Proms 100th Anniversary Retrospective (1995)

On 10 August 1995, the 100th Anniversary of the Proms was marked by a concert in which Barry Wordsworth conducted the New Queen's Hall Orchestra with Howard Shelley at the piano. This documentary used the concert to look back at the Proms, right from the start under Sir Henry Wood, and featured archive material as well as interviews with several Proms artists. These include conductors John Barbirolli, Colin Davis, Leopold Stokowski, Pierre Boulez, Andrew Davis and Tadaaki Otaka. Other performers interviewed were pianist Moura Lympany and soprano Gwyneth Jones. Three Proms directors also appeared: John Drummond, William Glock and Robert Ponsonby. From the political field we hear from Edward Heath and Gerald Kaufman; from the arts field are brief contributions from David Puttnam and Timothy West as well as one-time hostage Terry Waite. BBC broadcasters include Richard Baker, Donald McLeod and Anthony Burton. The archive material features Boult, Sargent, Britten and Previn. Incidentally, "One Prom Short of a Season" referred to those Prommers who were so utterly obsessed with attending every single Prom that they were considered "eccentrics" and are thus responsible for the programme's title!