Will The BBC Get It Right At The Olympics..?

First topic message reminder :

"And now it's over to the Olympic Stadium and we join our presenter, Justin B Hindyer".

"Oh, fantastic, respect. There's a red hot atmos here and I'm going to pass you over now to Sophie. I imagine the buzz is absolutely awesome, isn't it?"

"Like, wow, it's totally amazing. People are now entering the stadium to see tonight's running and stuff and it's so amazing I don't think anything this amazing has happened before. In fact this is the amazingist of all the amazing things in this amazing summer. Over to Dwayne."

"Oh yeah, this is the dope. It's like when Krayzee Bone is in the zone, This Olympics here is reaching a crescendo. Over to the horsie stuff with Fearne."

Hello, well there are some horses here at Greenwich and they're doing a sort of ballet fing and the riders are wearing these, like, big hats and they get marks just like on Strictly, I suppose one of the judges is really mean and calls everybody darling. Now it's over to.......

And so it goes on. I think you get the drift. Of course, the BBC's coverage of the Olympic Games will be nothing like that but if the current descent of presenters as shown during the recent Jubilee celebrations is anything to go by, it might not be too far into the future before it is.

Of course, things haven't always gone completely smoothly for the BBC in past Olympics, but the presenters have been able to get by.... but on occasions, only just. The veteran presenter or commentator has sometimes had to rely on his experience, professionalism and the odd bit of luck to get out of a tight situation.......

Auntie Beeb has some superb specialists in sports such as eventing, rowing, swimming and cycling but it is in the minor, less well covered areas that things can sometimes get a bit tricky.

John Motson was once given the task of covering white water canoeing and one British competitor capsized his canoe, was driven, head underwater, downstream in a swirling maelstrom until he crashed into a rock,head first. "I don't wish to be pessimistic" said Motty, "but I think British hopes of a medal are fading fast". Talk about understatement.... the poor sod barely escaped with his life..!!

At another games he was given Greaco Roman Wrestling to cover and admitted that the only wrestling he'd ever seen up to then was Mick McManus versus Jackie Pallo at Catford Town Hall. But he did his homework and made a fairly decent fist of it until he commented on the final between a Soviet wrestler and a Bulgarian. It wasn't until the result was announced that he realised he'd gotten the names the wrong way round throughout the contest. "Don't worry" an expert said "Only three people in the country will know the difference, and two of those will be out training".

When Des Lynam worked for the BBC, he was told that the King of Denmark was about to come into the studio. He quickly warned David Moorcroft beside him as the door suddenly swished open and a tall, suntanned figure entered with his retinue of bodyguards. Before the cameras rolled, his royal highness said something about how pleased his country would be that Patoudlidoulainas had won the high hurdles that afternoon. Moorcroft switched on that they were, in fact, entertaining the ex-king Constantine of Greece and somehow managed to warn Des before he could introduce their guest on air as the sovereign of a completely different country.

But whatever mishaps or close calls there are, I expect the BBC will rise to the occasion. I doubt very much that the parade of gushing airheads that turned the coverage of the Jubilee festivities into a near national embarrassment will not be allowed anywhere near the Olympic Park, rather, they'll be kept away with fully charged cattle prods if necessary.

I fully expect the BBC... our national broadcaster... to cover the games at least competently and probably brilliantly as it has in the past. With a bit of luck thrown in when needed.


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I don't think that's the explanation, Crimey. This is the primetime Olympics show. It was done on purpose.

I might have to email Auntie about this.

And now they've done it for Jessica Ennis's 100 metre hurdles!

I knew you'd say this.

Got to point out that they've shown normal highlights of it all through the day.

Crimey, that makes it worse! I'll hazard a guess that most people in the country have been in work all day and this evening show is their chance to see for themselves what's happened during the day - from reliving it. This fancy-ass stuff is stopping me and everyone else from doing that!

Just watch it online.

I shouldn't have to go online to find real-time footage of these moments. That's the whole point.

As wonderful as I thought the team that covered the Swimming were the Athletics crew are equal in their ineptitude. Whoever employed Colin Jackson needs shooting and unfortunately he does the commentary so the Olympic channels are plagued with his presence as well.

The sycophant that does the track side interviews is painful but at least I can avoid him. His only plus is that he isn't Sally Bumhole.

I'm yet to see who's in the studio but unless it's Michael Johnson and two clones of his then I'm in no rush to find out.

Really enjoying Cav's expertise and presentation in the track cycling coverage.

Hibbz, you're in luck - Michael Johnson's on the BBC's team and he's excellent as ever. Colin Jackson, on the other hand, is as poor as ever.

The sycophantic track-side interviewer annoys the hell out of me, too. The only good thing about him is that you can place a bet with yourself to see whether he'll say 'going forward' during the course of an interview. He usually does at least once.

Well it beats Sally "Personal Best" Gunnell!

The only complaint I would have of Michael Johnson is he says "at this point" a lot.

At this point though I'd say he has only said it twice or three times.

Oi! I won't hear a bad word said about Sally Gunnell!

Although in fairness, she wasn't much cop at the interviewing lark.

Thomond wrote:The only complaint I would have of Michael Johnson is he says "at this point" a lot.

At this point though I'd say he has only said it twice or three times.

Look, Thorpe and him are the best.

I did happen to switch to the BBC1 coverage to be greeted by Jackoff, Spewis and Invalid. Couldn't change back fast enough.

Oh and Luckless if you don't want to hear criticism of Sally "waa daaann" Bumhole I hope you've developed selective hearing.

Can't they just get Claire Balding to present the lot?

That would never happen. The Beeb couldn't afford the hairspray.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Oi! I won't hear a bad word said about Sally Gunnell!

Although in fairness, she wasn't much cop at the interviewing lark.

Yeah, great athlete surely, just wasn't cut out for the interviewer job.

Did anybody hear the commentator for the womens tennis final yesterday? At the end of the match "Is she playing with a tennis racquet, or a big spanner"... Eh? Couldn't stop chuckling after.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Hibbz, you're in luck - Michael Johnson's on the BBC's team and he's excellent as ever. Colin Jackson, on the other hand, is as poor as ever.

The sycophantic track-side interviewer annoys the hell out of me, too. The only good thing about him is that you can place a bet with yourself to see whether he'll say 'going forward' during the course of an interview. He usually does at least once.

Colin Jackson is a woeful presenter! Absoluelty woeful!

In fact, so is Denise Lewis [ although not quite as bad as Jackson ]. And Inverdale is Chronic!

What is the BBC doing bringing on all these ex-athletes?! Many of them were great athletes, but that doesn't naturally lead them to being great presenters, commentators and pundits.

Thankfully, Cram, Johnson and even Edwards [ though to a lesser degree ] make up for the others.

In these times of austerity, the BBC could do with slashing its budget! And I know where they can start!

Strawberry Jam wrote:What is the BBC doing bringing on all these ex-athletes?! Many of them were great athletes, but that doesn't naturally lead them to being great presenters, commentators and pundits.

It's a mistake they make in football, too. Alan Shearer's better than he was, but he's really not great even now. At least they've got rid of Ian Wright, who was beyond sh!te.

There are two prerequisites for punditry: to know what you're talking about and to be able to do so articulately. They don't seem too concerned with the latter.

Wish someone would take Rob Walker out to sea & drown him, his sailing interviews are quite painful - seems to assume both the tv & live audiences are as cretinous as he is.

BBC coverage.
1. Good unless you're on BBC1 when the Beeb assume everyone is about eight years old and uninterested in sport so there has to be lots of hype, music etc
2. Too many ex-athletes/professional sportsmen doing the presenting instead of proper journalists.
3. Not putting up on the screen what the event is. Is it a final, a heat, a semi ?
4. In the swimming too much obsession with whether it is a world record. It's not important. We need to know who's winning.
5. Too much studio talk and not enough letting the pictures tell the story. They were all burbling away when Ennis was being introduced to the crowd on the final night of her heptathlon. The exasperated stadium commentator said: "You've just missed the biggest roar of the night..."
6. Too much shock/gasp/amazing/incredible stuff from the commentators. Oh for the clinical, professional detachment of a David Coleman.
7. Balding's good, Michael Johnson's good, Irvine has been a revelation, Lineker's too pleased with himself.

Why would you want a journalist pretending to be a TV presenter?

One thing I thought was really stupid was the 'countown to the 100m final' clock that the Beeb had on screen while the athletes were at their blocks about to be introduced to the crowd. Did anyone really need a clock to tell them that the final was imminent?

[quote="super_realist"]Why would you want a journalist pretending to be a TV presenter?

Cos they can detach themselves from the hype and the wow and, hopefully, ask decent questions and not just be blokey, cheerleaders. Des Lynam, Harry Carpenter, David Coleman - they were first class. The tendency, now, for the Beeb is to get ex-sportmen/women doing it. Sometimes they do a good job - Sue Barker, for instance, is very professional if a little gushing.
The keeping-their-cool presenter can also dampen the over-enthusiasm of the ex sportsmen and keep them in line (ie. not taking during the tennis rallies and not being over-obsessed with Britons well down the field when we need to know who's winning the race).

Doesn't mean they'd be good presenters though simply because they are journo's.

They might still be hopeless.

S-realist. Agreed. It's not an easy job. But the BBC appear to lumber too many sportsmen with difficult broadcasting jobs on the basis that they played/ran/swum well so should be good at presenting and punditry.
Older posters might remember the embarrassing efforts of Wimbledon champion Ann Jones - a great player but an abysmal TV pundit.
There's also the awful tendency to go for "bad boys" such an Ian Wright and Robbie Savage - with fairly disastrous results. Will Joey Barton be next? I hope not.

Virginia Wade is also dreadful, neither a face nor voice for tv.

Some ex players like Peter Allis, Pat Nevin etc are very good at what they do.

My thread got deleted, but for my mind the coverage is to parochial.

bog off AWOP

My one complaint in regards to the BBC's coverage is how medal winners apart from those that have won Gold have at times been treated, often it comes across that their achievements are a disappointment when to come 2nd or 3rd in the world at your chosen sport should be commended.

Hero wrote:My one complaint in regards to the BBC's coverage is how medal winners apart from those that have won Gold have at times been treated, often it comes across that their achievements are a disappointment when to come 2nd or 3rd in the world at your chosen sport should be commended.

I agree, however I think the athletes do the same as well. Some of the rowing guys acted really disappointed with bronze medals, Christine Ohuruogu also seemed disappointed with the silver medal despite the brilliance.

Sometimes I think the BBC struggle to know whether to be happy or slightly disappointed with certain medals. Some athletes are delighted, others are disappointed.

TopHat24/7 wrote:bog off AWOP

I'm not entitled to an opinion? My thread had lots of posters agree with me and 300 posts of interesting debate. Not sure why it was removed, unless we're going into ostrich mode about criticism again. I thought as a nation we should withstand a little critical inteospection...

I'd be interested to know why it was removed too. Unless of course there was loads of stuff added after I last checked that was unacceptable.

Oops, not been removed at all.

https://www.606v2.com/t33371p150-is-the-british-olympic-coverage-too-parochial

sirfredperry wrote:There's also the awful tendency to go for "bad boys" such an Ian Wright and Robbie Savage - with fairly disastrous results.

Ian Wright was awful, a terrible pundit. Inarticulate and annoying in equal abundance. And he was hopelessly partisan even when his son wasn't playing.

Overall have to give the Beeb 9/10 - only complaints were the overuse of super slow-mo & some useless twittering amongst commentators. Probably would have been annoyed by the Inverdale/Jackson/Lewis idiocy but there was always some other sport to watch. The availability of every event at all times was just rude, I feel like Renton trying to get off the smack now that it's all over.