Think this was 1996, on BBC2, an unusual incident of a live international match on a sunday on Rugby Special. The game was Wales V South Africa. BBC Wales were also showing it live with their own presentation, Alan Wilkins presenting. BBC 2 network took the BBC wales commentary, of Huw Llewellyn Davies and JJ Williams.
Just as South Africa were awarded a penalty early on, with Wales leading 3-0, the feed changed from the national stadium, Cardiff, to TCG with "BBC BANGOR" on it. I presume this was Bangor in North Wales. From that, we went to a "Rugby Special temporary fault" slide, before returning to John Inverdale and his studio guest in London.
In the good old days, captions that accompanied etc PPBs were either black and white, or took on the colour of the party whose broadcast it was.
It's not an unreasonable assumption to think that that should still be the case, people outside of this forum (who are usually quite happy seeing notices in the newsagents' window in Comic Sans etc) might interpret the the red of a BBC 1 caption as something beyond the channel branding ?
Of course back in the day they seemingly had slides made up for every programme, most of which would never see the light of day, so that would be what would be shown rather than a generic apology slide.
Yes, although I was thinking more of the 'into/outro slides, which were unbranded, (because they were networked in the case of ITV, and appeared on BBC 1
and
2 in the case of the Beeb (when PPBs were simulcast on all three channels)).
On the YTV one earlier in the thread, it's notable that the local slide is in YTV house style but without the logo.
As for actual breakdowns, some are cause by the most unlikely of things. There's a well known story in the industry about a manager taking a programme off air when he brought round pizza to everyone and put the box down on a mouse whose cursor was hovering over 'recue'
Yes, that story still gets talked about to this day! Another legendary one was the time someone hit 'take next' for a commercial break only for the automation not to respond, so they kept pressing it again and again... and again and again. Suddenly it woke up and took event after event, ending up half way through the day's schedule.
I've witnessed a few near-misses that viewers would never know about, satellite dishes being blown over in high winds and put back in place not long before going to air, that sort of thing. I think the most extreme was seeing someone lose their entire schedule just as a live programme was coming to an end, the closing credits sequence couldn't be stopped by this point and the schedule was reappended just in the nick of time, I think with only about 3 seconds to go. Luckily the news update that directly followed was paying attention and they managed to start without a count.
I've found that watching breakdowns go out is a lot less enjoyable now I do the job, I just feel sorry for the poor soul sitting in the chair!
At least it's not the permanent "breakdown" when they went off air for good and the plug was pulled mid-programme.
I have searched for this 'breakdown' for many years but have yet to be successful. This is a plea!! - does anyone have a video of the last moments of Bid? I know it probably won't be terribly interesting (especially since they went all Ideal World-y towards the end), but I'd love to see the final product they sold and when they decided to give up altogether and pull the plug.
Of course back in the day they seemingly had slides made up for every programme, most of which would never see the light of day, so that would be what would be shown rather than a generic apology slide.
Yes, although I was thinking more of the 'into/outro slides, which were unbranded, (because they were networked in the case of ITV, and appeared on BBC 1
and
2 in the case of the Beeb (when PPBs were simulcast on all three channels)).
On the YTV one earlier in the thread, it's notable that the local slide is in YTV house style but without the logo.
I wonder if such captions were:-
1: Not permitted to be branded ?
and/or
2: Were not branded, because the broadcaster wished to dissociate themselves from any suggestion that they endorsed the views expressed ? Branding does rather 'put a seal of approval' onto a 'product' !
Of course back in the day they seemingly had slides made up for every programme, most of which would never see the light of day, so that would be what would be shown rather than a generic apology slide.
When Thatcher resigned, CBBC got bumped to BBC2, and Andi Peters showed that they had had to have new slides made up (that would never normally have been seen)
Quite a fun clip, with the broomcupboard being steadily dressed through the afternoon and a behind the scenes at CBBC feature as a filler.
Would have been a lot easier to make new BBC2 versions of the slides once they were electronically generated than it would have been when they were still actual slides anyway.
Never understood why they diligently made those slides up - they were never used outside of Children’s BBC let alone during it. The only time I ever saw them was when Andi Peters would muck about.
Not a breakdown as such, but legend has it that Neville Wanless once managed to hit the wrong button in the Tyne Tees continuity studio. Doing so plunged the whole studio into darkness. Don't know if that's true or not!
Going back to Rugby Union, and when England toured South Africa in 1994, the second match of the tour, for the first 15 minutes, ITV could only show a caption with commentary, no pictures, due to issues with the uplink from Durban. Eventually picture came, but I have to say, John Taylor did a sterling job, having to adapt his commentary for a while, making it seem like radio. In fairness, when the programme started, the presenter did warn there was a chance of the game starting without pictures.
In this seasons Top 14 rugby in France, the whole first half of a game, which Sky were covering live, was lost due to satellite difficulties. Filler material and frequent captions were shown instead.
It reminds me as well about when Argentina and South Africa played a Rugby Championship match one evening UK time. Sky sports were showing the game live. But, there was no commentary, and not even any sound! It was bizarre, and I think the sounds, but no commentary, only came back midway through the second half.
Never understood why they diligently made those slides up - they were never used outside of Children’s BBC let alone during it. The only time I ever saw them was when Andi Peters would muck about.
I guess they might be used if there was a Simon Potter style nightmare where everything has fallen to pieces and they can't even get a standby VT on?
