The BBC was forced to abandon live coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show - one of the biggest outside broadcasts of the year - because of the staff strike.
Managers' declarations that they could muster some sort of service using freelance technicians willing to cross the picket lines amounted to nothing at 12.30pm when live coverage was scheduled to kick in.
In its place was what the BBC described as a "documentary", with black and white displacing the usual riot of colour on the BBC as archive footage of the Queen mum and 1950s labourers replaced the traditional televised opening of the Chelsea Flower Show.
Footage from 1961 and before lent the traditional opening of the English summer season a distinctly monochrome feel as the 24-hour strike thwarted the BBC's live coverage.
The 30-minute show had some footage from preparations for this year's show, but most of it was a mix of archive and pre-shot footage.
Just before the programme was broadcast, the BBC admitted that there would be no live content today but said there would be "original" content in its place.
At lunchtime the BBC said it was still unsure whether two programmes due to go out on BBC1 and BBC2 this evening would feature any live footage.
"It's just too early to tell," said a BBC spokesman.
Presenters Alan Titchmarsh and others, including Diarmuid Gavin, turned up for work as did a team of seven freelancers, according to the unions picketing at the gate.
However it appears the broadcast could not go ahead because of the lack of staff to complete the outside broadcast links back to the studio.
However it appears that whether the broadcast would go out or not depends on all the other links down the broadcasting chain.
Some commentators had predicted trouble at the gates of the gardening show today after it emerged in weekend reports that management were trying to hire freelance labour.
In the event the protests were minuscule - with nine official pickets absorbing most of the demonstrations at TV Centre and the Media Village at the BBC's White City headquarters.
The picket line at Chelsea was forced to move on after complaints from BBC managers.
Gerry Morrissey, the assistant general secretary of broadcasting union Bectu, said: "We've had a complaint from the BBC saying the line at Chelsea is secondary picketing and shouldn't be there because it's not their official place of work.
"I've had to tell them to move on."
Mr Morrissey spoke out against the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, saying the strike was necessary because Mr Thompson was "not willing to negotiate".
"He will not accept that we want to have meaningful conversations around a table because that would mean he would have to make concessions."
A Bectu representative on the picket, Edward Brothers, said BBC staff had to strike because Mr Thompson was "sweeping aside" years of negotiation and procedures.
Mr Brothers said the police had been happy for the picket to go ahead as long as nothing was tied to the railings.
But the BBC engineering manager, Steve Chapman, confronted the pickets, complaining that their protest constituted secondary action.
Sound engineer Harry Saunders said: "Steve Chapman was very irate but there's no point in picketing action where we are based. We're not out to upset anyone or disrupt the show. We're purely here as a presence."
"Mr Thompson's from Channel 4. Does he want to make us just a commissioning house? He's like a bull in a china shop. Where does he get off?
"This is something I feel very strongly about. Cutting 4,000 jobs to make more TV programmes just doesn't add up," said Mr Saunders.
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