The Queen’s Jubilee has been something I have been excited about for months. For the river pageant, I made sure our calendar was absolutely clear. Because of the time difference, we could get up and enjoy the pageant on Sunday morning.
So naturally, I was so excited I was up at about 6am. I had plans to basically be on the couch with a great front row seat along the Thames. BBC America finally decided to do away with the eight hours of Top Gear they show a day and dedicate the next few days to the Jubilee. I was excited because we were getting the actual BBC broadcast – not a special one made for America.
For the first couple of hours of the broadcast, we meandered along while listening to many dull interviews waiting for the Royal arrival. But once the Pageant started, the broadcast didn’t improve in the slightest. We learnt hardly anything about what was happening, the shots were awful (this was baffling because even on the most overcast day of weather in London, you cannot get a shot of the Thames and Westminster wrong), one minute there was a interview with some person in the crowd in a Union Jack tie and then we would be cut straight to the Royal barge and then off to speak to someone at some twee-hipster tea party. It was truly awful and amateurish and as the weather got worse, so did the broadcast. It was brutally dumbed down and really did not offer the viewer at home anything more than watching some row boats going along a river in miserable weather with random shots of Her Majesty thrown in. Then, they basically ran out of things to say. This shone a light on lack of research by those who were hosting the segments and just a real lack of understanding of how to portray such an event to us at home.
To say it was disappointing would be an understatement but it was good to know I was not alone in my thoughts on the BBC broadcast. Almost immediately, other viewers were letting their feelings be know on Twitter and the next day, many newspapers also reported on the dismal nature of the BBC broadcast. I was thankful that would still be able to watch the many documentaries that would be shown as well as the Jubilee concert and Thanksgiving service but from the BBC, the Queen deserved better.
