Thursday, 11 February 2010

Auntie and Mandela

There's an "ad" running at present on the Beeb showing a series of vignettes with various people glued to their telly/radio watching/listening transfixed as the relevant commentary intones things like, President Kennedy being shot, Man on the moon, etc., the tagline being, “where were you when you heard the news”.

Well twenty years ago today I was in Manchester watching the box, waiting for the release of Nelson Mandela, it was running about an hour late.

When it did happen, it still seemed very surreal, but utterly awe-inspiring. After nearly three decades in prison, the man whom most people acknowledge (we hope) as the Father of the Nation was freed at last, and armed guards escorted him to a crowd of many thousands.

It was a great day, and great coverage from Auntie!

I for one do not see any benefit to be gained from the (virtually) daily outpouring of bile against the Beeb from the right-wing press, for were the BBC to go, we would stand to lose so much more!

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