Skip to main content

Dreams come true as Legard is Leggo. (Sorry)

It's tough out there in the dog-eat-dog, Ferrari-tries-to-eat-everyone world of Formula 1. Seems its also tough in the covering-the-world-of-F1 world, as Jonathan Legard has been dropped by the BBC as lead commentator.

Martin Brundle will take over as lead, with David Coulthard joining him in the commentary box. Significantly, DC will still do pit-lane shenanigans with the insanely-dressed, hard-pressed to get to the point Irish nutter Jordan, and Jake the rake Humphrey. He'll then have to leg it up to the box before the race, leaving us with the worrying prospect of allowing EJ even more time to get hopelessly lost in the complicated language strangulation that is the point he's trying to make.

Legard was brought in by Aunty Beeb when they took back F1 coverage from ITV. Initially, I thought he was OK, but as time has gone on, his constant use of a bunch of stock phrases (pushing on, anyone?), and lack of attention to what was going on, as well as regular errors, started to grate.

Fair enough... these are the reasons we all loved Murray Walker though, right? Yeee-es, but where Murray was so ferociously enthusiastic, Jonathan... just isn't that interesting. A bit like that irritating Uncle that shows up at Christmas and tells all the same jokes whilst incorrectly identifying people on the TV (and then scoffing all the mince pies), JL has seemingly worn out the patience of too many people.

The venom on twitter was pretty spectacular, that's for sure! I guess what finally did it for me was seeing a Lotus on-screen suddenly lose it's rear wing, and as the bits disintegrated on the track behind it, JL said that it looked like the Lotus had "lost a bit of it's front wing". Right. Get off. I've had enough now.

So Marty B and his sharp wit, and DC and his, er, sharp cheekbones, are the latest commentary combo. Should be interesting.

On the bright side, they could have got James Allen back instead.... Don't get me started. Nurse! The straps!

(Ooh, get me with my la-te-dah poshness! I'm listening to classical music tonight  - Beethoven's Egmont Overture. I didn't buy it; it came free with the Telegraph at the weekend.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Making an exhibition of yourself

Now and again, it’s good to reaffirm that you’re a (relatively) normal human being. One excellent way of doing this is to go to a business exhibition. Despite what you might have surmised from reading my previous columns, I am employable, and even capable of acting like a regular person most of the time, even joining in the Monday morning conversation about the weather over the weekend, and why (insert name of footyballs manager here) should be fired immediately. The mug! True, there are times, often involving a caffeine deficiency, where it is like having the distilled essence of ten moody teenagers in the room, but I try and get that out of the way when people I genuinely like aren’t around to see it. As part of my ongoing experiment with what others call ‘working’, my ‘job’ involves me occasionally needing to go and see what some of my colleagues get up to outside the office, and what our competitors do to try and make sure that they do whatever my colleagues do better than ...

Suffering from natural obsolescence

You know you’re getting old when it dawns on you that you’re outliving technological breakthroughs. You know the sort of thing – something revolutionary, that heralds a seismic shift it the way the modern world operates. Clever, time-saving, breathtaking and life-changing (and featuring a circuit board). It’s the future, baby! Until it isn’t any more. I got to pondering this when we laughed heartily in the office about someone asking if our camcorder used “tape”. Tape? Get with the times, Daddy-o! If it ain’t digital then for-get-it! I then attempted to explain to an impossibly young colleague that video tape in a camcorder was indeed once a “thing”, requiring the carrying of something the size of a briefcase around on your shoulder, containing batteries normally reserved for a bus, and a start-up time from pressing ‘Record’ so lengthy, couples were already getting divorced by the time it was ready to record them saying “I do”. After explaining what tape was, I realised I’d ...

A fisful of change at the shops

A recent day out reminded me how much the retail experience has altered during my lifetime – and it’s not all good. I could stop typing this, and buy a fridge, in a matter of seconds. The shops are shut and it’s 9pm, but I could still place the order and arrange delivery. I haven’t got to wander round a white-goods retail emporium trying to work out which slightly different version of something that keeps my cider cold is better. It’ll be cheaper, too. But in amongst the convenience, endless choice and bargains, we’ve lost some of the personal, human, touches that used to make a trip to the shops something more than just a daily chore. Last weekend, we visited a local coastal town. Amongst the shops selling over-priced imported home accessories (who doesn’t need another roughly-hewn wooden heart, poorly painted and a bargain at £10?) was one that looked different. It’s window allowed you to see in, rather than being plastered with stick-on graphics and special offers calling ...