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  Well, that's it then! The Last Night of the Proms has always meant the end of summer for me. In my youth it coincided as it does now with a return to school. I remember the days of "Flash Harry", so stern in his conducting but with a dry wit in his speech at the end.
  
  We are these days blessed with high quality colour pictures and stereo sound (HiDef and 5.1 if you can afford it) but years ago it was a washy, grainy black and white picture and mediocre sound but it was magic! Technology has given us (almost) everything we want to see and hear in the glory of what is the foremost music festival in the world. But have the Beeb got it right?
  
  About 25 years or so ago we were sailing along quite nicely. We'd got a nice colour set,. No Nicam stereo then but oh the joys of Radio 3FM. That was when it all started to fall apart. In a effort to "popularise" an already popular event, the last night was shifted to BBC1 and Radio 2. The compressed sound was awful, just like Classic FM is today and the pictures suffered annoying split screen and jerky camera movements. They saw the error of their ways and the following year it was back to normal.
  
  One change however lasts until today. Throughout the season Radio 3 announcers and others who know what they are talking about like Charles Hazelwood present the programmes. On the last night however a "celebrity" is brought in, this year it was Clive Anderson. His inane comments almost ruined the whole evening. Still, I suppose it was better than that other moron from years past Peter Titchmarsh who should have been left to rot in the potting shed.
  
  Having the red button I got fed up with the first half and watched instead the live party in Belfast, excellent stuff.
  
  Rant over,
  
  
  Terry

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