Frank Bough RIP

I agree.
I wouldn’t say it was the focus of the majority of the report... they did cover in depth the broad path of his whole career with plenty of good archive clips which was very good going for it to be compiled in the matter of an hour or two.
But yeah.... they didn’t need to focus at the end on how his career turned south due to the tabloid stories and to be as blunt to say that was that. A brief mention was all that was needed.

It was notable that his scandal was focussed on not just in the obituary but also in Reeta’s introduction to it as well, so it was reinforced twice

Yes, I thought it was unnecessary to have mentioned it in the introduction, and also to have shown the tabloid headlines in the report. And a more positive line at the end of the report would have softened it somewhat. After all, there are broadcasters still regularly employed by the BBC who’ve done similar things. It was just unfortunate that in Frank Bough’s case that his behaviour seemed so at odds with his image.

Quite a muted official response from the BBC, particularly given the role he played in establishing breakfast TV in the UK. It does seem that after he was sacked, the corporation tried to largely erase him from history.

There was a short little tribute on Match of the Day 2 just now with some archive footage and a brief summary of the sports broadcasting side of his career.

Any obituaries that I have read have focused on his career and then mentioned the scandals in passing. The BBC themselves seem to be the only ones who concentrated on his indiscretions. Says a lot about the BBC really.

Frank Bough presented 6 o Clock Live.

The 6 o Clock Show was a different programme which ended a few years earlier. That was axed for the more serious Friday Live which didn't do very well, so they brought in Frank Bough alongside Danny Baker and Jenni Barnett



And here's the 3 of them
https://tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=91918

Your thoughts 100% echo with mine. I thought the obituary on the BBC 10pm news was pretty shabby overall, and had completely the wrong tone. His career didn't end with the revelations either. He went on to do work for (from memory) LBC, LWT and Sky.

RIP Frank, for me you were one of the excellent things about the BBC in the 70s and 80s.

Frank Bough was one of Britain’s greatest TV presenters of the 70s & 80s: Grandstand, Nationwide, Breakfast Time, he WAS Mr Television. Sad to hear of his passing. Here’s my musical tribute to the master of live telly. @BBCNews @BBCBreakfast @BBCSport @BBCRadio2 #RIPFrankBough pic.twitter.com/rj3fYXWMTS

— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) October 26, 2020

In her autobiography, Fern Britton paints a pretty awful picture of Frank's behaviour behind the scenes on Breakfast Time, particularly towards women. I wonder if that might explain the muted response.

Just heard a nice Frank Bough story. VT machines needed a few seconds to run up back then. When he knew something was coming in from tape, and they were waiting for his cue, he'd click his Biro to signify that he would stop speaking in eight seconds. Teamwork, innit.

— Louis Barfe (@AlanKelloggs) October 26, 2020

Given he left the BBC over 30 years ago, I can’t imagine many people currently at BBC News would have ever worked with him to have formed a negative opinion of him.