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Being out and about today and not having access to any TV screens, I had to listen to Radio 5 for commentaries.
What took place for the Albany and Coronation Stakes almost defies belief, but what I am going to describe actually took place. It isn’t made up or exaggerated in any way.
Part of the programme involved a discussion about films hosted by the execrable Simon Mayo in front of a live audience in a studio somewhere, so they had to cut across to Ascot for the commentaries.
What happened in both races was that Cornelius Lysaght came up with 3 fancied horses and allocated them to the left hand, middle and right hand sections of the audience back in the studio. They were instructed to cheer every time that horse was mentioned. During the race John Hunt would pause every time he mentioned one of these horses and they’d cut to the studio audience cheering. No attempt at a professional commentary or scene-set.
It was crass beyond belief. I felt embarrassed and insulted listening to these two idiots making fools of themselves and, more damningly, of the sport itself. It made me long for trhe days of Peter Bromley. I know he was rather a patrician old so-and-so, but he would never have dreamed of demeaning racing in this way.
Perhaps one or other of them, or their carers, might like to come on to the forum and explain themselves. If they had an ounce of self-respect, and any respect for the listeners or the sport, they’d apologise and resign. Any journalists looking in here, get on to the BBC site, you might be able to listen to a recording and write about it in your newspapers.
So intrigued was I, that I’ve just listened to it on the Five Live website and I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Amazing
And all the more odd as their coverage live from Ascot on Tuesday was (the bits I listened too) very good.
Not really fair to blame this on Hunt or Lysaght – like the rest of us, when they are working, they have to do what their bosses tell them.
Aim your criticism at the producer, not the front men. Apart from refuse to toe the line and get sacked, what else can they do?
Here you are Stilvi. Just click on the Listen thing. Once it’s started just move the thing on the bottom to 1:28mins and then you can here the build up and race.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00l5b1g
It’s well worth listening to
I cant abide radio 5. But we have to listen to it because Talksport is even worse
Its a mix of excellent sports summarisers (Mike Ingham, Jon Agnew, Ian robertson…and i dont even follow rugby) and ****** presenters and producers. Peter allen, the godawful jane Garvey…thankfully gone now, Victoria derbyshire, that prat Poogatch and Mark sammers (or whatever his name is) who all think they are terribly ironic and amusing
Comprehenisve coverage wrecked by a load of northern sixth formers
Unbelievable – has there ever been a Sports broadcast as ridiculous as that?
Surely they couldn’t have sacked Lysaght and Hunt if they had refused to go along with that nonsense.
See Matt Chapman’s lookalike was involved.
Well, the discussion about films hosted by the "execrable" Simon Mayo presumably had more airtime than a preview of the Coronation Stakes because more 5Live listeners are interested in films than racing. Amazing, isn’t it?
And, Clive. Why not just turn off? You clearly have hearing difficulties anyway if you think Essex man Peter Allen and the Southern drawlers Pougatch and Saggers were flown in from the North.
If you’re out and about, Clive, I sympathise, though if you’re desperate to hear a big race, there are plenty of commentary services available over the phone for 10p a minute.
If you’ve access to the internet, a service like Timeform Radio will give you fully comprehensive coverage of the day’s racing, free of charge, though I can’t promise you won’t hear a Northern accent or two.
Gumshield, you appear to have entirely missed the point of my post.
Apracing, there’s more to life than brown-nosing.
Sorry to those who were less than satisfied with the coverage today, in particular Venusian; to state that both myself and Cornelius require a carer was unnecessary and distasteful.
It was rather different to how things are presented 99% of the time but apracing is quite correct in what he says. He who pays the piper etc. The thought of resigning hadn’t really occurred to me.
On 5 Live we have a significantly different audience on a Friday afternoon than on Saturday’s. The Mayo/Kermode film debate which takes place on Friday is one of the most listened to programmes all week. Todays race coverage from Royal Ascot was tailored to ease into the general listen. In simple terms we embraced the slightly "ooohhh" "aaahhh" nature of todays unusual broadcast and got two races live on the air. Whilst Venusian and co were seething, it sounded very much like those in the live audience in Edinburgh were having quite a good time. Hopefully most of our listeners were too but, you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Given the unique circumstances that prevailed in our little world today and having listened back to the programme, I don’t think racing enthusiasts would have been left in too much doubt about the manner of Ghaanati’s Coronation Stakes victory. Nor Henry Cecils’ 71st Royal Ascot win, nor Takeover Target’s defection from the Golden Jubilee. Nor indeed Michael Hills completing a wonderful day for his recovering father.
We’re back tomorrow, without todays sound effects, and will cover the Golden Jubilee and Wokingham and hopefully more, in the same way as we covered the Queen Anne, The King’s Stand, The St James’s Palace, The Jersey, Windsor Forest , Prince Of Wales’s, The Norfolk, Ribblesdale and the Gold Cup. That, depending on events in South Africa where the Lions play their first test and Silverstone, where excitement reaches boiling point for F1 fans ahead of the Grand Prix. Because Saturday is mostly about sport on 5 Live, just as Friday afternoon is mostly about cinema.
….. to state that both myself and Cornelius require a carer was unnecessary and distasteful.
Totally agree – I would go as far as to say offensive.
It is fine to criticise the Five Live commentary but to then make it "personal" achieves nothing whatsoever.
We are lucky on this forum that the likes of John, Richard and Lee, as well as AP, Rory and many others with a close connection to the industry are happy to come on and positively contribute to the forum – if people are going to be gratuitiously offensive to fellow members we run the risk of driving them away and the forum would be a worse place for it.
End of rant.
Back to the original post – the substantive part of which is valid.
I must admit, and it may be an age thing, I prefer my radio commentary to be straight down the line and gimick free.
I am not even a fan of "let’s go to Luke or Cornelius for their view" – I don’t want views – I want to know what is happening. If I am listening to the commentary on radio it is because I cannot see the race myself either live or on TV.
For me radio commentary is very different to on course or TV commentary. With TV and on course, the commentary should supplement what you are seeing.
For radio it has to describe the action, paint a picture and to do that effectively I don’t believe you need gimicks.
We have been blessed with three very good radio commentators Peter Bromley, then Lee and now John – it is a shame they aren’t left to do what they do best.
I do think the producer responsible should be taken to one side and quietly spoken to.
As someone else has said, 5 live gets listened to by default given the state of Talksport. Of particular annoyance are the frequent times when you have 6 people talking at once and the prevalence of girly-giggling
Just because the Mayo/Kermode circus is popular doesn’t mean it is excusable to indulge in such inanities, which can surely only have been enjoyed by the audience iin Edinburgh. ( And they could have done it by themselves without the rest of us having to listen to it)
Hunt is right in only one respect "he who pays the piper" and that "who" is ultimately us and at the moment on both radio and tv the BBC are serving up tripe to racing fans.
The cinema fans had 3 hours today instead of the usual 1 hour. 6 minutes of uninterrupted race commentary would have given them the chance of a natural break!
I too, was out and about and listened on R5. The commentary being discussed was not my taste either. I like to hear a straight forward version of events not a The Price Is Right format. But they got the result right.
I must thank John Hunt for taking the time to explain the situation and agree that taking a pop at someone on a personal level is offensive.John Hunt’s contribution "explains" nothing, it is a shabby grovelling piece.
He says "we got two races on air".
That is the very minimum to be expected from the BBC’s sports radio channel during the premier flat racing festival of the year. It sounds very much that he shares the opinion of his bosses that racing is lucky to get any share of the airwaves.
Sorry to those who were less than satisfied with the coverage today, in particular Venusian; to state that both myself and Cornelius require a carer was unnecessary and distasteful.
I think the carer comment was amusing, and the fact that you actually found it distasteful
made it all the more so.If you’ve access to the internet, a service like Timeform Radio will give you fully comprehensive coverage of the day’s racing, free of charge, though I can’t promise you won’t hear a Northern accent or two.
One Brighton and one Saddleworth accent this Sunday, as it happens. Something for everyone.
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.
made it all the more so.
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