Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Sycophants of the world unite. You have nothing to lose apart from your dignity


Fangs for the memories

This morning I woke up and after a shower listened to Radio 4's Today Programme for a bit. I was astounded to hear a hagiography worthy of North Korea FM about Garry Richardson. Initially, I must admit I thought it was an obituary, but no it was a tribute to commemorate his 25th anniversary working for the BBC. I was even more astounded when a work colleague sent out a mass group email about the self-same subject. My colleague, Baby Bovine, even went so far as to call Garry Richardson "the malign influence at the heart of British sports journalism." A harsh assessment, but ultimately accurate.
Baby Bovine spluttered on "Why the rogue 'r' in his name? Why? Why? WHY???" - his consternation best shown by the repeated use of the word 'why' finally in caps lock, which I am led to believe denotes shouting.
After scratching the veneer of Gal's respectability, it becomes apparent that he started work for Auntie in 1980 - any self-respecting mathmetician would see that 2006-1980 = 26 and not 25. However, the Gordon Poole Entertainment Agency proudly boasts that Garry has worked for the BBC for 30 years.
Mentioned interviews included a 'hilarious' interview with Bill Clinton at Wimbledon during a rain break. It is to hilarious what Cliff Richard's infamous, impromptu sing-a-long is to British culture. Then there was the 'infamous' Anna Kournikova interview, when she was quite clearly fed up with Garry's tepid and pointless questioning and reverted to single syllable answers. And then the Alec Stewart interview, which was basically some absolutely hammered Aussie pretending to be Alec Stewart (an ex-England cricketer). Unbelievably, Garry didn't pick the obvious Aussie accent and the single worst impression of anyone ever, and continued conducting the interview until his producer told him to sort it.
Radio 4 attempted to pass him off as a much-loved, British institution. Well, for my money, as far as much loved British institutions go he comes in right after the Child Support Agency. The only positive to be drawn is that Alan Partridge is based on sports commentators like Garry Richardson, who have no knowledge, or experience; but somehow are allowed to ferment and pollute our radio frequencies ad infinitum.
Click here to sign a petition to get rid of Garry.

Comments:
Very harsh Barry. For those of us who listen to Radio 4 (as opposed to 'nomral people's radio', like with musical popular beat combos), Garry Richardson brings a ray of sunshine into the otherwise cloudy world of Thought for the Day and the Business Update. Well done to Garry on 25 glorious years!
 
I disagree. For amusing football punditry you can do no better than Big Fat Ron (despite his fondness of racism) and Hawksbee and Jacobs, a true god-send on TalkSport
 
I can't begin to tell you how much I loathe Garry Richardson. It's got to the stage where if I had a friend who said "Oh he's not that bad" I would immediately excommunicate them. I'm off to sign the petition 1000 times.
 
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