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Presenters
The very different styles of the four in vision presenters. |
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We had our usual four in vision presenters back this year. Beti George, whose radio and TV programmes need no introduction to Welsh speakers; Petroc Trelawny, who is a Radio 3 regular; Aled Jones, formerly the nation's favourite boy soprano, now a singer and broadcaster in equal measure; and Huw Edwards, a regular in millions of homes every night as anchor on the BBC One Ten O'Clock News.
Beti is the on stage presenter at both St David's Hall and the New Theatre. I love the way she looks like many of the women in the audience; trim, tanned, a certain age, who knows exactly what to wear to suit her style. Forget girl-power, this is woman-power. Her butterfly shoes have already found their way into Frock Blog this year but she has the knack of wearing the outfit appropriate to the venue, audience and occasion. Beti makes time for everyone who wants to have a chat with her and is generally visible around the Competition.
Eric Doughney, the competition costume designer, looks after the wardrobe of Petroc and Aled. Their style this year is 80:20 formal:casual. Eric firmly believes that their outfits should be appropriate to them and to the society we live in today. He maintains, "It's no good pretending that these are 'yoof' programmes but neither are they recreations of the days when the news was read in a dinner suit. If opera doesn't seem normal to younger people, it will fossilize. If, as an under 35 year old, you arrive home, switch on the TV and see Aled conventionally dressed in a shirt and tie, you'll probably switch off. If he's dressed like you or your friends, you may well stay with it and give it a go."
So Aled's and Petroc's outfits are usually formal tailoring combined with shirts or tops that reflect a more contemporary style. In keeping with the 'British revival' in design this year, both have elements of Paul Smith in their wardrobes. "Paul Smith takes British Traditional and gives it a 21st century twist", says Eric. Petroc has a more adventurous colour range - dark sea green, metallic aubergine, pink on pink stripes. Aled wears classic neutral colours - black, white, grey, navy, blues. Detail is important. Fine pintucking turns a plain white shirt into something formal, as does self-colour embroidery on a grey shirt. As the lady said, "it's not what you wear..."
And Huw Edwards knows exactly how to wear his own style. A natural suit and tie wearer, his shirt is always crisp, his tie eye-catching but tasteful, his suit immaculate. To go with it, his increasingly distinguished-looking head of hair is cut short to match. He was front of house for the Final, enjoying fine banter with Aled Jones, who was backstage interviewing the singers after their performances.
Each evening, the presenters are joined by guests from a variety of backgrounds. Mary King was here all week - viewers will remember her as one of the judges-coaches on the marvellous Operatunity and Musicality. On individual nights also in front of the camera have been Edward Seckerson, Michael Chance, Amanda Roocroft and Ashutosh Khandekar. Eric's job as costume designer is to make sure that presenter and guest make a coherent image together, that one does not overpower the other visually. "We have a rail of individual pieces for our presenters so that when the guest arrives with their own outfit selection, we can quickly find something that sits comfortably with it."
So our presenters are as much of the team as the singers themselves. They play an important role in presenting the competition to the general public in TV and radio.
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