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KT, I can’t see it on the website, you might have to wait to read it the paper.
There may be someone, cleverer than I, who could perhaps scan the article and post it up…….not even sure that can be done!!
Colin
A very nice critique of the BBC coverage from Longchamp yesterday.
What was the gist?
My thoughts were:
(1) Why are they (well, Rishi) going around the crowd asking punters for tips on the Arc?
Who gives a feck what these people think?
The BBC had a number of professional racing presenters on their team, surely those presenters could have filled that time with educated insight instead?
(I thought the lead up to the other races – G1s, ferchissake – was rushed)
(2) Does statto do anything other than:
(a) do a urine poor job of explaining the PMU/English odds system
(b) jus say, “this horse is shorter in England, so take the French odds” and vice versa.
(BTW, it’s the UK, not “England/English” and you can’t really “take” French odds – but the man’s a fekkin numpty, so what do you expect?)
(3) Balding was excellent as ever. Carson was ok.
The French guy could have been put to use if he hadn’t been lumbered with Rishi.
Rishi was Rishi.
And McGrath made fewer mistakes than usual, so I guess that was a result.
Steve
No Commercial breaks it was good enough for me.
As the Stewards enquiry was not televised there was no point hanging around doing endless interviews. They spoke to Fallon, Channon, O`Brien
post race everything was covered, the result took ages and was flashed over the Rugby anyway. They managed to talk to Henry Cecil before a race.
I can put up with Carson and Claire and Rishi for the quality of racing on offer. Its a bit dumbed down true but Longchamp in the Autumn on the Beeb does me fine.It is time the Beeb launched a dedicated sports channel though.
Paul Haigh on why TV coverage of the Arc left him fuming:
It’s strange going back to watching racing on BBC: like revisiting a country you haven’t been to for years.
There was Willie, a bit older and more wizened, still talking a broken-biscuit language that doesn’t quite involve sentences. There was Clare, much the same as before, if a bit blonder, speaking a little more softly in interviews but still with the hint of Blue Peter about her delivery to camera. There was Rishi – so that’s what happened to him – more confident but still always seemingly right on the stretch.
We know they have to tailor their product to a theoretical mass audience of the non-cognoscenti – although only the figures will tell us whether that audience actually exists.
So there is an excuse for the hint of condescension in everything, the suspicion that the whole thing’s put together on the assumption that everything needs to be explained; but, those of us who’ve grown used to the specialist channels, where most people, even on ATR, try to talk to us as though we are slightly knowledgeable adults, have definitely been spoiled.
The bid to include the uncommitted started straightaway. Before the Abbaye, Rishi told us Kingsgate Native was “a rookie, a bit like Lewis Hamilton taking on his Grand Prix elders” (Oh Jesus, give us a break).
Then there were the hoofbeats superimposed on the race. Do they really expect us to believe in them? You hear nothing from the stands on Longchamp’s dreadful 5f course. So wouldn’t silence have been more realistic? And how does this con fit with the new zero-tolerance guidelines following the fraudulent stitching up of the Queen?
Things improved in the run-up to the great race. Rishi’s become a pretty good interviewer. Very bottlesome anyway.
Clare even dared to point out that Mandesha had been clipped, without feeling the need to tell Mrs Wilkins in her kitchen exactly what this means. Willie occasionally spoke coherently. The tension built.
It did in the race too, though how Jim McGrath could ever have thought Authorized was “cantering” is a mystery beyond comprehension. Well done to Willie for pointing out he was never given cover and therefore never settled for a stride. Yes, sometimes it is a good idea to have a jockey on the team.
And then came the catastrophes that ruined everything.
First there was the length of time it took for anyone to realise Dylan Thomas really was still in jeopardy.
Then, with the terror and hope beginning to show on every concerned face, a couple of truly mad editorial decisions. Just as the wait for the stewards’ decision was showing us exactly how reality will always beat reality TV, the switch to a here’s-one-we-made-earlier package of idiotic Arc day visuals.
Then, then…may they rot in hell forever, as the post-race debate grew almost as exciting as the race itself, the switch to a replay (sic) of a rugby league match played on Friday.
So this is what the outcome of the world’s greatest horserace means to those who bank our licence fees.
Don’t try excuses. There are no excuses. It will be many years before some of us bother with terrestrial TV racing again.
Far from being "fuming", I reckon zorro was secretly made up when that "Arc visuals package" popped up. Talk about making his job easy for him!
There was not a proper replay of the finish, let alone the whole race, for about 20 minutes after the race was over. No end of arty visuals, slow-mos, close-ups of the leaders and head-ons. But no replay that showed us again how the race panned out and what happened in detail to the participants.
Thanks Prufrock!
Nice one Zorro, well written and funny
(even though the topic was serious 
)Of course even BBC coverage would have been better than none – but over here ‘it wasn’t worth showing because that late at night no one would bother betting on it’
Of course there’s no shortage of coverage of obscure football matches from around the globe that goes on into the early hours
Particularly loved the bit where you point out how they dumb things down for people that aren’t actually watching. Top marks.
It did in the race too, though how Jim McGrath could ever have thought Authorized was "cantering" is a mystery beyond comprehension
Must admit, that was bizarre…
Hes an awful race reader sometimes…..
(3) Balding was excellent as ever. Carson was ok.
Well, Balding did make a massive blunder in disclosing a little joke that Michael Tabor whispered in her ear.
For those who missed it, during the tense stewards’ enquiry, she came out and said "Michael Tabor’s just said to us that this will be good practice for Kieron!", referring presumably to the Mr Fallon’s upcoming trial. She seemed to realise her mistake quite quickly though.
(Or did I dream all that up?)
RUKs Longchamp coverage from the delights of Huntingdon was most entertaining: Lorna Bradburne (three stone out the handicap) and Claude Charlet (indecipherable though seemingly quite knowledgeable). A dream team and co-pundit Jonathan Neesom enjoyed it all immensely I’m sure.
Thanks for kind words. I’m currently sulking though about two things. !. Sagara getting into third to spoil the trifecta. 2. the fact that because I was busy writing that load of I missed Le Miracle.
I started off on Racing UK and ended up with the Beeb. Thought their coverage was OK compaired to RUK’s rather feeble dubbed feed from French TV…via Huntingdon.
I only cringed once..when Claire suggested that Peeping Fawn had been retired…Willie had no idea and looked uncomfortable…"You can’t know everything" was his riposte.
Peeping Fawn hasn’t been retired though has she ?
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