Did you think that classical music had been permanently banished from terrestrial television, doomed to haunt the dark corridors of BBC Four and Radio 3 in perpetuity? Think again: this year’s coverage of the world’s biggest classical music festival has taken a giant BBC Two-size leap forward into primetime, with a series of regular Saturday night relays. In part, the aim is to hook in fans of the Beeb’s new series on conducting, Maestro, which starts in early August. So, once you’ve watched celebs such as Jane Asher and Goldie try their hand at baton management, you can watch the real thing at the Albert Hall.

Of course, there’s a catch – and it might not please the purists. Nearly all the Saturday night programmes, which are fronted by one name (Charles Hazlewood, who moves between fronting the BBC’s classical coverage and conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra) and the newcomer Suzy Klein, are edited highlights of concerts from the previous week, in some cases splicing together performances from different Proms.

However, BBC Four will continue to host Sunday and Monday night relays – mostly live. Radio 3, of course, broadcasts all the concerts live (and often repeated, too), and any concerts televised will be available on the BBC iPlayer for up to seven days.

There’s simply no excuse to ignore the Proms until you get the bunting out for the Last Night. This year’s festival has a new director, Roger Wright, and a new spring in its step. So why miss out?

Top five to watch

July 26, BBC Two
Warm up with Nigel Kennedy as he plays the sublime Elgar Violin Concerto in the early evening Prom, before his late-night band turn the temperature to jazzy.

August 16, BBC Two
Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez face off in a “Great Conductors” package of evening highlights. Boulez conducts the BBC Symphony; Barenboim brings his extraordinary orchestra of young Israelis and Arabs, the West-Eastern Divan. Both Proms are also broadcast singly, Barenboim’s on Aug 14, BBC Four, and Boulez’s on Aug 15, BBC Four.

August 24, BBC Four
No one conducts Bach quite like John Eliot Gardiner, who returns to the Proms for the St John Passion with the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir.

September 1, BBC Four
Nikolaj Znaider is probably best placed to succeed Maxim Vengerov as the world’s splashiest violinist. He plays the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the wonderful Gustav-Mahler Jugendorchester.

September 7, BBC Four
Simon Rattle returns with the Berlin Philharmonic to conduct Brahms’s Third Symphony and Shostakovich’s Tenth.

Full listings at bbc.co.uk/proms/2008/promsbroadcasts/

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