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The BBC coverage was dire in every aspect for me, they seem more interested in people talking than showing the horses in the paddock.
No surprise McGraths commentaries were poor, he has a track record and Hanmer as his spotter.
Did Laurel & Hardy ever move from their spot near the betting ring? May as well have Len Martin reading the betting out.
As has been said the camera angles for fences such as the Chair & Bechers are significantly worse, I wonder if there’s more than a touch of hypocrisy with them in that they may be more eye friendly for the public in the event of fallers.I don’t think they did too bad a job, but I do find the current dumbing down policy very tiresome, although it’s difficult to find the right balance between accessibility and just catering for a nerdy clique.
I caught some of the Masters’ golf last night, and there the BBC erred too much in the other direction, producing some pretty turgid broadcasting which would send any casual viewer to sleep (it did me!).
Jim McGrath was pretty ordinary yesterday. Had to chuckle during the Bowl, when he kept repeating himself concerning Carruthers and Nacarat cutting each others throats and then Richard Dunwoody disagreeing totally! I suppose when the field is small it must be difficult finding some way of keeping the commentary interesting.
Presumably, the Josh Gifford piece is in two or three parts, as he didn’t talk about Aldaniti yesterday.
Agree about the golf Venusian – I used to enjoy Peter Allis, he had a sprightly air of mischief about him.
Now he simply comes across as a smug and self-righteous grumpy old man.
I don’t think Allis likes the "new breed" he is surrounded by now.
Regards – Matron
How is it decided who is going to do the comments and is it a case of someone just watching back loads of replays?
If it’s anything like the make-up of post-race analysts, I expect Raceform / the
Post
has its roster of both full-time employers and preferred freelancers who will get the best gigs between them, plus the more occasional freelancers who plug the gaps. I surmise Darren fits into the latter category – not available constantly, but well enough regarded to often get biggish meetings when he is.
Raceform /
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race-reading is performed on-course. On the occasions I’ve seen them in press boxes the likes of Jonathan Neesom, Steve Payne and Iain Mackenzie certainly watch the entire race live, and use playback as a last rather than first resort – a legacy, I presume, of their long grounding in point-to-point race-reading, where of course we only get the one shot at getting everything down correctly.
HTH,
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I always thought John Hanmer was an excellent commentator. Though Darren Owen did a top notch job on Bechers today.
Julian Wilson always stuck out like a sore thumb and frequently had to be audibly prompted regarding fallers.
Craig.
Quick question folks – during the coverage yesterday, there was a brief interview with Darren Owen and his spotter. As i was grappling with my 2 yr old at the time, I didn’t catch the spotter’s name but his voice was v. familiar. Anyone know the name? Thanks.
I am afraid I thought all three commentators were abysmal.
Simon Holt & Richard Hoiles would make a great partnership for this.
Regards – Matron
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What annoyed me, and this might be very petty, is when BBC were going through the field and introducing each horse they were showing footage of horses that was years old. For example when showing Cerium they showed footage of him winning at Ascot for his old connections. why not show the footage of him finishing 5th in last years race for his current connections…… Its a small thing I know but surely they could of paid more attention to it.
They did the same thing for 5 or 6 other runners
Joncol, I disagreed with you yesterday on "a couple of things", Ha, but I’m with you on this one. To others it may be petty, but I agree, it just seems very lazy to me.
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Haha we agree.
Your right though it is very lazy especially when you consider they already have more up to date footgae in their own archive…
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