The first recording today starts with a trail for Strictly Come Dancing.
Then, it’s Maestro – The Winner’s Finale Live. Clive Anderson introduces from the Royal Albert Hall.
He’s joined by three of the Maestro judges, Simone Young, Dominic Seldis and Proms regular Zoe Martlew.
The series winner Sue Perkins is in Hyde Park getting ready to conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra for the Proms in the Park. “At ease, relaxed, confident, these are just three of the things I don’t feel at the moment staring at that.”
The fourth judge, Sir Roger Norrington, is elsewhere in the Albert Hall preparing to take the stage to conduct the Last Night of the Proms.
Terry Wogan introduces Sue on stage.
Her first piece is Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 4, which to me always reminds me of Church Parade when I was younger, and every month the scouts and guides of the local troops would march into church, and the organist would always play this music.
Next, she’s joined by Lesley Garrett, who sings Verdi’s Merce Dilette Amiche, and The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha.
Media Centre Description: Clive Anderson presents the climax of the series as the winning student performs at Proms in the Park on the Last Night of the Proms. After weeks of hard work, the Maestro winner takes to the stage in London’s Hyde Park to conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra and soloist Lesley Garrett live in front of an audience of 30 thousand people, as well as the millions watching and listening on radio and TV.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 13th September 2008 19:28
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Saturday 13th September 2008 19:30
After this there’s a trail for Panorama: Omagh – What the Police Were Never Told.
The next recording follows straight on, it’s Last Night of the Proms 2008 – Part 1 although my Media Centre recordings for this one are labelled as part 2, so I thought I had multiple copies of part 2 until I checked them, relieved to find I do have the whole evening.
The first piece today is Beethoven’s overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, not a piece I’m familiar with.
Next, Bryn Terfel is the soloist to sing Hymn to the Evening Star from Wagner’s Tannhauser.
He also sings an aria from Tosca.
Pianist Helene Grimaud is the soloist for Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy.
Afterwards, Suzy Klein speaks to Helene Grimaud.
Next, Bryn Terfel is back to perform an aria from Verdi’s Falstaff, and appears to be dressed as Baron Harkonen from David Lynch’s Dune.
Suzy Klein talks to a couple of promenaders, who were given season tickets by their children.
There’s a performance from Hyde Park, from Jose Carreras.
Sue Perkins has dashed over from Hyde Park to be in the studio.
Sue’s mentor Jason Lai is also there.
We get a chance to see Sue’s encore in the park, a reprise of a piece she conducted in the competition, Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro.
Then the programme ends, handing over to BBC One.
Media Centre Description: Clive Anderson and Suzy Klein present live coverage from the Royal Albert Hall of the final BBC Proms concert. More than 40 years since his Proms debut, Sir Roger Norrington makes his first appearance on the Last Night conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is joined by two outstanding soloists, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, and pianist Helene Grimaud, to perform works by Puccini, Verdi, Wagner and Beethoven.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 13th September 2008 20:00
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Saturday 13th September 2008 20:00
After this, there’s a trail for Radio 3 Performance.
There’s an ad for Digital Switchover.
And a trail for Horizon: The President’s Guide to Science. Can you imagine anyone trying something like that today?
The recording continues with a nice treat, as I clearly set this to run long in case the concert overran. It’s a whole episode of Have I Got News For You guest hosted by Alexander Armstrong.
Ian’s guest is Clare Balding.
Paul’s guest is Michael Macintyre.
One thing that a lot of these current comedy shows are suffering from at this very particular moment in time is all the jokes bashing Amy Winehouse (usually based on jokes about drink and drugs). I know nobody can see the future, but they do all hit very differently now.
BBC Genome: BBC Two England – Saturday 13th September 2008 – 21:10
After this, there’s a Heroes-themed BBC 2 ident so I guess we’re getting more episodes soon. I wonder if I recorded them?
There’s also a trail for Amazon with Bruce Parry.
Then the recording finally ends with the start of Mock The Week.
The next recording starts with a trail for Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
Then it’s Last Night of the Proms 2008 – Part 2 and they’ve let Clive Anderson out of the studio and into the hall itself.
We get some music from the regional Proms in the Park, starting with Evelyn Glennie performing a piece called Drummer Queen in Glasgow.
In Belfast, traditional Irish supergroup Altan perform.
Rebecca Evans and Alfie Boe since some Verdi in Swansea.
Sir Henry Wood’s Bust gets the traditional laurel wreath.
The second half of the concert gets underway with an arrangement of the song Funiculi Funicula by Rimsky Korsakov.
Helene Grimaud and Bryn Terfel perform a Vaughn Williams song Silent Noon.
Bryn Terfel performs a folk song medley representing the four parts of the British Isles.
Suzy Klein talks to composer Anna Meredith about the piece she’s written for the Last Night. It’s called ‘froms’ and features a link up with all four Proms in the Park orchestras as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Albert Hall, with each of the different orchestras adding something different to the sound of the piece.
It’s typically very modern, so I didn’t think much of it, and the gimmick of the four remote orchestras doesn’t obviously add anything since it’s impossible to really tell what’s being played by whom as it’s all rather atonal and noisy. But I’m just a grumpy old man.
Next, there’s a very significant break from Proms tradition as they play a series of bugle calls, again passing from region to region. This is the first part of Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs, but this evening, the Bugle Calls is the only part of his music that’s played. I think the Proms has a new director this year, and as usual with new people, they like to “shake things up”. I’m not happy, as the Fantasia is one of my favourite parts of the Last Night programme.
In its place, and commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death, the next piece is Ralph Vaughn Williams own arrangement of Sea Songs. It’s not the same.
We’re back to the more traditional programme next as a very Welsh looking Bryn Terfel to sing Rule Britannia. He even sings a verse and chorus in Welsh.
Roger Norrington gives the traditional conductor’s speech.
Then they play Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1, more popularly known as Land of Hope and Glory.
Next it’s Parry’s setting of William Blake’s words for Jerusalem.
Finishing off with the always slightly disappointing National Anthem, which does sound like a bit of a dirge after all that.
Media Centre Description: Clive Anderson presents live coverage from the Royal Albert Hall of the final BBC Proms concert. Conductor Sir Roger Norrington is joined by two top international soloists – bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and pianist Helene Grimaud – and the combined forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Singers. In a feast of music-making, the audience at the Royal Albert Hall will link up with thousands at Proms in the Parks around the country for the grand finale.
Recorded from BBC ONE on Saturday 13th September 2008 21:08
BBC Genome: BBC ONE Saturday 13th September 2008 21:10
After this there’s a trail for Radio 3 and Gary Lineker gives us a trail for Match of the Day.
Then the recording finishes with the start of the News.
The final recording today starts with the end of Mock The Week.
There’s a trail for What To Eat Now.
Also a trail for Horizon: The President’s Guide to Science.
Then it’s some comedy to end the evening with Dara O’Briain Live at the Theatre Royal. It seems like this version is made up almost entirely with interactions with the audience, although since this is something he’s particularly good at, that’s no bad thing.
Media Centre Description: The final date from the comedian’s sell-out 100 date tour of the UK and Ireland. Recorded in front of 2,500 fans at London’s Theatre Royal, this show displays Dara at his quick-thinking best.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 13th September 2008 22:08
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Saturday 13th September 2008 22:10
After this there’s a trail for Torchwood Lost Souls.
Then the recording ends with the start of a film. The continuity announcer doesn’t actually give the title of the film, and I didn’t recognise the short segment that’s on the end of this recording when I watched it on my TV earlier. But I had previously run this recording through a Speech to Text transcriber (it’s a local version of Whisper AI) just in case I wanted to pull out any quotes. And as the film starts, and the producer’s logo starts playing, suddenly the subtitle is the actual title of the film – A Guide to Recognising Your Saints. The only explanation I can come up with is that the LLM that Whisper AI uses might have been trained on a lot of movies with subtitles, and one of those might have been this film, and the subtitles for that might have included the actual title of the film, despite those words not being spoken during any part of my recording. Either than or AI is more powerful than we could possibly imagine.
