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‘as we rejoin John Hanmer’
That phrase sums up the Grand National coverage from the 1970s. It seemed to be the only time you ever heard his voice but it became synonymous with the race for me. Great memories when you hear those voices on youtube clips.
We miss those people and those tones but in 45 years time I suspect they’ll be saying the same about the current brigade.
O’Sullevan, Wilson and Hanmer provided a wonderful euphonic experience but – O’Sullevan apart – they weren’t great callers; and in his latter years Hanmer became Fentanyl Man
Wilson pointing out that the runners had to “avoid a dead horse” at second Bechers is a classic
Ah going out into the country and rejoining John Hanmer. That was the sound of the National to me growing up.
I used to love the buildup all morning where they would show the footage gathered up from the previous weeks going out to each yard and interviewing the trainers holding their horse or watching it come in off the gallops with the morning sun burning off the mist. Every single horse no matter what its chance was got a little slot dedicated to it. The Opening Show this morning was OK; I liked the bits where they explained why Total Recall is ridden out in a headcollar and interviewed Ross O’Sullivan and Katie Walsh about their mare, and McCoy and Ruby explained tactics with the drons footage of last year’s race.I do wish they would get out round the yards instead of putting on the Virtual National again, which was kind of a curiousity last year but really a pointless waste of airtime that should be spent up close to real horses and their connections. I watched this morning till 11am then went off to bath my toddler.Julian Wilson was an appalling commentator and Hamner was like mogadon – boring and monotonous. It could be the most exciting race possible but Hamner would never change his tone or expression.
Time and nostalgia plays funny tricks with the mind ….. in those days TV coverage was limited to ITV and the Beeb and only if you went racing were you exposed to other commentators so there was little to compare with.
Nowadays even the “average” commentators are better than the commentators of old.
I realise this may be considered heresy in places but, even at his prime, I think Peter O’Sullivan would struggle to be the top commentator up against the current crop.
He was pretty appalling, Julian Wilson, I have to concede, but I used to love those O’Sullevan, Hanmer and Wilson Nationals for pure entertainment value even if they were flawed technically.
I used to like the hand-overs, with one from Julian Wilson to John Hanmer particularly amusing me: “They’re very, very tired as we rejoin John Hanmer.”
The hand-overs should be all part of it and it was a pity when ITV decided last year for its first year of Aintree coverage that the race commentators did not hand over to each other by name and, er, just stopped talking.
Peter Bromley did the most flamboyant hand-overs in his BBC radio commentaries, with an exuberant: “And they cross the Melling Road for the first time and it’s over to LEEEE McKENZIEEEEE!”
Julian Wilson was notoriously crabby and irritable, ill at ease in front of the camera, and when he was beginning the look at the replay, nearly always said: “Well, what a marvellous race.”
Hammer, an accomplished race reader for form publications, had such a rasping, laryngitis-type voice that he was lucky to get a job behind the microphone at all.
It was probably because he was in the box as back-up to O’Sullevan if something happened and as a spotter that he got his chance.
He did, however, have a role as a paddock expert for the Flat racing and did a good job alongside Jimmy Lindley (“No finer jockey ridin’ today” or “He’s got lovely hands, Lester”).
Aussie Matt Hill ballsed it up at the end on 5 Live. A nightmare he’s unlikely to forget.
I just listened to his commentary SC and it sounded ok at the end of the race. Do you mean his race commentary or something else?
Overnight Viewing figures for Grand National
ITV Racing: The Grand National 2018 :
5.11m (40.9%) peak: 8.48m (60.2%) at 17.25Grand National 2017-
2.56m (25.2%), peak – 8.24m (61.6%)I thought he completely fluffed the drama of the runner-up making such a late challenge. He’d kind of switched off to concentrate on Tiger Roll, then had to compensate with something about him ‘slowing dramatically’ without any real sense of how close Mullins had come to winning.
“I thought he completely fluffed the drama of the runner-up making such a late challenge. He’d kind of switched off to concentrate on Tiger Roll, then had to compensate with something about him ‘slowing dramatically’ without any real sense of how close Mullins had come to winning.”
This probably comes under the “too much information” category but I listened to the race whilst soaking in the bath so had the Five Live commentary which sounded interesting at the end.
When I actually got to see the finish I thought that’s nothing like how it sounded on the radio – so I can fully see where you’re coming from Joe – I’m all the more convinced Matt Hill, if he was going to be used at all, should have been out at the Canal turn and Dazzer should have been in the Grandstand.
I think to be fair to Matt he was caught out by a remarkable finish in which even a hundred yards from the line it looked like Tiger Roll was going to win by five lengths.
As for the viewing figures I think very few programmes attract eight million these days so ITV should be quite happy. I only saw their coverage from 4.30 onwards but on the whole they did a good job although I would like to see them go back to the traditional angle at the Chair.
Becoming increasingly apparent that Francesca Cumani almost by a process of osmosis has usurped Mr Chamberlaying as lead broadcaster on ITV Racing. To all appearances poor Ed has been relegated to linkman, banter merchant and name-dropper status lately.
Paul,
You make no mention of Dazzer’s horrible, Dalek like sounding voice? It does matter and both his and Bartlett’s commentaries should come with a government ear warning, particularly when raising the volume. I can take Mark Johnson raising the volume because he’s so good.
Compare them to the dulcet tones of the vastly underrated Alan Howes? What a great selection the Ayr executive made with the Hunt/Howes double act for Scottish National day. Hunty’s let me down a couple of times lately and cost me money with my bet with CrustyPatch but he’s sounded as good as ever since his return, from his long winter break on the Gold Coast.
I certainly don’t agree that Francesca Cumani has become the “lead broadcaster” ahead of Ed Chamberlin. She had a very minor role at Aintree, reduced to grinning toothily and making only occasional contributions when standing at the table as part of the Gang of Four.
She certainly didn’t seem to be at home with jumps racing compared with her beloved Flat meetings. She and Alice Plunkett did an excellent job, however, with their walks alongside runners in the parade ring. Logistically tricky but handled fluently and well.
In fact, Alice Plunkett had an excellent Aintree, in my opinion, being very efficient and on-the-ball in her contributions, even making allowances for her over-familiarity and tendency to kiss favoured people randomly and to keep saying “listen”.
I’m quite happy to admit that I was wrong in my original criticism of Ed Chamberlin for being bland and wooden. He has grown into the role and does a very good job. I particularly enjoyed the programme he fronted from Kelso recently.
Great to see the Borders course taking centre stage and nice to see the TV magazine schedule clipping of ITV’s previous visit to Kelso in the 1970s and archive footage of a race from that coverage.
She might look good but question how much, if anything, Francesca Cumani knows about jumps racing. She looked totally out of place at Aintree not quite knowing what to do or say.
On a different subject I’m surprised there’s been no comment about Kieren Fallon appearing last week at Newmarket. From the little I saw he seemed as dull and uninterested as Tony McCoy.
Why, why, why do we have to hear people at the toy table talking about the horses and how they look? why can’t they show them to us the viewers instead? I really dislike the way Francesca Cumani is in the paddock blocking the view of the horses and just showing a couple or so. There were no views of the runners for the two classic trials at Newbury on Saturday either, it is important to see how horses have progressed over the winter and which ones are going to improve over the season.
I don’t know why Cumani has got a job on ITV Racing…she has no warmth passion,humour or opinion and sounds like she’s doing us all a favour by being there when in fact she adds absolutely nothing in terms of insight or expertise and her wooden,stuck up presenting style is like something out of the 1950s…..if she wasn’t from a Racing family and wasn’t attractive looking she would be nowhere near this gig.
Interesting to see the equally terrible ( but in different ways) Tanya Stevenson on the credits as a statistician yesterday..
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