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Morning all,
just noticed this on the radio times website:
http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsServl … llpage.jsp
Does this mean that Tony O’Heir is no longer doing the BBC commentary with Jim McGrath, Ian Bartlett & Darren Owen?
Just found the reason why from the racing post website:
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-ra … am/677988/
Ignore my first message
It will seem strange to watch a meeting tomorrow with the BBC giving it full coverage – I’m a bit nervous to be honest. I don’t have a strong view on the change in commentating for the big race. Though I’m fairly confident that it will be better than the commentary I heard on the Irish National the other day – it was extremely poor.
An excellent move and long overdue.
Tony O’Hehir’s wheezing and mumbling on the most exciting stretch of the course was horrible and I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if the "cost cutting" is just an excuse.
I can’t believe people are complaining about this on the Racing Post comments, Ian Bartlett is an excellent big field commentator and anyone who thinks he’s boring clearly don’t remember that John Hanmer used to do the same job.
There’s only one weak link in the team now, I wonder how much longer he’ll be in the chair?
Though I’m fairly confident that it will be better than the commentary I heard on the Irish National the other day – it was extremely poor.
"Extremely poor" is being generous IMO.
Lee
No complaints from me on the commentary. Could do without any scrolling banners saying what’s out of the race though! Btw, i don’t get to watch as much racing as most on here, so Darren Owen seems to only crop up in my life once a year. I assume he is a course commentator?
No complaints from me on the commentary. Could do without any scrolling banners saying what’s out of the race though! Btw, i don’t get to watch as much racing as most on here, so Darren Owen seems to only crop up in my life once a year. I assume he is a course commentator?
Yes Darren is a very good course commentator.
He dosen’t seem to do many big race calls but I would put him on my top three commentators list.Aye, Darren must have been on the Racetech roster for 15 or more years now, and is regularly heard around the likes of Carlisle, Bangor and Hamilton in particular. Part of that’s to do with those courses being within easy access from his North Wales base, but a lot of it’s also to do with those courses knowing he’s very, very good.
He also does comments in running for Raceform and the Racing Post, frequently at better-class meetings than he’d actually get the call-up to commentate at. I’m pretty sure he did a couple of days at the Cheltenham Festival in that capacity, for example.
The point-to-point sphere gets a bit of use out of him, too. He’s race-read the Vale Of Lune meeting at Whittington, near Kirby Lonsdale, for Weatherbys Chase every Easter Saturday for the last few years; and he also commentates on the Duke Of Beaufort meeting at Didmarton, Gloucestershire on the first Saturday in March now, that hunt having finally dispensed with Jeremy Branfoot’s services after either the 2007 or 2008 fixture.
Quite a nice portfolio, I reckon, so whilst it’s definitely a shame Darren’s not made more use of commentating on big fixtures, rest assured he’s not being under-utilised by racing at large!
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Oh cack, that was last night, wasn’t it! Meh…
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
The commentators are fine.
What really makes makes me cringe is when they have an Irish leprechaun/cockney jack the lad type gallivanting about the crowd.
And what really makes my blood boil is Gary Wil(t)shire. Is there any medication that can be recommended for the duration?
What really makes makes me cringe is when they have an Irish leprechaun/cockney jack the lad type gallivanting about the crowd.
This is extremely annoying and yet is done at every single major racing event they cover.
I just wish someone from Beeb was reading this, just to see a rare compliment aimed their way, but well done, getting rid of O’Heir was long overude. Having someone commentating on the biggest day of the year when they clearly couldn’t, well, commentate, has puzzled me for years. He was terrible! After years of putting up with Peter O’Sullevan, we deserved better.
Anyway, on with the criticisms………
As for other parts of the coverage, please drop pointless camera angles:
Bechers: Head on camera has been used for years and is perfect. The ground level camera completely misses out on the action and story of the race (surely the whole point of covering the race) and anyone who witnessed Mel In Blues fall in last years Foxhunters will know that, god forbid, there are any injuries, you will see it "warts and all".
Aerial View: Yeah, we get it, you’ve got a camera way up high in the sky. Stop it now!
The Chair: Using a side on camera, from middle of track, pretty poor, compared to previous positions.
Another thing which the BBC do is pick up the sound of hooves on their coverage which is quite distracting, a hard one to explain why it annoys me, but you don’t get it on C4, RUK, or ATR.
As I said, I’d love for someone to deal with these points, but then I suppose I’m probably the only person who gets annoyed with them.
I’ll finish on a compliment, sort of! Bartlett and Owen are very good, McGrath is Ok, but if he says "put in a mighty leap" one more time the TV’s going out the window!
I’m sure you’re not alone VtC. The hooves thing has never really registered with me, but I completely agree with you on everything else.
Glad, you agree OA, thought I might get slated over the camera angles, which will be pretty trivial issue to many I’m sure.
As for the hooves, just watch today on Beeb, and then watch a race on C4, RUK, or ATR. I don’t know how or why they do it, but they do. Strange!
Seems to be a requirement. Channel 4 has Thommo.
Thommo is like one of those uncle’s you see every so often at family do’s, I half expect him to try and pull a penny from someone’s ear everytime he’s on.
On another note, Ian Bartlett is absolutely horrible. They should have gone for Lee Mackenzie.
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