Yahoo Sports BBC vs ITV the real FA Cup final as sporting summer on TV begins
The biggest sporting day of the year so far. And Saturday found the seasoned televised sport consumer opening the curtains, admiring a pleasant morning, and closing the drapes again as a preventative against glare on the screen. There was too much to enjoy indoors.
ITV4’s The Opening Show saw presenter Oli Bell curling a nicely hit free-kick onto the winning post at Epsom, setting the tone for ITV’s two-handed offering: The Epsom Derby and the Manchester derby. A stirring montage featured the following quote from Italian breeding legend Federico Tesio: “The thoroughbred exists because its selection has depended not on experts, technicians, or zoologists, but on a piece of wood: The winning post of the Epsom Derby”.
This was delivered in voice-over by Carlo Ancelotti; it is always a pleasant surprise to hear the gravelly tones of the managerial eminence grise. Ancelotti himself owns horses, although sadly with more the sort of success he had at Everton, rather than his AC Milan years.
But then something far more surprising later, shocking even, when Matt Chapman said something profoundly sensible on air. He suggested that ITV could have had the Derby moved to 6.30pm, i.e. after the football rather than before it, because that could have led to a potentially huge audience. One for the future, maybe.
One group who apparently do not want the thoroughbred to exist, or anyone to enjoy watching them run at any time, are the Animal Rising lot, whose disruptive activities were well covered by Richard Hoiles especially. Hoiles calmly shot down the claim that the protest would not take place during the running time of the actual race by the use of timestamps from the footage and said: “It shows that the protester waited for the race to start before coming on the course.”
It remains a damn tricky broadcasting and journalistic balancing act, the amount of attention to pay or not pay to the antis, but ITV handled it well on the day.
Their football colleagues had a tough assignment, going head to head with the BBC for the Cup Final. In my view, the gap between BBC and ITV football coverage has narrowed to a sliver in recent years, but there’s something about the FA Cup showpiece that calls for the Beeb. Notwithstanding that, I enjoyed an ITV4 mid-morning re-run of Saint And Greavsie from the 1986 final, featuring Jimmy Greaves playing snooker with a certain softly spoken, boyish, jug-eared Everton striker.
Gary Lineker and company covered the big talking point of the match well. Peter Schmeichel said of the penalty awarded against Jack Grealish: “A correct decision but a silly rule.” Admirable economy from the man they came to call Blue Peter in his twilight playing days. Wor Sir Alan Shearer was fuming, his bald noggin looked as if it might explode: “I have to be careful what I say because I am inclined to swear because it annoys me so much.”
Thankfully we had the calming presence of Guy Mowbray and with him, Jermaine Jenas, bless his affable cotton socks, who added to his growing body of Colemanballs work with: “Kevin De Bruyne has so many weapons in his artillery.”
Perhaps, given the current unpleasantness over at This Morning, there might be a role for Jenas, now a decorated veteran of The One Show, in a post-Schofield new world order as JJ’s bid for light-entertainment world domination gathers pace? Football co-commentary’s loss would be… absorbable.
The welcome backbone shown by Ireland’s batsmen prolonged the Test match into day three; and although many viewers would have had their attention elsewhere, the Sky coverage remains as strong as ever. This we will examine more closely when The Ashes begins but the sporting summer on TV feels fully underway now after Saturday, and worth missing out on a suntan for.
