"I'm genuinely puzzled as to why this concert should have drawn down so many strongly negative reactions, and on so many issues."

Well,I've got no telly background or none of my 'mates' were there so I'll now give it straight to you as an average singer and someone who watches some telly...........

I thought the MC'ing was actually rather cringeworthy

ALL vocals sounded poor (with one possible exception)....and some of these performers I have seen 'live' so I know that they can sing....I'm not talking about the odd flat note (which happened) but all the singing sounded dull and 'flat'/lifeless which I'm assuming was a technical thing (but - and this does make me wonder about the vocals overall - Niopha Keegan's short solo as lead sounded really good,so how come she got right what many others didn't ?)

The counter on the tech side is that all the instruments (in the main not thru' mikes) sounded really good - to the standard that you'd expect from the Beeb for any musical type of performance.

Maybe,if you were actually there on the night,it appeared all very jolly....in my living room it was almost 'black' like a cross between 'Moulin Rouge' and Greenaway's
'The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover'.Yeh,real festive stuff !

Oh - and I agree about the bloke in the leggings and the rivetting interview leading up to the Thai Curry !

In fact,when I first started this thread,I hadn't realised that I came to this a year too late.....I was seeing this with 'fresh' pair of eyes and ears...so I'm gobsmacked that BBC4 have actually chosen to show the whole bloody thing again....and re-run it about 4 times this month ! Cutbacks must be really kicking in

It just worries me that whilst some folkies might enjoy it (and clearly they do),others would get the impression that
(a) ALL folkies enjoy this type of stuff
(b) would actually think this is the world in which we live and find to be entertaining.

Maybe this sums it up......after 15 mins,my missus (who's not really into folk music that much) went and mopped the kitchen floor !

(Then,last night,I was lucky enough to stumble upon BBC Alba Piping Live and the Treacherous Orchestra - sanity returned !)