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The Morning line is in need of a freshening up,some of the team have been around to long,first in line for the chop must be insincere, nauseating "haw" "haw" Thompson,and I think we could do with a break from John Francolme and that grating west country voice, lesley Graham with that switch on smile should also move aside.
channel 4 should bring in Gordon Brown and Tom O’ryan.and unlod the above mentioned.
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I don’t think we really need another Morning Line thread, but the programme is being ‘re-launched’ next week. It’s unlikely to improve what has become a dull and generally tedious waste of 55 minutes, but then again neither would axing Francome and bringing in the thoroughly irritating Gordon Brown (a man who hears more whispers in one race than most people do in a life time).
I just hope they find the culprit who thought it was funny to horribly abuse poor Tanya’s barnet.
Scroll down the list of subjects from last week MNB, I started a topic saying that well known racing expert
Matt Dawson is joining the Morning Line from next week – now there’s a good reason to watch the show from now on isn’t it…I guess that what happens when you allow a woman, who also knows nothing about racing, to replace Andrew Franklin and be in charge of C4’s racing coverage.
I guess that what happens when you allow a woman, who also knows nothing about racing, to replace Andrew Franklin and be in charge of C4’s racing coverage.
How very true. The Morning Line will be nothing but Henrietta Knight, Venetia Williams & Hayley Turner (y’know, women who’ve done nothing worthwhile in racing) sharing make up tips & getting John Francome to open all those jam jars that they can’t quite manage.
The New Morning Line.
I’ve seen better production values on old Open University broadcasts. I actually thought the TV was on the blink. What equipment are they using? It looks as they’ve borrowed the cameras from the audio-visual department of the local college. The students could have built the set too, out of cereal boxes and sticky back plastic. The microphones are uneven and badly positioned etc, etc.
And in a magnificently surreal piece of cost cutting, one which would have made ‘Orrible Osborne lick his lips, they’ve encouraged Tanya to look
exactly
like Lesley Graham to save on salaries.
Writing on the wall here – the sponsors cannot be pleased with this.
I’ll put a positive post on later, but as a long term viewer of the ML, this cynical exercise is sad to watch.
At least Matt Dawson wasn’t on it this week, however it looks to be a tory-fest next week.
Are they broadcasting in high definition now? It looked like I was watching a programme using a different broadcast system. Al Jazera for example.
Hardly ‘all new’ was it?
They’ve hung a few bells & whistles on it but it didn’t seem too radical.
Negatives: Only having the guest on for half the show, only a couple of discussions lasting longer than 30 seconds, that webcam nonsense (oh dear) & it’s not necessary to have that ‘betting bulletin’ graphic every time Tanya speaks, nor was the ‘betting guide’ especially helpful even to a total novice, the same theme music since 1986.
Positives: Alice the course reporter could be interesting, sitting McCririck & Tanya apart & having him on the sofa seems to have calmed him a little, Jim McGrath’s ‘big race preview’ was a bit half hearted but could be expanded upon.
I’m not any more or less likely to watch it (it’s still mostly dependent on whether I can crawl out of bed!) but I think what they really need is some competition. Does Racing UK have a morning programme?
They’ve got far too many people on that couch as it is. Where are they going to fit Matt Dawson? In a pink baby suit and a drumkit in the corner?
What was the attraction of that compact couch anyway? 24 months interest free credit at DFS?
They’ve got far too many people on that couch as it is. Where are they going to fit Matt Dawson? In a pink baby suit and a drumkit in the corner?
What was the attraction of that compact couch anyway? 24 months interest free credit at DFS?
It’s actually a four seater couch, it just looks smaller with all the big ‘eads sat on it.
I thought it was better than it has been!
Hardly a radical change (which was probably a good thing) but I thought it had a more up-to-date feel about it rather than the tired old format.
I await Matt Dawson’s arrival with the same enthusiasm as I currently await the weekly performances of my beloved Hibernian FC.
According to the twitter chat, Dawson has filled some "day in the life.." pieces – fingers crossed that means he doesn’t appear at all "live".
Alice the course reporter is hardly new. Well, using Alice might be, but having one of the team down on the track when inspections are needed has been done before. Nick Luck did a couple of items and I could barely hear hiom over the foreground music. The betting piece was useless "how many bets are there?" "lots". Very insightful.
Not really different enough to get me to tune in more often, but not quite as bad as I expected.
Always feel a bit of an imposter discussing the show as I only catch it maybe once or twice a month, and most of the the time, the show itself, and the team, don’t bother me as much as they do others. I normally find it a bit harmless, and I’m glad they’re keeping it going.
As for the new format, I thought it was much of a muchness.
They won’t gain one single new viewer with the new format though, and they’ll obviously lose a few with the introduction of Matt Dawson. His introduction to the team is both bizarre and disappointing. Hopefully common sense, and good taste, will win in the end.
I try not to take the show too seriously most of the time, but I still feel the shows main remit should be to focus on the afternoons racing, and the talking points of the last week. Although they try their best with this, I always get the feeling they could do just a bit more.
Another gripe, which, to be fair most sports magazine shows are guilty of, is that live phone conversations on air, just do not work. Painful to watch.
However, what can you say about the new "features", such as the Betting Bulletin, and the bit with Big Mac and Tanya about different bets? At what point when the production team were arranging this, did they think it would work? It was dire, and I was squirming, especially at the different type of bets feature. The whole thing felt like it was a High School project from an IT class. From 1989.
It was just OK, nothing special. It’s like they replaced the usual bran flakes formula with rice krispies for easier consumption.
Nice for the casual acca punter, but old duffers like me actually don’t mind bran flakes even though they are little old fashioned and hard to chew.It was dull.
It was as if they had all been told "Do not under any circumstances allow your own personality to come through. Just stick to the script and the studio direction".
From time to time in the past there was a reasonable amount of banter and it looked like the presenters were having a good time. It now looks like they have been told to be more professional. They just look pretty glum to me. I much prefer listening to, and watching, people who know what they are doing and having a good time doing it. I do not want dull psuedo professionalism.
I cannot pretend that I always agree with what they say or their overall personalities, but they used to have a positive demeanour, which has now disappeared.
Matt Dawson is joining the Morning Line from next week – now there’s a good reason to watch the show from now on isn’t it…
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