Well, did you enjoy MOTD? Did you miss Gary?
Thanks to, let’s just say ‘circumstances’, we were able to take part in a unique television experiment last night. For the first time in its 60-year history MOTD consisted of all action and no talk. No presenters, no expert comment, no fancy graphic preview packages, no post-match interviews, not even the title sequence and iconic theme tune. Shorn of these adornments the programme was just 20 minutes long.
The BBC appeared to have various options when Gary Linker decided not to play ball with his employers. They could have gone ahead with the programme with an alternative host; they could cancelled the programme altogether, or they could have had some fun with whole affair and done what HIGNFY did when Roy Hattersley dropped out at the last minute – used a prop (they filled his chair with a bucket of lard). For Lineker I would have suggested a multi-pack of Walkers crisps.
It turned out though that cancellation was not an option (the BBC are contractually obliged to show highlights). An alternative host could not be found as everyone was ‘boycotting’ in solidarity with Lineker and, as no one seems to have a sense of humour at the moment, the last option was never a goer.
So how was it for you? I found the abrupt opening a little jarring, and the unbroken game after game format was a little exhausting. The lack of commentary was odd at first, but one soon adjusted, and distilled to its essence MOTD sans presenters was sufficient to meet the needs of (this) viewer. It was brief and breathless, but more immersive, more like being in the stadium. And oddly soothing.
Which is not to suggest that Lineker isn’t a good presenter. He is excellent, smooth, relaxed, articulate, witty, and admirably restrained (which helps explain his lack of restraint elsewhere). And it does Lineker a disservice to say he is a natural, that it all came easily to him. As anyone who remembers his stilted nervy early outings can attest he clearly worked at his craft and mastered it.
It’s just that he is superfluous. As Damian Reilly put it the programme ‘presents itself’ like a public service announcer. Much of what Lineker and the commentators say we already know, and what we don’t (e.g., the trivia – ‘Spurs last won at Anfield in 2011’) is rarely worth knowing.
No offence to the supporting cast, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright either. They are…OK. It’s probably a harder job than it looks. But MOTD’s long established policy of only having old-pros as pundits has its limitations. Former footballers who are both insightful and articulate and possessed of charisma are thin on the ground. Were MOTD to invite some journalists on from time to time, such as Jonathon Wilson or Gabriele Marcotti it might be a different story.
As a moderator of an in depth discussion of issues related to football Lineker et al could still add value but MOTD doesn’t really do that. All we get is brief and superficial analysis of the just finished games – and too many games at that. A goal was given that shouldn’t have been or wasn’t given and should have been. VAR is a disgrace! Such and such a player are suffering a loss of form or is in the form of his life. A certain manager may soon be sacked etc., etc. Groundhog punditry: sound, fury sometimes, but rarely anything of any real significance.
And who’s listening anyway? Matt Le Tissier, as he diplomatically put it, ‘fast forwards through the boring bits’. I derive a strange satisfaction from the mute button. I don’t know a single MOTD viewer who listens seriously to the punditry or the perfunctory, contractually obligatory post match interviews, or pays any attention to the squiggly lines in the freeze frame analyses. It’s just boring.
So de we need them? I’d say no, or at least not 2,000,000 quid’s worth of them (Lineker, Shearer and Wright’s combined salaries). Lineker is like a DJ or a greeter in a restaurant. Some may appreciate the service, others might find it irritating, but almost no one would rate it essential. The same could be said for the slick preview packages and the fancy graphics, clever when they first appeared but now with the impact of background music or TV commercials.
MOTD is a football show. It’s watched exclusively by fans. We want to see our team win and the teams we hate lose. Your level of enjoyment depends on that and – to a lesser extent – how exciting the other games are. Yesterday, Spurs won, Liverpool lost, and the rest was reasonably entertaining, and thus though the highlights were too brief, and I did miss the theme tune, I enjoyed MOTD. An additional benefit was the almost unique feeling when watching the BBC of not being told, relentlessly, what to think or how to feel.
So no, I did not miss Gary, or Alan, or Ian or the stale hyperbole of the commentators. Not one bit. In fact, their absence was quite refreshing. Long may it continue.
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