After another season of achingly politically correct Proms from the BBC, directed for the last time by Nicholas Kenyon, there’s a slim hope for a return to the glory days of Sir Henry Wood and Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Royal Albert Hall

What should be an occasion for celebration of everything English — something like Burn’s Night is for Scotland — we are instead treated to a sickly soup of multiculturalism and tributes to the European Union.

Time, I think, to remove this festival of “classical” music from the BBC and hand it to some other body that will treat it with care for its origins.

The Last Night was, true to form, hopelessly out of focus. The famous sea song medley was ruined by the addition of Celtic airs which, Kenyon never seems to spot, is totally out of place.

Ah well, if the new Director doesn’t put this right, the Proms will probably be replaced by the Notting Hill Carnival as England’s premier musical event. Time to emigrate, I think.

This year’s series of Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall has been a strange affair.

Some of the concerts have been less than rivetting, leading to half-empty houses. A few of the guest orchestras have been too small for the space, sounding underpowered for no fault of their own.

Worse though, has been the behaviour of the Promenaders themselves. The legendary knowledge of those who stand in the middle of the auditorium, lending an unequalled atmosphere to the Last Night, has been called into question for the first time. It seems there is a growing tendency to break into applause between movements. Tuts and tsks can be heard from the more expensive seats around the hallowed hall.

But there is an even more woeful cause for complaint. Promenaders have been spotted lying down in the hall, some apparently asleep. Other couples were said to be shamelessly canoodling while the music played.

Sir Malcolm Sargent must be apoplectic in Valhalla.