I shall say goodnight till it be morrow
27 September 2018 tbs.pm/67656
The people who decide on the grammar of television these days get a lot of stick, not least from us. There’s credit squeezes and promos making the programmes late and an unhelpful degree of pre-recording and all that jazz.
But the people who make the grammar of television still love television as much as those behind the presentation styles of the 60s, 70s and 80s did.
Here, for example, is someone who works in playout for the BBC, and was on duty last night as the BBC Two ‘2’ symbol, first seen in 1991, passed over the horizon. He and his team didn’t let it go without a proper send off that deserves to be recognised.
So glad people enjoyed the little goodbye montage for the old 2s last night. I’m pleased to have played my part in directing it, but plenty of other people were involved too. A real team effort.
— mumoss (@mumoss) September 27, 2018
FWIW, I know I’m biased, but I truly think the new BBC Two look is absolutely outstanding. I’m thrilled to bits with it. And there’s plenty more to come.
Right, ducking back down now.
— mumoss (@mumoss) September 27, 2018
For those interested, a couple of details on the Goodbye 2s montage: https://t.co/T9MbKgwb9n
Firstly: it was all done in playout using the normal automation. No edit suite involved here.
— mumoss (@mumoss) September 27, 2018
I have to also link again to this beautiful goodbye Northern Ireland did. Absolutely superb. https://t.co/sRahhAkf5f
— mumoss (@mumoss) September 27, 2018
It’s worth watching the two videos attached in @mumoss’s tweets – his montage is lovely and all the more amazing for having been made from scheduling the elements on the Network Pres server rather than editing. Meanwhile, the BBC Two Northern Ireland version is the opposite: simple and direct. But just as loving to the old identity for the channel.
The 2 is dead. Long live the 2.
Image thanks to Ident Central
You Say
4 responses to this article
Stuart Kenny wrote 28 September 2018 at 8:28 pm
That final video was a proud victory lap for the bladed 2, quite emotional too. On the strength of that video, it’s a wonder they didn’t play The Tourists’ I Only Want to Be with You à la Thames’ final moments in 1992. The 2 went out with it’s head held high and it bowed out with dignity.
Mrs Sloane, Your Grade School English Teacher wrote 28 September 2018 at 8:54 pm
Talking of grammar, the most fundamental verb of any language is the verb “to be”.
In English to be grammatically correct, this irregular verb has the very simple rule that it requires its person and number (singular or plural) to match the number of nouns following the predicate.
So in the statement
“There’s credit squeezes and promos”
both “squeezes” and “promos” are plural (and in combination are more than one) so the person of the verb must also be plural — not “is”, but “are”.
For more help see the page “there-is-Huge-Grammatical-Mistake” at the site www grammar com
If in doubt, drop the informal shortened form (apostrophe s) and consider the properly written full “there is” vs “there are” to be your guide as to which is grammatically correct.
Russ J Graham wrote 28 September 2018 at 11:26 pm
Hi Mrs Sloane!
This site is provided to you for free. Nobody here is paid to work for it. You get to visit it and read it all for no payment whatsoever! Isn’t that great?
And all you’ve got to say is… your enjoyment was spoiled by a disputed point of English and you hope the person who wrote this now feels awful in every way for presenting something he wasn’t paid to do for you to look at for free.
No offence, Mrs Sloane, but… go fuck yourself, you patronising bitch.
Love you. x x
Jeremy Rogers wrote 29 September 2018 at 8:46 am
As the Cambridge University Press “English Grammar Today” says:
“In speaking and in some informal writing, we use there’s even when it refers to more than one.”
This is informal writing.
Bad luck Mrs Sloane, try again and maybe in the mean time try to get a bit more up to date with current usage in the United Kingdom.
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