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Whether I was on some post plum-pudding chemically induced downer yesterday I’m not sure, but watching Channel Four’s coverage of Kempton (on a great day for the sport) left me cold. I find this is happening increasingly frequently.
No problem with the racing, of course, but the presentation is now just so…well, formulaic. The oh-so-humourously nicknamed Thommo, Mac, Fem-mail, Greatest Jockey, Alistair, Jimbo seem like a cosy cabal operating so far inside their comfort zone they are metophorically lying down and having their tummies tickled with a big fluffy dusting stick.
The show’s the same every week, it’s just the results that change.
Fifteen year’s ago or so a guy named Matthew Bannister was appointed controller of Radio One which had become a self-satisfied nursing home fo the likes of DLT, Simon Bates, Gary Davies, Bruno Brookes et al. In a staggeringly brave move, he sacked them all in one hit. Subsequently Radio 2 took up that genre’s slack and Radio 1 managed to regain it’s target (i.e. young) audience.
I think it’s time for C4 to contemplate doing the same. It may be the only way to get some freshness back into the coverage.
Mike
interesting points made.
just watched the morning line for the first time in ages
and nearly fell asleep found it quite boringGood posting, Betlarge, your comparisons with radios 1 and 2 are well made.
While there’ll always be room on the show for a John Francome or Mick Fitz characterbto give a jockey’s perspective on things, the rest are easily disposable.
It was a great pity a year ago when Darley took over the sponsorship on C4 that such an opportunity was missed. The existing cosy crew, who seem to have been presenting the show for donkeys’ years, are just sleepwalking their way through the broadcasts these days. What once seemed fresh and lively now appears tired and formulaic.
interesting comments about the morning line it does seem so predictable now, problem is it is a program on a subject i love that is horse racing,so i cant help myself i just so wish big mac would stop talking about the email female as though she is the second coming as far as tipping winners is concerned,anyone who knows about racing knows harchibald is top class when he runs to form,so she guessed right big deal,do wish they would go back to 9oclock start though you would have a much better idea if a meeting goes ahead or not.
This analogy is fine if what emerged from Radio One’s “Day of the Long Knives” was any good. It isn’t. Quite the opposite.
If I hear one more sentence from someone under the age of twenty which begins with “Mate, I”, I’ll burst into tears.
And the point of the sackings was what? Radio One’s market share the day before the cull of the beards was massive, unequalled in broadcasting, covering huge swathes of the British population.
Age, gender, race; everyone listened to Radio One while boiling the sprouts, testing the car horns and driving the delivery van. It was a massive broadcasting success story.
“Our Tune” was listened to by twelve million people – and therefore so was Simon Bates. DLT on a Saturday morning was listened to by travelling football fans from Aberdeen to Portsmouth. Bates, Kid Jensen, Steve Wright and DLT were light entertainers in an era of light entertainment.
This is what Channel Four racing are trying to achieve on a smaller scale. There are two specialist stations already which supply horse racing action to a converted, narrowcast audience – and the expensive one failed miserably yesterday to supply what this perceiver (and other percievers) wanted.
Matthew Bannister (who used to work here in Nottingham), unilaterally decided to get rid of all the beards to attract the BBC’s grail-like “Yoof” audience. He was brilliantly successful in this to the extent that no-one over the age of sixteen listens to Radio One except by accident. It’s become a dangerous station which emphasises the alienation and clannishness of young people to the point where adults are scared of them in the street.
Is this what people want for horse racing? If we eliminate the comfortable and the familiar, we’ll eventually end up with a televised version of the Betfair forum chaired by Ross and Brand. With no-one watching.
The folly of Matthew Bannister was he only had a very vague idea of what he wanted to replace "the establishment" with.
I think the original poster has a fair point. But what Channel Four Racing needs is someone to work with the Producer in an editorial capacity to decide what route the future of their programming has.
Is Channel Four Racing going to be a sports journalism venture or a venture into entertainment. People seem to think the two are mututally exclusive. Sports journalism can be entertaining, but it is very difficult to get a credible journalistic grip on the slippery slope where it is firstly entertainment and then journalism.
This is where the "overly chummy and walking through the motions" bit raises its ugly head. It is an easy comfort zone for the on-air talent to work in but is often excrutiating to watch. I have been guilty of this from time to time and always regretted it when I re-watched my work, which does make me think (on all racing services) how often the on-air talent do watch/listen to themselves and if they do so with a critical eye?
I know Derek Thompson gets a lot of flak on here. But he is a very capable journalist and a very good broadcaster. Why he hides many of those attributes under his "humorous" persona which has been developed remains a mystery to me. He may believe (and I dont know this) that this persona has been the secret of his success, I would not agree with that. But he does have the talent to be that serious journalist and broadcaster and it would be very welcome.
I barely know Mike Cattermole, but from having read a lot of his columns, if Channel Four Racing decided to become a serious sports journalism venture, he could be the man to be that editorial hand in shaping its future. And he may find that far more lucrative as a career than that of racing broadcaster.
Craig.
Bannister’s actions did indeed lose Radio One a chunk of it’s listeners but they found a natural home on Radio 2 (itself purged of the Jimmy Young tendency) whilst Radio One eventually reconnected with it’s youth audience. Interestingly, R1 and R2’s current big-hitters (Chris Moyles and Terry Wogan) now attract an audience of 7-8million each, so the Beeb has probably gained listeners overall as R2 was moribund prior to it’s enforced reinvention.
To claim as Max does that R1 is partly responsible for making us scared of youths in the street is a bit bonkers to be honest. The ‘clannish’ nature of the station is as it should be. Every generation needs to develop it’s own cultural identity (preferably one it’s parents loathe!) and R1 was always meant to be for the kids, not for 30/40-somethings.
These points are moot anyway, as my original post was merely to point out that I am basically watching the same C4 racing coverage now as I was 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago. I don’t believe in changing things for change’s sake but I do believe C4 racing operates in a bubble of uncritical inertia that seems at odds with the channel’s remit.
Mike
- Total Posts 17716
Nice to see you back too, Betlarge.
I rarely watch the Morning Line anymore because it is so predictable.
Time spent watching that is normally better employed doing a million and other things.I normally go out for a morning bike ride along the seafront which is always a good way to clear ones head before an afternoon on Betfair
They should have changed the format years ago.
When they cut down the number of shows Mr Crirrick once had they should have had the courage to drop him completly along with Alice Plunkett.
Simon Holt never has much to offer and being the one programe racing has in the morning they go for a safe but dated option of studio guests with a few telephone interviews.
They could devote 15 minutes a week to film the working day for a stable lad/lady showing them with what they put up with whilst having to spend a night away at a racecourse with a long distance travelled horse.
An insight into Betfair and how they go about handling millions of transactions a week would be far better than what they offer at present.
A film about a group who formed a syndicate and how and why they joined and to what they expect and what it costs could be interesting.
Just 15 minutes every month or so into the history of some of the famous stables would also I feel be better than what they currently offer.
To follow the career of some up and coming jockey would be worth watching.
To decide to follow an up and coming trainer for a year with monthly updates could be interesting.
To watch how a jockeys agent works, how he goes about booking rides is something they could cover
.
To film an article about clerks of course and they work they do would also be better than most of the same old Big Mac /Posh Bird/Female stuff that is so dated and out of touch with what racing needs and that of course is younger people getting interested.I rarely watch the Morning Line anymore because it is so predictable.
Time spent watching that is normally better employed doing a million and other things.I normally go out for a morning bike ride along the seafront which is always a good way to clear ones head before an afternoon on Betfair
They should have changed the format years ago.
When they cut down the number of shows Mr Crirrick once had they should have had the courage to drop him completly along with Alice Plunkett.
Simon Holt never has much to offer and being the one programe racing has in the morning they go for a safe but dated option of studio guests with a few telephone interviews.
They could devote 15 minutes a week to film the working day for a stable lad/lady showing them with what they put up with whilst having to spend a night away at a racecourse with a long distance travelled horse.
An insight into Betfair and how they go about handling millions of transactions a week would be far better than what they offer at present.
A film about a group who formed a syndicate and how and why they joined and to what they expect and what it costs could be interesting.
Just 15 minutes every month or so into the history of some of the famous stables would also I feel be better than what they currently offer.
To follow the career of some up and coming jockey would be worth watching.
To decide to follow an up and coming trainer for a year with monthly updates could be interesting.
To watch how a jockeys agent works, how he goes about booking rides is something they could cover
.
To film an article about clerks of course and they work they do would also be better than most of the same old Big Mac /Posh Bird/Female stuff that is so dated and out of touch with what racing needs and that of course is younger people getting interested.These are great ideas. Have you considered contacting c4racing with them? I think it’s definitely worth a go.
As for C4 racing. I love it, especially the big meets such a Cheltenham, York and Newmarket. I’m sure the morning line used to be much more wittier and funny when first started watching but generally they are a good team imo. Well bar a few such as emma spencer and the like. They know their stuff. Tanya especially, i think she’s very good with her selections. I’d not want to see it replaced but think some changes need making, such as Seagulls ideas.
The Morning Line needs to have more time spent on analysing races and less on Scoop 6 other daft things.
There’s nothing too much wrong that weeding out some of the crew wouldn’t solve – Keep Big Mac, Johnny F, Jim McGrath, Richard Hoiles – they are the cornerstone of C4 racing for me.
PLEASE get rid of Thompson (its not a comedy), Plunkett, Graham, Spencer (what is the point of any of them? except Emma is a bit of a babe), the incredibly monotone and boring Tom Lee.
Shame they don’t bring back Brough Scott to C4 racing (maybe not the Morning Line).
Analysis – proper serious analysis, especially of the Big Races – take Boxing Day for example – far too much fawning over KS’s win – really what should have happened is at least one of them asking questions over the form, etc
Racing is no different to other sports in this country in as much as very little time is paid to proper analysis. That’s what they are paid for – instead the majority skirt the issue – not wishing to upset ‘their mates’.Welcome back Mike. Do you have any suggestions for Thommo’s replacement?
Well, you’d be looking for someone capable of probing jockeys intimately.
I really wish I had a punchline for this gag…
Mike
Good post – not sure if I agree with the opinion but fair enough
On the radio analogy I suspect many older racing viewers may also have enjoyed the old style Radio 2 which has with the odd exception been cast into oblivion and supplanted by former radio 1 types
There may have been things that have benefitted from an edgier more youthful approach but can`t think of many. Look what they did to Ski Sunday
I’m convinced that earlier in December they advertised that they were showing Newbury/Leopardstown tomorrow but no sign of any coverage…
The folly of Matthew Bannister was he only had a very vague idea of what he wanted to replace "the establishment" with.
Absolutely. The culling of the pipe-smoking, Tory-member old guard (plus those with aspirations of becoming a member thereof despite still being young-ish themselves, such as Bruno Brookes) was the right way to go as far as I was concerned; but the re-casting of the daytime schedule as something akin to a broadsheet-with-music, c/o the likes of Emma Freud and Lisa I’Anson, was possibly a bit too far the other way. It got better, though.
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.
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