It is accepted among TV and film execs that a tertiary element now complicates the relationship between viewer and product. Even auteurs such as Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan have been forced to assimilate grudgingly the reality of phones, tablets and watches pumping out all manner of distraction.
Coverage of Euro 2024 has seen further foxes in the chicken coop of linear TV broadcasting. Going viral on social media is a key target even if neither of the UK broadcasters has yet headed down the route of CBS’s Champions League coverage: less infotainment, more a raucous post-works drinks session. Podcasting, meanwhile, part of the wider football media landscape since Germany 2006, has become a lucrative, fresh and – crucially here – unregulated frontier for pundits.
The BBC and ITV punditry teams are dominated by competing podcast empires. For the Rest Is Football triumvirate of Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, read the Overlap gang of Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Ian Wright. Notoriously, to the distaste of probable former subscribers Harry Kane and Gareth Southgate, the Beeb’s three former England internationals have been saving their most piping-hot takes for the podcast they record after a glass or two in Lineker’s Berlin hotel suite. They have been going fully viral, too.
There is an uncut energy to these late-night ramblings, like an ex-footballer version of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s Derek and Clive. Take Tuesday’s edition, after England’s Slovenia stalemate, ITV having covered the game. “I’ve only had three glasses,” protests Lineker as Shearer dismisses that this was better from England. “You bald-headed bastard.”
“If I was a cynic,” says a visibly refreshed Shearer. “One would say one was frightened of getting criticised.” Richards’ trademark chuckle sounds. It all recalls Alan Brazil’s posthumous praise of Bob Monkhouse’s standup: “If he has to, he can do a blue version.”
The use of “shit” by Lineker in summarising England’s Denmark performance was hardly the Sex Pistols meet Bill Grundy but the BBC’s leading men staging their own, vin-rouge-fuelled production threatens to become one of those issues on which Amol Rajan reports for the BBC about the BBC on the BBC, quoting senior BBC sources.
The corporation may actually be thankful for that fuss keeping it relevant. ITV’s coverage continues to be superior, with Neville, Keane and Wright not holding back and Ange Postecoglou an additional injection of football man. Even under studio lights and without lubrication, the vibe is still more natural than Lineker Unfiltered, including some reluctant deference to the video assistant referee goddess Christina Unkel. “Good explanation,” shrugged Keane as he and Postecoglou were blinded by the science behind Georgia’s penalty against Portugal. “She’s the expert.”
Meanwhile, Gabriel Clarke’s artful packages from Burg Blankenheim continue to impress despite a Kubrick-like close-up of Declan Rice under bright lights foreshadowing the Slovenia match becoming a hostage situation for viewers.
If Sam Matterface, ITV’s lead commentator, can never be the masterly Brian Moore, he is maturing, relaxed by deepening experience, quite capable of cutting Lee Dixon’s morose mutterings down to size. The self-effacing Andros Townsend, all over the detail, may soon be taking Dixon’s seat. Sheffield Wednesday’s manager, Danny Röhl, doesn’t yet speak the English to be the next Roberto Martínez, a lower-division operator inflating his profile, but offers cogent tactics talk. Across the board, the word “pressing” is thrown around more liberally than beer down Croydon BoxPark. All nod sagely at its mention.
Back at the BBC, Thomas Frank, wryly amused by his fellow panellists, has been an Postecoglou-like hit, as has Wayne Rooney, an Overlap defection showing that key to his footballing talent was sheer enthusiasm. Rooney’s fellow former England captains – studio-issue Shearer continues to overuse “frustrating” as his catchphrase – may learn something. As may Danny Murphy and Martin Keown, co-comms brothers in grump as the dependable Steve Wilson, Robyn Cowen and Guy Mowbray jolly things along.
A bloated group stage has proved the difficulty of maintaining consistency. Rio Ferdinand is struggling to heat takes to the correct temperatures and even Ally McCoist had a rare misfire with his “we would have had a chance with two points” declaration for Scotland. David Moyes’ curt “too slow” for the BBC proved superior.
At least England live to disappoint another day. “Suck it up,” raged Keane after the England camp aired sensitivities. “Don’t go down a rabbit hole,” advised Neville. But it may take England winning the Euros for the BBC’s dissident podcasters to escape the splashback coming their way.
