TV programme paid scant reference to Sir Patrick
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
Its content on the relevant technical development of the subject, and what it led to, was excellent.
However, I was astonished at the scant references made to Sir Patrick, and the fact that he presented more than 700 editions of a programme which, many of us believe, he made his own.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdClips were shown of him in the earlier years, yes, but the key point that he was in at the beginning of such a ground-breaking, worthwhile television series, was sadly missing.
Extremely knowledgeable – and acknowledged to be so – from an early age in all things astronomical and lunar, Patrick was the obvious choice to front ‘The Sky at Night’ (although he found the programme’s 1957 trial period ‘decidedly nerve-racking’). Still, the programme went from strength to strength, rapidly increasing the number of its viewers as it did so.
Although forthright in his views on many things (even furious in some of them), Sir Patrick was always one to give credit where due.
The chapter headed Pioneers in his book, The Autobiography, contains the self-effacing remark: ‘Of course it is the subject that matters, not the presenter’.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIn this particular case, I am sure many of us would disagree.
It is a pity that those who put together the 60th anniversary programme, could not themselves have given him credit, where credit was undoubtedly due.
Sandra Saer
Queen Street
Arundel
Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.
Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad1) Make our website your homepage at www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/
2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LittlehamptonGazette
3) Follow us on Twitter @LhamptonGazette
4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.
And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!
The Littlehampton Gazette - always the first with your local news.
Be part of it.