It must be the biggest catastrophe on BBC One for decades. For ten long minutes, the network descended into chaos after Panorama failed to start.
Announcer Delroy Haynes was the hero of the hour filling in gallantly. But despite his best efforts the breakdown itself was painful and cringeworthy.
It is one thing for a live programme to fall off the air – another for a recorded one to fail to run.
Worse, the shambles led to other programmes – and ultimately the BBC News at Ten – being late.
Hopefully there will be a full inquiry into just what happened.
Even if Panorama was late, why did this then lead to chaos? Ultimately is the playout system sufficiently robust to cope with the demands of a reactive channel like BBC One?
Hopefully these questions will be asked as a shambles like this cannot be repeated?
Oh for the days of simply fading up Con to show a slide, play music and apologise while the network director worried about getting the tape onto another machine.
Automation can be a great thing. But when it goes wrong, boy does it go wrong.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: BBC One breakdown graphic. SUPPLIED BY: The TV Room. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
