Was Hazel Irvine closing the programme last night planned? Claire Balding hosted the first four hours or so from Whistler before crossing to Sue in the Vancouver schedule, who introduced the bobsleigh, speed skating and finally the curling which took up the final 3 hours, but once the curling wrapped up it was Hazel in the studio for the last half hour or so of the broadcast, which seems a rather pointless change.
Perhaps Sue lost her voice? She sounded pretty rough ll night when she was on.
The BBC2/HD curling was a recording, it went live on 301FV at 11pm. So I suspect Sue left after her slot, whilst the Curling played out. Irvine taking the time to prepare and record the links for the highlights 30mins reel.
Well when I switched off as the Curling came on they were literally only a couple of stones behind the Freeview coverage. Even if Hazel was in for the highlights seems rather stupid giving Sue a token 2-hours or so of hosting duties for the fortnight for Hazel to come in to do the last couple of links - so as she was a bit croaky I was wondering if it was Hazel to the rescue.
Steve Cram is doing studio presenting. Does this help the theory that Sue Barker has lost her voice and he's standing in or was he always going to do this slot?
No, Sue Barker was down to do this slot and the closing ceremony (Hazel is commentating). Surely they could have found someone who actually knows something about Ice Hockey to join them in the studio.
Just heard that NBC have inserted their profanity filter delay in their coverage ... madness.
Probably to avoid wardrobe malfunction fines from the FCC. The "profanity" filter is for more than bad language - it allows incidental/unintentional nudity and other stuff to be filtered out - though the FCC has some strange ideas about what is and isn't acceptable...
Due to the hockey going into extra time, BBC Two's running about 15 minutes behind schedule.
MOTD2 and the League Cup show are both recorded, so will be their normal duration, so the closing ceremony programme will start at 0115. The ceremony itself starts at around 0130.
They finished with a promo for the 2012 opening ceremony, and a rather enjoyable credit sequence, which was a good mix of medallists and people falling over.
Watching the ceremony back on iPlayer and noticed she welcomed those watching in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. I'm guessing it's only the ceremonies they've taken and not the rest of the BBC's coverage. Has this happened many times in the past?
NZ have taken a few commentaries from the BBC - they were referenced in something the other night too. I'd have thought they'd have their own commentators for the ceremonies at least though.
Surprised Steve Cram got the nod over Claire Balding to stand in for Sue for the ceremony as well. Much better closing ceremony from Vancouver than the opening, but the BBC need to learn that they don't need to commentate all the way through the ceremony. Granted, Hazel Irvine is superb and the woman for the job in 2012, but it's not that difficult to know that when things like the Olympic Hymn are being sung and people like Michael Buble are performing, you shut up.
Yes, I enjoyed the Closing Ceremony a lot more than the Opening. Agreed about Hazel, she never shut up all night. She insisted on talking through the concert segment at the end when you could barely hear her. How many times can you basically say the same thing? My only gripe with the content was John Furlong's speech which I felt was too jingoistic to the exclusion of the rest of the world. I can remember back to 1984 and these have been the most biased games since then for the home nation. Canada did very well, but at what cost?