"God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure."
Are you watching the match?
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Brian Barwick, Andre Deutsch Limited 2013. ISBN: 978-0-233-00388-7
The book charts the history of televised football over the years through the eyes of one who has worked for BBC, ITV and the FA. The book, in his words, “has allowed me to tell the story of football on television through my own adventures in the business “. The title? The question the author’s wife has asked him on countless occasions – always knowing the answer!
A sub-title of the book could be how television, which football initially saw as a threat could also fifty years later television be bankrolling the game.
For someone of my age the book jogged my memory of so many things. In an age when we follow the progress of our team on TV, radio, internet or mobile, it is amazing to recall the days of watching the teleprinter on Grandstand waiting for the first news of the outcome. “The pure theatre of watching the results being revealed one at a time in a completely random order, accompanied by an informative live commentary and the sound of tickertape, was compelling television”.
Other things that seem totally incongruous in the modern age are:
Early live games when only the first or second half would be shown;
The 1962 World Cup games being shown on TV 48 hours later after the film had been flown to UK from Chile;
The effort involved in producing Match of the Day with the film of the first half being rushed by despatch riders to laboratories for processing, then to the cutting room for editing and then the second half.
Barwick has a nice turn of phrase: for example Channel 5’s pundits were a “line-up as incongruous as Graham Taylor’s England selection against Sweden in Euro ’92.” And “Gary Lineker, came good [in the 1986 World Cup]. His hat-trick against Poland finally launched England’s World Cup campaign and set him on the road to fame and fortune – and crate-loads of potato crisps”.
I felt that he over-estimated the importance of the host presenter – for example the snatching of Des Lynam by ITV from BBC. I cannot say that a particular presenter would make the slightest difference to which channel I would choose.
A good read and very informative.