Saturday 20 March 2010
Disappointing evening
Were it not for Brian Boore, lawyer and commentator, and of course the result, I'd have enjoyed watching the England v France rugby match tonight. But why do the BBC have to employ the ex-England hooker to commentate? He's rugby's equivalent of Mr Boycott, only without the excuse of age. He spent the whole match complaining about the referee. 'It's not fair!' He sounded like a whingeing schoolboy. One of the pleasures of rugby is that you don't have a culture of arguing the toss with the ref. There's a healthy acceptance that refs are not biased and do their utmost to give fair decisions. So for the BBC to be party to undermining that culture is regrettable, to say the least. I have to admit that fellow commentator Eddie Butler did his best to moderate Brian, though he made the telling comment after half time that only 5% of what the boore had said about the referee during the break was repeatable on air. It was a tough attritional match, in soaking conditions, played with incredible commitment. Sad that we weren't allowed to enjoy it as such.
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Hi Michael
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree that brian Moore is becomeing a bore to listen to, ever since he took a referees course he,s got worse.It got so bad with Grand Prix that several years ago I started watching the races on TV and listening to radio on 5 live, it was so much better, they got the point and Jonathon Legard now doe,s the TV commentry!!!!!
A couple of programmes to make one happy about the Beeb:
ReplyDeleteFrank Cottrell Boyce on Desert Island Disks: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr
Simon Russell Beale's series on Sacred Music: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rbmmz/Sacred_Music_Series_2_Brahms_and_Bruckner/
I've yet to find someone who enjoys Mr Moore's commentating anymore, Norman - from a very small sample. But thanks for your tip about watching with the radio commentary. I'll remember in future. And maybe it will have the same effect!
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Stephen, for your charitable reminder about the good side of the media. It's much easier to be negative, and actually, as I should know from teaching, positive reinforcement is more effective than negative criticism. I'll listen to Frank Cottrell Boyce - one of my heroes.