WHY, OH WHY?

As Dickens first wrote: WHY, OH WHY? I would ask the same. All you little emailers out there want to know just one thing. Are you all readers of the sub-market tabloid press? Just a question. And I'd need more than a free-to-read blog to tell you what you want to know. Anyway, if I email back with the info all you'll do is post it on your own blogs, now won't you? Naughty little minds.

THE PRINCES

At the risk of being seen as a royal groveller, I was most impressed by the relaxed performance of the two princes. They put on a superb show and really seemed like decent well-brought up young men. All this on what must have seemed to them rather a strange day. Well done, lads, if one's permitted to call a future king and his brother, lads.

THAT CONCERT

So, more people watched the end of the Concert for Diana than Live Aid. I find that hard to believe. Although I must admit that I was one of them. The atmosphere was not there. It seemed a pleasant place to spend a Sunday afternoon and that's definitely not the right mood for rock. Was it my hearing or was there something wrong with Rod Stewart's voice. I could barely hear him. Also, the drummer was encased in some see-through icelike tomb. Was that so that Rod's mike could be turned up without picking up the drums? Apart from that he looked superb and I enjoyed hearing Maggie May once again.

GOOD GRIEF, JULIET!!!

Turn my back on the telly to write about Newsround and John Craven. I know that voice. (I'm not a regular viewer of Countryfile - plus not sure she's a regular interviewer on it) JULIET MORRIS. Another excellent presenter, great fun to work with and a wonderful sense of humour.

SOME LIGHTER STUFF

A few years after I ceased working for Newsround and John Craven my mum rang me.
"Terribly sad about John Craven," she announced.
"Terribly sad about what about John Craven?"
"He's dead."
"Who told you that?"
"My neighbour."
I laughed.
"No Mum, he's not dead - just presenting a programme on the countryside. It goes out at lunchtime every Sunday."
Ah well, the difference between mainstream telly and the rest of the stuff.
Me, I'm watching Countryfile on the Oxford Canal. Beautiful pictures, great stories, and John's just as good as he was two decades ago, obviously hugely enjoying himself.

THE BUS BOMB

A word about the bus bomb outside the British Medical Association's headquarters in 7/7. It freaked me out. For many years I walked from Euston Station to Gray's Inn road through Tavistock Square. Not every day but ALWAYS on a Thursday. Occasionally I would drive. I would drive up this very same road. Unless there was a serious traffic problem - by serious I mean something unusual such as an M1 accident blockage - I would pass the BMA building at the same time as the bus did. When walking I would guarantee to pass at the same time as the bus did. I shivered that day when I realised that had the job continued I would not be here.

THOUGHTS ON THE BOMBS

A little departure from ex-working life at the Beeb. Difficult to call this run of terror. Unlike all the others it's starting to scare me. London and Glasgow within a matter of hours. Seems the only thing that saved hundreds if not thousands of passengers from the most gory of deaths appears to be the lack of research on behalf of the terrorists -- not working out the width of vehicle needed to enter the terminal. I think an Angel intervened on this occasion, in fact on all three occasions especially the drunk needing ambulance treatment and the brilliant London Ambulance Service saving the day. I admire the way they do their jobs picking up the pieces of so many shattered lives and so many lives deliberately destroyed by their owners.