The BBC's annual classical music season came to a rousing end last night. Music lovers celebrated the Last Night of the Proms with a flag waving celebration at the Royal Albert Hall.
Sir Roger Norrington, Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a patriotic favourites Pomp and Circumstance, Rule Britannia! and Jerusalem, before closing with the National Anthem.
Forty years after making his Proms debut, the conductor closed the concert season for the first time last night.
He lead the orchestra in his interpretation of works by Beethoven, Wagner, Puccini and Verdi. The later part of the evening celebrated folk music with an arrangement of traditional music from around the British Isles.
Composer Chris Hazell put together a piece comprising of Loch Lomond from Scotland, The Turtle Dove from England, Cariad cyntaf from Wales and Molly Malone from Ireland.
The folk theme continued with renditions of Peppino Turco's ode to the Italian cable railway, Funiculi, funicula and Vaughan Williams's Sea Songs.
This year's concerts - the 113th year of the Prom concerts - have celebrated the music of the English composer on the 50th anniversary of his death.
The BBC spent more than £8 million on hosting the 76 shows at the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall.
One of the most popular - and controversial - of the concerts saw daleks and cybermen take to the stage in a Doctor Who themed Prom presented by actress Freema Agyeman.
The concert included the famous theme tune from the BBC science fiction series, and other compositions related to time and space, including Holst's The Planets - Jupiter, Wagner's Die Walkure - the Ride of the Valkyries, and the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's The Torino Scale, inspired by the idea of asteroids falling to earth.
The 2008 event also saw the return of the popular Proms in the Park events in London, Glasgow, Belfast and Cardiff.
Comedienne Sue Perkins, who won reality TV series Maestro, later took to the stage to conduct the orchestra.
In Glasgow Green last night, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and the Glasgow Gaelic Musical Association played alongside the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ziegler. Acclaimed Scots percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and cult bagpipe group the Red Hot Chilli Pipers were among the acts. A Proms veteran, this was Dame Evelyn's first Scottish Proms in the Park show.
She said: "I have had the good fortune to be part of several Proms in the Park experiences and I am excited to be participating in my first Scottish Prom. We know the power of music and what better place to share it than in the vibrancy of a great city like Glasgow."
Glasgow-based band the Red Hot Chilli Pipers were propelled to musical notoriety in 2004 after they appeared on the main stage at T in the Park.
Hailed as the "world's first rock and roll pipers", the eight-piece band put a modern spin on piping.
Founded by Stuart Cassells, former BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year, the cult outfit have played alongside rockers The Darkness and count Ewan McGregor and HRH The Princess Royal among their fans.
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