h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now obviously Number Six has to watch the final on the BBC for professional reasons, but what about the rest of you?

Are we going to demonstrate the usual pattern that when the same game is on both BBC1 and ITV, that the BBC ratings are usually twice that of the commercial broadcaster?

I'll be watching on BBC1...

I've reached my Ian-Wright-tolerance limit, so I may sell out and turn over to ITV.

B

I can sympathise with that, B. Wright and Peter Reid have seriously lowered the tone of the Beeb during this tournament, especially during the England-Portugal game.

However, the alternative is sitting through the same ads over and over again yet again. So come fly with me over to BBC1 and Mr Lineker.

i'll be joining B with Lynham

I still haven't decided. I may watch the ITV coverage of the match, as John Motson has become really annoying recently (especially his ridiculous anti-Dutch commentary in the semi-final) ... and then switch over during ad breaks to the BBC pundits.

What did you make of the coverage, then?

Something that makes me increasingly wonder about Lineker as an anchor is that he - unlike Des - allows himself to express a professional opinion when introducing topics for the pundits to discuss.

It's just saying things like "And I thought Maniche had the best chance for the Portuguese" before they play a clip of it and the panel get stuck in rather than asking something like "and was this shot by Maniche Portugal's best chance?"

It's a small distinction, but if you ask me the anchor's not there to express an opinion, he's there to introduce us to things and get the most out of his expert panel.

And a few people I've spoken to at work ('proper' TV Sport where all the big opinion-formers work is miles away on the 5th floor so our opinion counts for very little so don't read anything into it) reckon John Motson is losing it - apparently there have been several occasions where he's not understood what's happened on the pitch and needed his summariser to explain it to him.

'Why, exactly?' awards also go to Mark Bright, Joe Royle, and the ubiquitous Garth Crooks. If someone can explain to me what Mark Bright achieved as a player beyond losing one FA Cup Final replay and being Ian Wright's mate, and exactly what he adds as a pundit or summariser, I'd love to hear it. Steve Wilson, who's arguably a better commentator that Davies or Motson these days, was lumbered with him for most of the tournament and I thought it really clouded his efforts.

I enjoyed Sir Bobby on ITV hugely, with his 'Leslie King' and calling the Swiss 'the Swedes' but I always like listening to his knowledge and enthusiasm for the game so much that it doesn't matter. I hope I'm as cool as him when I get to that age, if indeed I do. Apart from Sir Bobby, I thought the absence of Big Fat Ron left a Big Fat Hole in ITV's pool of summarisers.

But what did you guys make of it?

Wel having Digital TV I like to watch BBC coverage with
Radio 5 commontary, best way IMHO.

i didn't have a choice since the game was only on france 2 here. the commentators there are very (very) bad, but speak softly enough you can pretend they're not there. if the match had been on tf1 there would have been arsène wenger... french tv is not all bad...

the best broadcast of a match i've ever seen was a couple of years ago when the RAI (italian tv) was on strike and they just showed the match with no commentary, just the roar of the crowd. great.

During a post-match ad break on ITV, I switched over to the BBC to avoid more MAstercard ads, and saw Ian Wright analysing the Greek goal by saying that the goal proved England's goal against Portugal should have stood.

So, lets get this straight, 100-1 outsiders beast hosts to win championship, Ian Wright bitches about semifinal. Even though the goal didn't bear many similarities- the ball came from Ricardo's left rather than right, the ball didn't pass over Ricardo on the waqy to the goal, and there were no defernders climbing on the goalkeeper. Somehow Ian bleedin' Wright managed to make it all about England, rather than giving an analysis of Greece's moment of glory.

I switched back to the Mastercard advert. Ian Wright- worthless.

I have to say that if John Murray's on Five Live, he's the absolute business... favourite commentator of just about everyone at work too, excluding Sir Gordon Sparks, obviously.

John mUrray does cricket commentaries as well, sometimes, and damn good he is too, I quite agree. he's much better than the whinging Green or screaming Pearce.

Someone said "You just get the event, the coverage isn't all about him and what he thinks" which is how it should be, no?

I totally agree.

Egon: the England-Portugal game was actually a quarter-final, maintaining England's long and proud record of exiting at that stage. Other than that, I totally agree with you about Wright, a really annoying dumb populist. I wish he'd off to Sky. He should be working for Rupert Murdoch - he seems like a natural 'Sun' columnist.

Oops, spot of wishful thinking there

Well, I can't stop to think in the middle of a rant can I?

At least he brings *something* to the party... compared to his mate Brighty he's a broadcasting genius.

I always go to sleep at night listening to "up All Night" on Radio Five. I once woke up to "wright and Bright". It was anightmare- I was drunk, and found myself unable to move to turn the banal crap off. I ended up listening to about twenty minutes of the bilge before getting up the effort to get out of bed.

I wish I could drink that much.

The blokes at work really liked Ian Wright - mind you Sun readers to a man, so what can you expect.

I used to like Alan Green - I remember him playing for Coventry - but now he's started believing his own publicity. - Arm a pleeain speakin marn.

The worst commentator is Clive Eakin on CWR - he's an ex-referee, and he can quite often get so carried away about a bad decision he forgets about the commentary.