[JMT1985]

That's was such a great set.   Shows don't get sets now - they just get screens.

The choir was always somewhat brilliant but somewhat kind of terrible too - that's why it worked.   I think the telethons have lost their willingness to risk bits of it being terrible - it's always far more entertaining to be terrible live rather than pre-recorded or heavily scripted.   I get why it might be easier to pre-record the choir bit nowadays, but I think now more than ever a telethon can stand out as being a night of live TV when there is so little live entertainment TV nowadays.

I still think it's criminal they don't go past 10pm - even if not with a live studio show they could do something after the news, even if it's just a couple of short studio updates (with no audience) before and after a "special" episode of Graham Norton to take it through to midnight.   That would cost the BBC virtually nothing but could raise a couple of million more.

Graham Norton used to be a host for the night if I remember right? But now he just records a short bit from his Red Chair and that is it - in reality Graham's time at the BBC is coming to an end - he hinted that he is thinking about retiring from the talk show, after he chose to scale back the amount of shows he does each year.