25 Years Ago 3 JANUARY 1981
Shambles
RICHARD INGRAMS
Any post-Christmas depression was unlikely to be lifted by the sight of the grinning figures of Jay, Frostie, Parky and Anna Ford celebrating their victory in the great breakfast TV race. What they had done to deserve it was never quite clear. Jay, it is true, gained the good opinion of the IBA some years ago by writing with John Birt of LWT a thoughtful if somewhat turgid thesis on the presentation of news programmes and the need for greater something or other, but how he thinks his ideas can be put into effect at breakfast time I cannot begin to imagine. At this time of day most of us are dashing to and fro from the bedroom and bathroom to the dining room clutching bits of toast, cups of coffee and electric razors and trying not to miss the train. Sitting down to in-depth news presentations in such circumstances is something that only a very rich and clever man like Jay — who breakfasts pensively, I imagine, in a long silk dressing-gown — would think a good idea.
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