Ralph, I know I couldn't have done better - but I'm not a professional TV producer with a team of, as you say, some of the best technicians in the business.

Leaving aside whether I liked the concept or some of the the performers, which are matters of individual taste, it seemed to me that the sound was poor - many of the instruments (including at times John Spiers' melodeon and especially concertina) weren't very audible. I'm sure a band like Bellowhead must be a sound engineer's nightmare, and the way the show was presented probably made it more difficult, but the Beeb does have, in your words, some of the top sound balancers in the business, and a lot of the time this didn't seem very balanced.

It seemed to me that the music came a long way behind the presentation. Perhaps that's inevitable with TV, but it does put on good concerts in all genres so it's not impossible. The show may have appealed to a more general audience, but are they likely to find it on BBC 3? I felt this did a disservice to the type of audience who were most likely to tune into this programme, and to the musicians themselves.