Last Night Blues (and Yellows)

I started to watch the second half - the climax - of The Last Night of the Proms on BBC One tonight. 

As soon as the cameras turned to the audience, I saw a sea of EU flags from the Prommers, and - this year - the BBC's cameras weren't shy about zooming in on them.

Waitrose must have been quiet in London tonight.

Meanwhile...

Gone, it seems, are the days when the BBC-One-broadcast second half included heavyweight classical pieces or - pace Sir John Drummond's infamous introduction of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's panic-inducing Panic - anything daring. 

No, it was 'approachable' fare all the way, featuring operetta (starring the can-can) and songs from the musicals before the usual horn-tooting, hand-clapping jollity of Henry Woods's routine sea-shanty fantasia arrived...

...and then, being the modern BBC, it was straight onto an inclusive tour of the UK nations, featuring - I kid you not - choirs in Scotland, with maximum lack of originality, singing The Skye Coach Song ('Speed bonnie coach like a haggis on the wing') and choirs in Northern Ireland, even less imaginatively, singing The London Derriere ('O Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes urgently need an engineer. Call Gerry and Martin's now. Or else'). 

I probably should have stayed to see Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and the National Anthem, but that was enough BBC broadcasting and EU flag waving for me tonight. 

In between came yapping with diverse guests. 

(Sorry Katie. I know you're great but, oh, for the days of Richard Baker! Why can't the BBC just introduce the music and shut up?

I probably should have watched the first half on BBC Two. I spy Manuel de Falla and his Three-Cornered Hat on its menu. I do like Manuel de Falla. Hope the BBC didn't ruin it for him by letting in Steve Bray - the Stop Brexit guy permanently protesting outside Westminster - and allowing him to wear a three-cornered blue-top hat with a yellow band while chanting 'Stop Brexit!' in Spanish!