Anyone watching the pattern of major sporting events over the past few years must be aware of the now complete takeover of every aspect of the presentation of those events where the BBC, in particular, has bought the television rights.
This is no longer a matter of televising an event, it is a matter of ‘owning’ the event, often in ways which deflect from the nature of the event – which is about sporting contest – and radically disrupt the focus of the athletes.
We have got accustomed to Sue Barker taking charge of the entire occasion of the presentation of Wimbledon trophies after the finals – and conducting interviews on the court.
During the Six Nations rugby championships this year, we saw Gabby Logan conduct televised interviews on the pitch itself, before the event.
The Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race – rowed late this afternoon – is now the Clare Balding show. Everything was orchestrated around the needs of the presentation and the often wholly inappropriate interventions of the presenter.
The initial line up of the two teams saw Balding step forward with a microphone and ask the Oxford president how he felt. ‘Good’, he said, shortly, turning his head marginally away from eye contact to make it clear that this was the last thing he needed or was prepared to cooperate with.
Not to be deterred, Balding turned to the Cambridge president, asking him what he would like to say – with an expansive sweep of the arm – ‘…to all these people’? ‘Not much’, he said. She did then find something else to play with.
Then there was a painfully slow process with members of each of the crews coming singly out of alternating boatsheds to Balding’s hysterical cries of their name. Many of them had headphones on to try to stay in the zone by minimising this invasion. The parading of the individuals at this stage acts powerfully against the imperative of reinforcing at all times the bond of teamship in the phase immediately before they go to war – because this is what it is.
This media-led process is a direct abuse of what the sportsmen need.
And then, with the reserve crews, Isis for Oxford and Goldie for Cambridge, given the off for their own keenly anticipated challenge, the BBC paid them absolutely no attention.
We didn’t see the start, we got a snatch of them in transit, once – and we got them coming in, with a long win from Oxford. While they were labouring valiantly on the river, with the full attention of the audience along the banks and with an expectant [and disappointed] television audience - the BBC went off on some absolutely bathetic nonsense of a filler about the moon.
We and the BBC crews – were there for the rowing contests, not for some warbling overwrought mosh up abut the moon and the tides.
And then – oh yes, it got a lot worse – we saw the bold Balding ushering her coterie precariously into a speedboat back at Putney, just before the start of the main Boat Race – and racket away upriver to the finish at Mortlake. They were apparently over the speed limit on the river and left a wake bounding off the banks which takes some time to settle down – with no thought to the sole centre of the event, the progress of two boats shortly to fight it out on that very water.
Even worse, the latest airhead blonde totty with a cutsie little breathy voice, given a microphone and let loose to do vox pops on the bank, was talking to some students from Durham University who were supporting Oxford because one of the Dark Blue crew had done some coaching with them.
Suddenly she interrupted them with a squeal of delight. She had seen ‘the boat’. Not one of the eights, you understand – but THE boat, the speedboat bearing Balding upriver.
‘I’m going to show you something really exciting’, she cried, pointing to the river. ‘See that boat? It’s Clare Balding!!! Give her a big cheer. ‘Hi Cla-are…’
And of course one remembers then the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee flotilla on the Thames when Balding was installed on the fabulous Rowbarge, Gloriana, leading the flotilla of water insects that were the little boats, wearing a majestic nile green coat and a regal broad brimmed matching hat. People on the river banks cheered and waved hysterically when she strolled out on the bow deck to wave to them. They thought she was the Queen.
That says everything about the nonsensical situation our national broadcaster has got itself into.
The television companies need to be put back in the box. They can pay for the rights – because televising major sporting events on their channels benefits their audience development. They can broadcast the sporting contest. They can do whatever interviews they like in their own studios or in quiet corners. BUT THEY ARE NOT WHAT THE EVENT IS ABOUT. They should have no public formal presence at the event itself.
They are not the stars. They are functionaries. They ought never to forget that. They are there to do a very straightforward job – show us the actual event and provide us with the accurate information and commentary we need to understand what we are seeing. All we need is a voice. It’s the game, stupid.
At the moment they are not even doing their core job. Last year, for the first time, in place of the established Referee, Matthew Pinsent was Referee for the Boat Race. This year, expecting that it would be Mathew again – it wasn’t. It was someone else with an eminent rowing history, Jason Phelps.
We needed to know if the Boat Race Company had changed the formula and that now every year would have a different rowing celeb as Referee – or whether Matthew Pinsent had somehow not found favour last year and been replaced? No one told us anything about any of that. But they did tell us about the moon….
