“Crufts demo kudos BBC.”

Today I found a little scrap of paper upon which I had written these words. Shows you how often we tidy the coffee table. However, better late than never I must say the word of praise to the BBC that I wrote the note to remind myself to do.

A few weeks ago I caught the end of Crufts dog show. Just as a dog made of candy floss was joining the line-up of finalists, loud boos broke out from the audience. Gosh, I thought, unjustly as it turned out, I thought all these doggy people were more sporting than that. As if they’d read my mind the BBC announcers said (all this is from memory and so these aren’t exact words): “The reason you can hear booing is that some people are staging a demonstration over to our right.” Then with a weary sigh I waited for the camera to swing right and give the demonstrators the attention they wanted.

But it never happened. All we had was a shot of some stewards running out of camera range, then the female announcer said with unmistakable satisfaction, “Ah, that interruption seems to have been dealt with very promptly. On with the show!”

UPDATE: I pushed my luck and looked up the story here. Oh well, I suppose they have to report what the protest was about somewhere. If ever, for instance, the disagreements between the British and American Kennel Clubs as to the proper angle of a Lithuanian Mop Dog’s ears were to break out into thermonuclear war that laid waste Western Europe, even I would concede that the story would qualify as news. But I am glad to see that not every wannabe agitator who disrupts a non-political event is given time on camera. The announcers and cameramen handled it professionally.