Match of the Day vs The Premiership

I watched Hitchcock's VERTIGO last night and early on in the film James Stewart appears to be doing a very plausible ALAN HANSEN impersonation. Could it be that ALAN HANSEN's entire screen persona is based on James Stewart's combination of bewilderment and indignation?
PS: The film was a game of two halves.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 21 December 2004

also Mark Bright (I like the way he gets over-excited)

You lost me there

iirc the viewing figures for the World Cup final always break down roughly like this btw

Almost all pundits wore suits until a certain point, which may have been about 2006. Then the norms changed and channels copied each other. I thought the change was a bad thing, partly because I think these people are too complacent as it is: wearing a suit might at least give them more of a sense of gravitas; dressing casually confirms to them that this is casual and they needn't make any effort. This tendency to complacency has blighted hitherto peerless BBC coverage for years.

Suits have continued to be used in outside broadcasts / live games, etc, sometimes.

Mike last night constructed Andy Townsend's work schedule, in full, as follows.

6:58pm: arrive at studio. Wear pink shirt.

also Mark Bright (I like the way he gets over-excited)

You lost me there

He tends to get over-excited by goalmouth incidents, bad misses and so on, and start shouting. There is something endearing about it.

Guy Mowbray is absolutely terrible, as I keep saying

Beeb considers him better than Jonathan Pearce?

I didn't think the suits were necessarily a bad thing. It just seemed odd to me that they wore them for the final. As far as I am aware, they dressed casually for all the previous games.

If I was Pearce, I'd be looking for a move to another channel

Dubmill, suits are good - that's my view. They should all wear them all the time.

It's true about JP: he's talented, distinctive, a personality; it makes no sense to promote GM above him.

I think Clive T is talented too, and better than any other BBC voice (unless Motson is still around domestically).

I like Clive Tyldesley too. Although he can be annoying with some of the things he says, I generally like his turn of phrase.

I did say yesterday that Pearce/McCarthy would have been my dream-team

In the end, we put the radio commentary on, which was OK for the time Alan Green wasn't speaking in

I thought Southgate spoke a lot of sense. I keep banging on about it, but his efforts to educate the viewers about man-marking and zonal-marking, something that usually gets an "Ahhh, zonal-marking, just doesn't work" from Hansen or Shearer, gets massive kudos from me. Edgar Davids is dull. There's something about Marcel Desailly that I just can't stand.

I feel for guys like Southgate and Dixon who actually do that 'educate & explain' stuff yet remain resolutely second-tier. Evidently the networks have concluded that the public wants received wisdom instead. I assume they'll've researched it, but that might be naïve of me

xxp I turned the radio off, too infuriated by Alan Green and his obvious hatred of football.

Just wasn't the same without Robbie Earle there

I've warmed to Desailly this time round after previously thinking he was awful. If you listen closely there's an occasional gem of insight hidden under the excitable stream-of-consciousness.

I like Townsend, and also Mark Bright (I like the way he gets over-excited), Jim Beglin, Mick McCarthy, and even Kevin Keegan....I like Clive Tyldesley too.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scream.jpg

Dixon isn't second tier, he's constantly on the rise, has his column etc on the website. I like Dixon. I think southgate is awfully dull tho.

Did they just not bother to take Martin Keown to the World Cup? If so big round of applause BBC.

Keown was second commentator for a few early games. Then I guess he disappeared.

Southgate's competent dullness could work on a panel that isn't comprised of idiots and wankers.

You shouldn't need Gareth Southgate anywhere near the panel. Surely there are enough ex-footballers/managers out there who both know what they're talking about and are good on telly? The latter bit being the bit that's mostly ignored.

Watching BBC/ITV/Sky, it's alarming how little so many ex-players and pundits actually know about football!

The best panel the Beeb had all tournament was chucked away in an afternoon group game slot, where they had Colin Murray anchoring a panel of McCarthy, Hodgson and Dixon. Chiles is a much better anchorman than Lineker, though the company Lineker is stuck with most of the time does make him shine in comparison. I too had to turn over to Tyldesley, Lawrenson's consistent negative nancy act was so irritating I thought I would actually prefer to listen to Craig Burley.

Panels really missing the O'Neill/Strachan axis of comedy and non-line-toeing this year. I think they strove to find it by flinging a pished Danny Baker in once, but it didn't quite come off and was quickly shelved in favour of received wisdom and meh nothingness.

very odd MotD2 tonight.

Banter between Murray and Lawro based on secret shared jokes
Murray's repeated strained analogies
Shearer and everyone pretending they've never dismissed Berbatov who is now 'the wizard of Old Trafford' etc

and Motson's astonishing reflective-pensioner commentary, unlike any I can remember.

motty's commentary was weird wasn't it. seemed completely, erm, with it during his world cup cameos. odd.

It was as if he didn't realize he was actually doing a commentary - no raised voice, no excitement, no prepared lines - but instead was just talking to himself as he always does watching a match, but with a microphone on.

I've never heard him so quiet and casual. There was a sadness about it too, perhaps deriving from his resignation at the impossibility of Blackpool's task.

Think feigning excitement about what was the most routine of routine wins would have been worse.

i hadn't seen this for a long time but whatisup with the outro music? also colin murray is shooting for a cast-inclusive tfi friday vibe.

yeah i much preferred it to the relentless bellowing bombast anyone else would have employed tbh. what set it apart more than the tone i think was his absent-pundit musing (over an extended passage of play) on what blackpool's gameplan was trying to be. ("they want baptiste in the hole, but..."). most unusual.

murray's "lonely as barthez in a barbershop" gag so stale it wasn't even worth the groan.

also shearer being so bewilderingly loud and obnoxious in defending torres i actually had to turn the volume down.

Lawro + Shearer + Murray is pretty much the worst panel imaginable out of the current crew. Only Robbie Savage and his faux-matey laugh-hysterically-at-his-own-joke-then-slap-co-pundit-on-the-leg nonsense would be worse.

Banter between Murray and Lawro based on secret shared jokes

― the pinefox, Sunday, 19 September 2010 21:59

This has been the way on the BBC for some time now. It is often the case that I get a sense they are playing games - trying to say a daft word as many times as possibe, for example. There is a minor betting scoop here somewhere. Possibly.

I like Robbie Savage!

since we're on the general subject i was reduced to watching final score for a bit this weekend and my god, you think you remember how much of a bellend garth crooks is but you really don't. an impossibly awful man.

sav is not even a lovable prat but such is the sheer boorishness otherwise (dicko excepted obv) that i'll accept him without complaint. wouldn't say no to a carlton palmer comeback either tbh.

HAHA I REMEMBER THIS!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD6V2xFwpps

:D best laugh I've had all day

really enjoyed motson's commentary once i decided he was doing it on purpose and i wasn't just listening to his mind falling apart

btw - this is something I've wondered for a while. It is generally thought that the commentary for highlights football is done after the game has ended, right?

crooks is v weird, i go to the footie focus meetings for work and he is like king of the castle. motty has an ancient looking jotter and is quite friendly.

i remember that cobra thing too! it's the way he says cobb-ra that really adds to it. does anyone remember him saying in passing "when you think of your truly world class players, your drogbas, your shevchenkos, your les ferdinands"

lols here it is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsFX2a626OE

MotD: Lineker fumbling simple links and forgetting to ask Hansen to do his 'Liverpool analysis' (which = 'mixed emotions'). Later Lineker announces LAST SEASON'S goal of the season - 'a bit late, probably cos we forgot all about it'.

it's actually been better than usual tonight, for all that

What was goal of the season btw?

Figueroa from his own half vs Stoke.

It is often the case that I get a sense they are playing games - trying to say a daft word as many times as possibe, for example. There is a minor betting scoop here somewhere

^sounds exactly like something Shearer would do. I remember when he was playing for England he got a bet going where they tried to get as many song titles into interviews - the one and only time I found him mildly amusing.

[Murray reprised it in world cup 2010, instance of his hyperactive self-conscious 1998 retro style]