Missing chunks

The Tim Minchin Comedy Prom was broadcast on BBC2 last night.

Seeing it, rather than just hearing it on the radio, it came across as better and more coordinated.

But.   And but again.  The Beeb in its infinite wisdom decided they could cut it.  Gone was the Kit and the Widow satire on Sondheim (which I'd thought was one of the strongest pieces in the original).  But they'd kept in the Lloyd-Webber piece, which was aimed at a much easier target.

And they cut down Beardyman's set in the same way, removing most of his piece on Pachelbel's Canon - which was also pretty good.  

I'd like to claim they took out the less-populist stuff, but that isn't quite right as they also took out the Kit and the Widow singalong to Nessun Dorma ('Chicken Korma').

However, can you imagine them cutting any other (ie, serious) Prom the same way?  "No, I don't like that bit of the Brahms, so let's leave it out."

My real complaint, I suspect, is the attitude this editing shows to comedy, and the often-disregarded comedy in music at that.  

Just as the recent Guardian Guide to the Opera missed out anything which might be called light or comic opera (and heaven forfend we should mention G&S), so I would suggest this editing out of part of the Comedy Prom also demonstrates the aloofness and high-handedness that can still be seen in some British "High Cultural Circles."  Art has to be serious or its nothing; comedy is easy so we can dismiss it.

Anyway, it was quite annoying.

Still Missing

The Guardian published a fairly harsh review of the Tim Minchin Comedy prom.  It reads, to me, like the reviewer was out to get him and settle old scores.  To the extent that he doesn't even mention Concerto Populare, despite the fact that it comprised a major part of the second half. 

It feels like all memories of Hoffnung are rapidly disappearing...

Missing

Well.  I enjoyed the 'Comedy Prom' on the radio last night.  But there was a a name missing.  They played Franz Reizenstein's 'Concerto Popolare' (misspelt in some of the literature), and jolly good it was, too.  But, and but again, they could have noted that it was written for the first of the Hoffnung Concerts in 1956.  A piece of history - and a precursor - that they seemed to have forgotten.