Oh b****r (courtesy of Kev)
MONDAY 31 MARCH
Where to start....
From the emails, texts and calls I’ve been getting - as well as from your reactions here on the blog - it seems that you’re already well aware of the apparent disintegration of the BBC’s computer system here at the Pink Palace. No-one is to blame for the sporadic waywardness of The Nightshift’s appearances on-air; the system that’s used to broadcast it seemingly threw up its hands in despair and gave up the ghost. (Why, incidentally, do we say ‘gave up the ghost?’)
This means that Saturday morning’s show became a dog’s breakfast and this morning’s ran 10 minutes late throughout. Sunday’s programme - with its rare ‘live’ element for Clock Change Night - will also go down in Nightshift history as the very nadir of slick inefficiency. (In case you weren’t listening, you missed a treat. The BBC puts its studio clocks forward by ‘expressing’ them at just that speed where you don’t actually notice the second hand moving unusually fast. I therefore invited the people of the North-East to change their clocks almost 30 minutes too soon. It was almost too bad to be true. At least my on-air chat with Sue Sweeney was worth coming to work for!)
There may be further computer cock-ups before things are finally put to rights. I can only apologise if this means that you miss out on the radio gems I have pre-recorded for your delight and nocturnal diversion.
To be honest, I’m feeling a bit peeved about it. I only keep smiling under these trying and testing circumstances because of the typically innovative and imaginative suggestions you made about the actors who should play us in films about our lives. Sue Sweeney and I both LOVED the idea of Mae West portraying her and Sue’s own idea that it could be Diana Dors was a cracker, too. I only realised that Diana Dors was an actress of some depth when I saw her in The Amazing Mr Blunden (after whom the solicitor in Secrets was named); she was truly outstanding - no pun intended.
If you’d like to suggest a second question for the Truckshunter Questionnaire, I’d be happy to go along with it.
TRUCKSHUNTER POSTING
Tomorrow’s posting will be a ‘guest’ posting. It’s a cracker, too. But you’ll have to wait to find out who wrote it....
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
ianstuartrobinson@googlemail.com
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
Where to start....
From the emails, texts and calls I’ve been getting - as well as from your reactions here on the blog - it seems that you’re already well aware of the apparent disintegration of the BBC’s computer system here at the Pink Palace. No-one is to blame for the sporadic waywardness of The Nightshift’s appearances on-air; the system that’s used to broadcast it seemingly threw up its hands in despair and gave up the ghost. (Why, incidentally, do we say ‘gave up the ghost?’)
This means that Saturday morning’s show became a dog’s breakfast and this morning’s ran 10 minutes late throughout. Sunday’s programme - with its rare ‘live’ element for Clock Change Night - will also go down in Nightshift history as the very nadir of slick inefficiency. (In case you weren’t listening, you missed a treat. The BBC puts its studio clocks forward by ‘expressing’ them at just that speed where you don’t actually notice the second hand moving unusually fast. I therefore invited the people of the North-East to change their clocks almost 30 minutes too soon. It was almost too bad to be true. At least my on-air chat with Sue Sweeney was worth coming to work for!)
There may be further computer cock-ups before things are finally put to rights. I can only apologise if this means that you miss out on the radio gems I have pre-recorded for your delight and nocturnal diversion.
To be honest, I’m feeling a bit peeved about it. I only keep smiling under these trying and testing circumstances because of the typically innovative and imaginative suggestions you made about the actors who should play us in films about our lives. Sue Sweeney and I both LOVED the idea of Mae West portraying her and Sue’s own idea that it could be Diana Dors was a cracker, too. I only realised that Diana Dors was an actress of some depth when I saw her in The Amazing Mr Blunden (after whom the solicitor in Secrets was named); she was truly outstanding - no pun intended.
If you’d like to suggest a second question for the Truckshunter Questionnaire, I’d be happy to go along with it.
TRUCKSHUNTER POSTING
Tomorrow’s posting will be a ‘guest’ posting. It’s a cracker, too. But you’ll have to wait to find out who wrote it....
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
ianstuartrobinson@googlemail.com
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
8 comments:
I'm loving the "Oh, b****r" Series that has been born on the blog - i.e. Kev's photo today and the one Ian posted a little while ago.
I have been looking into this euphemism, 'give up the ghost' ..
I repeatedly found out that it meant the BBC computer had stopped working - but, being as we know that already, I thought I'd try to delve further!
Seemingly, 'ghost' is an old Saxon word equivalent to 'soul' - but, more importantly, it is the translation of the word 'pneuma' (which is both Hebrew and Greek) - and means
breath/ life/ spirit.
Sad to say, I am led to conclude that the spirit of the BBC computer is no longer willing!
hiya hildie... thats a lovely, interesting post about ghosts. which is true.
the "eternal" spirit.
ian ? the boat picture, amazing isnt it.?
i,m thinking as everyone else will, wide expanse of ocean yet the little "pea green" boat manages to find that post.
beggers belief really.
i often wonder with these kind of pics how the photographer manages to be there at that very minute.
was kev on his holidays i wonder. ?
ps. i know the boats not pea green, just made me think of the owl and the pussy cat, went to sea in a beautiful.....
reading hildies post made me think of history, Richard the lionheart, (it,s a long story) !
i read somewhere that he never stepped foot on English soil,
wouldnt that be very strange if true.
one of those stranger than fiction quotes.
strange where our thoughts lead us too.
bye.
Yes I like this series of pictures, too. I've got quite a few to show you; Loz has just sent me some more! Watch this space.
Now....read on!
ps ive come on here to say i dropped the bread,, there was actually no connection with the letter it was a complete coincidence...
please ..?? does anyone know whats happened to maureen maureen im worried about you.. are you ok,,
ian ...?? ive got my miss marple hat on..
howdy fellow truckshunters
i am at a loss as to understanding the "bbc" clocks when all this clock pallava took place in studio 1A i believe, and there again perhaps its common to the "bbc clocks" country wide running double time for x mins .
anyway when IAN so skillfully manipulated this otherwise 1/2 annual occasion away from total disaster , i just sat back and looked at my clock
at 3 mins past 2:00 am my atomic clock which is now controled from "anthorn" went from 2:03 to 3:03 within 30 seconds so why do the "BBC" insist on this system ?
The ANTHORN clock is calibrated to "NPL" standard.
and on a slightlty different note in years gone by "this is now me in technical mode"
radio 4 used to be on 200khz but for reasons best known to the "authorites" it is now on 198khz
and to those who dont know radio 4 is held frequency wise to very strict limits.
if i ever had to build a radio from scratch radio 4 would be the first station i would look for and it would be marked up as 198 khz as this is now the LW standard marker.
hiya everyone im waiting for some one to carry on the story....... are you all hiding?
im a bit out of my depth you see ive never visited Holy island and storys have to be factually correct, places, landmarks ect.
im scared i might say they went to the pub on the hill or the cove roud the back and in real life there wont be any... .
and that would ruin it,
itd be a shame cos viviennes done well. i love it..
i didnt read the famous 5 either i was an enid blyton lass..
fairyland...
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