ITV beat BCC hands down in Space race
i CAn’T honestly enjoy the coverage of the Moon landings until they open up the capsule on the aircraft carrier next Thursday and the three brave men step out safe and well. until then, one can only respond to the terrific waves of anxiety and relief imparted by the television coverage at all the decisive stages.
Broadcasting to the nation, just like prime ministers in so many fictions about space travel, Harold wilson got the mood right and put relief ahead of admiration.
He was appearing on iTV, for there was a curious reversal of the roles customarily played by the two services on the big occasion. Master showman Paul Fox kept dr Finlay’s Casebook and The Black And white Minstrel show rolling on BBC1, dropping into the Apollo coverage for the separation and the touchdown.
London weekend presented an openended running account, using david Frost to pull together strands from outside broadcasts, studio discussions and news, with the old Frost formula of chat mingled with audience participation.
HIGHLY CHARGED
The programme did not escape bathos. we had dame sybil Thorndike confiding to Frost that a trip to the Moon had been the dream of her youth.
we swung between the extremes of television: the trivial emptiness of pop, the unfunny comedy, the pumped-up discussion, the jump to live coverage, the punctuation of advertisements for dog food, germicides, toilet soap, cornflakes and detergents — rising to TV as the most fantastic communicator of all.
it was good thinking by London weekend. As nasa’s Paul Haney put it, the trip is the most important transportation event since fish pulled themselves on to dry land, and iTV’s judgment was sound in giving it saturation coverage. it was almost impossible to switch over to BBC1.
They left most of the commentary to Houston and the astronauts, offering interpretation only when it was needed and scoring heavily with a new technical device of using printed captions that didn’t get in the way of the sound.
There was a long period when one lost all awareness of anything that was not coming out of the TV screen in those incredible flat American voices.
it was a highly charged moment to stand by the open door, gazing up at the sky, while listening to them. i shall always remember it.