't be grounded at all!! they should have given the planes to Richard Branson!