By Ron Howells • Published: 12 Apr 2021 • 19:54
Prince Philip's Wish For His German Family To Attend His Funeral Is Honoured. image: Wikimedia
BBC Flooded With ‘Over 100,000 Complaints’ Following Coverage Of Prince Philip’s Death.
THE BBC had it’s switchboards jammed as it was flooded with over 100,000 complaints about the wall to wall coverage it broadcast of Prince Philip’s death, according to The Sun.
Usual scheduling was cancelled after news of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death broke shortly after noon on Friday, April 9. Following the sudden news, the BBC’s television and radio channels laid on a string of special programmes chronicling Philip’s life.
However, thousands of viewers were left fuming after their favourite shows – including the MasterChef final – were scrapped so special tribute programmes could be aired.
The full and in-depth coverage provided is believed to be one of the most complained about bits of telly in British history.
One insider told The Sun: “I feel sorry for the Beeb. They would be criticised and accused of not being respectful enough if they didn’t lay the programmes on. But they seem to have left many people very cross.”
Blanket coverage turns off viewers
BBC1 and BBC2 dropped their planned schedules following the announcement of Prince Philip’s loss of life, as did ITV.
BBC1 lost 6 per cent of its viewers on Friday night in comparison with the identical evening per week earlier than, according to an evaluation by trade web site Deadline. It discovered BBC2 viewers have been down by 65 per cent, whereas ITV’s viewers fell by 60 per cent.
Gogglebox was another highly rated program with virtually 4.2 million viewers that was taken off- much to the anger of viewers. Channel 4 had planned to show a BBC Panorama program on Martin Bashir’s 1995 interview with Princess Diana but that was also pulled from the schedule.
The BBC has defended its decision-making, just saying: ‘We are pleased with our coverage and the function we play throughout moments of nationwide significance’.
Source: The Sun
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Ron actually started his working career as an Ophthalmic Technician- things changed when, during a band rehearsal, his amplifier blew up and he couldn’t get it fixed so he took a course at Birmingham University and ended up doing a degree course. He built up a chain of electronics stores and sold them as a franchise over 35 years ago. After five years touring the world Ron decided to move to Spain with his wife and son, a place they had visited over the years, and only bought the villa they live in because it has a guitar-shaped swimming pool!. Playing the guitar since the age of 7, he can often be seen, (and heard!) at beach bars and clubs along the length of the coast. He has always been interested in the news and constantly thrives to present his articles in an interesting and engaging way.
I am really angry & ashamed at the British public. Obviously, not patriots, just TV ‘Soap’ addicts. They should show respect. Prince Philip served as consort to our queen for over 7 decades, a real WWII hero in the Royal Navy and after passing away, what does he get, an ungrateful minority complaining that they missed their favorite soaps…….nothing short of pathetic. This is the true face of the UK today. So glad we do not live there anymore.
It is not a question of respect. You can be respectful without having to spend all evening hanging your head in silent grieving. The BBC do this every time – cancelling all programmes to blanket their schedules with ‘tributes’, but also continuous and often unexciting recollections from anyone they can get hold of. It is just too much. The last thing Prince Philip would have wanted would be for people to be angry because of his death, especially if it was no his fault, and this was entirely predictable. They could have devoted the whole of BBC2 for Prince Philip programmes for those who wanted to watch them, but not both channels, radio and everything else. The Duke of Edinburgh was a great man but the BBC should have known he would not wanted such a huge fuss made by the media and so many people made so frustrated.
Will the BBC have a poll to see how many agreed with the coverage,millions I bet
It was reasonable that the BBC gave full coverage but on BBC2 as well? Ditto ITV and ch 5. Rebellious respite from channel 4 – their offering was the Simpsons. The missed epi of Eastenders [oh the tragedy!] was tagged on to Monday’s horror for the addicts. I didn’t ring up about the absence of Fawlty Towers that this created.
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