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I wish people would stop knocking Channel 4. Without them there would very little of our coverage of our sport at all.
As for their paddock coverage. On the whole, they have a good run through the runners for most of the big races, but they are on a commercial channel and have time constraints imposed on them by the need to generate income for the channel from advertiser. It is not entirely their fault. They do a much better job than the BBC
I did not like the BBC coverage apart from Clare. Why did they not use the eloquent Kevin Darley? Willie is getting more and irritating and Loughran is a waste of a good mike.
I know they were running late this time but the BBC usually cannot get away quick enough after their last race, which is usually the big race of the day. It is not good. I think, if they could get away with it we would only see three meetings a year, Royal Ascot, The Derby Meeting and The Grand National Meeting with only two races on BBC1, The Derby and The National.
Having just skipped through the BBC coverage it looks as though the "arty shots" were the same ones being shown on the screens on course.
Whilst they may look good as part of a TV package I can assure you they lose their appeal after having to put up with them for over six hours – I’ll swear the director was some kid from art college trying to impress his tutors.
… … … and for those who complain about our racecourse commentators I suggest you listen to the on-course commentary at Longchamp. All the races have two commentators, even the l’Abbaye ,but there is no consistency. One moment the horses are being called by name, the next by number. They even managed both in the same sentence a couple of times yesterday. A real pain when you are trying to follow the race when the runners are out of sight of the stands and the director keeps changing camera angle.
Interesting contrasts between the BBC and CH4 over the weekend.
I really like Clare. She deserves a medal for continuing broadcasting while Carson talks nonsense. In all honesty, I think Carson is very well-informed about a number of topics – breeding in particular; but he’s employed as a broadcaster. As a broadcaster he’s weak. We’ve already had the embarrassing interviews this season with Judi Dench, Bernie Ecclestone.. and now Yves St Martin. The latter being one of the most surreal experiences on television in the modern era. English/French/English/Silence/ French/English/Silence…
Remind me again about Lush Lashes’ racing record, Willie?
However, Channel 4 on Saturday. In the fifteen minutes before the Cambridgeshire there were four breaks. In the analysis of the Sun Chariot we had Jim McGrath ask Francome the reasonable question ‘why do you think Nahoodh will perform on fast ground better than she has on easy ground.’
John is still answering that one, somewhere in deepest Suffolk.
Like Carson, Francome is supposedly presenting/broadcasting. I don’t care how much he knows about a horse’s constitution (I suspect a lot), or how little he knows about the form book, if he can’t communicate properly he should not be on television.
All a tad harsh really. They obviously had to fill around 10-15 minutes they weren’t expecting too due to the farce in the Abbaye – 15 minutes that should have been spent reviewing a magnificent performance by a superstar filly.
I actually thought Mosse was difficult to understand and they missed a trick by not using the guy from Equidia much more who I thought was excellent. They should offer him a job alongside balding. At least Pitmans talk time is diminishing along with Bartlett who’s post race reviews are frankly rubbish.
I like no adverts, even if it is filled with chaffing.
Carson spent the whole afternoon wittering on about Allez France winning two Arcs when she only won in 1974!
No wonder Yves looked so bemused when Carson was asking whether Zarkava could win two Arcs?
The racing was great and full marks to the beeb for covering two days but Carson surpassed his usual level of ineptitude, which Rishi seems to have now caught. I also found Mosse very hard to understand and the piece with Rishi about where to be on the track confused the hell out of me.
As for the interview with YSM I couldn’t help but laugh and when Rishi tipped Papal Bull and he and Clare agreed Zarkava couldn’t win I thought boy are you two going to look silly.
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Is Rishi still walking back from Paris? One suspects not.
I watched most of with the sound down, which was a mercy once I turned it up.
Carson is an arse – I have had business dealings with him and he is one the rudest, most ignorant individuals I have ever come across.
Wittering is correct. Inaccurate would also apply. And he repeats things that someone has just said as if you haven’t heard it before when someone just said it in his ear!
As ReasonvoverFaith wrote, if there were medals given out for bravery in broadcasting, Clare Balding would have a chest load by now for having to put up with him and the rest of them.That towering bore Angus Louchran should be dropped, he brings nothing to the table.
I always prefer Jim McGrath over Holty, would rather have had Ray Cochrane than Rishi.
It’s seemed to me for many years now that televised racing on any channel, has been forever on a downward spiral with the continued elevation of modestly educated ex-jockeys in broadcasting roles for which they are neither well trained nor suited.
Harsh though it seems and for fear of sounding like Julian Wilson, who I found a good presenter in his day, they cannot compete with the better educated such as Balding, Luck and Hislop.
Agree, just because you were a decent jockey does not make you a natural broadcaster.
Some can buck the trend such as Steve Cram in Athletics and Gary Lineker for MOTD but Willie is not good enough and should be dropped.
I do like Richard Pitman and he should be used more by the BBC however as they dont show much racing he does not get the airtime, Peter Scudamore was not a natural broadcaster either.
Would love the Beeb to get back to how they used to be with the racing coverage but sadly i cannot see that happening in the near future.
The ex-jockeys who the BBC should cultivate as future broadcasters are Norman Williamson and Mick Fitzgerald. In fact IMO Norman could take over from Willie straight away and it would only improve things.
As a fellow Scot I think Willie is a legend as a jockey. Unfortunately he hasn’t excelled as a broadcaster.
The Allez France two Arc comments by Carson were a bad joke, surely someone among the Beebs vast broadcasting team, all paid good money to at least know their stuff, should have pointed out his mistake at the 100th reference?
The Allez France two Arc comments by Carson were a bad joke, surely someone among the Beebs vast broadcasting team, all paid good money to at least know their stuff, should have pointed out his mistake at the 100th reference?
Clare Balding would normally have pulled Willie up on such mistakes, but appears much less inclined to do so these days. I think she was champing at the bit ( pun intended ) to intervene, but thought better of it.
Maybe she is under strict instruction from above not to constantly correct her co-presenter in the way she used to. Maybe Willie complained that he was being made to look foolish.
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Jim McGrath’s commentaries at Ascot yesterday were dreadful, with fallers missed left right and centre. It’s hard to believe he even has a spotter (John Hanmer). What can be Jims excuse? Is he following the races on those awful BBC pictures from the inside of the track?
Watching replay on ATR and Hoiles’s clear concise commentaries the fallers were in fact not too difficult too pick out on the far superior head on shots.
Why would anyone not prefer the head on shots to see the race to those following the runners from the inside of the track?
The only problem with ATR though is the big time delay on the pictures but having said that Hoiles still identified some of the fallers well before McGrath.
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