TV coverage

Megan Nicholls.....her voice is starting to grate on me. I spoke to her father on Wednesday after the other daughter won a point to point and he told me Megan was keen to develop her media career....oh dear.

And she’s just announced her retirement from riding......to concentrate on her media career.....oh dear!
 
Haven't listened to MN enough to have an opinion but the Mayor woman's voice really annoys me.

I keep trying to block out the annoyance to try and focus on the information being imparted to see if her punditry is any good.

Not getting there yet.

I look forward to Hayley Turner eventually going permanently into her media role. I have to say she has grown on me in the last year or so.
 
And she’s just announced her retirement from riding......to concentrate on her media career.....oh dear!

I know what you mean Jinny.

She’s pretty and is actually more knowledgeable than I’d have initially thought so has a fair bit to offer in a media roll but she’s just a bit too expressive IMO.

I still wish her well though
 
Last edited:
I genuinely hate to say it because I actually like pretty much everybody who presents racing on tv (along with listening to WHill racing radio which I love I can only watch racing on ITV). And I know she’s still learning and I do feel bad about thinking it but she does grate on me.
 
Last edited:
I’m with Moehat too. I don’t have the problem that a lot of you have. A friend of mine can’t stand Snaggletooth (Ed C.....check out his front tooth....can’t now I see it!) but I don’t mind him. He does a good job as anchor although when I went down to chat to Jason at Ascot, EC bounced forward thinking I wanted a photo of him....:lol:
Rishi has markedly improved since he joined ITV and it’s clear they have done plenty of media training with him....and the others.
I like Mick and Luke...but then I know them a little bit and they’re both lovely guys.
I quite like Leonna, Hayley and Adele but you can keep Francesca and Megan.
Even the dreaded Matt has his place and while I will never particularly like him, I don’t switch off like I used to.
Overall I think they have a good mix but they are in danger of adding too many to it.
 
Eek. Cringeworthy stuff this morning from Chapman.

I've just realised who he reminds me of: Tintin after he's eaten all the pies.
 
I'm as big a fan of Baaeed as there is but I do wish the ITV people would stop repeatedly referring to him as the best horse in the world.

I know they're doing it to make the sport more attractive to casual viewers but they're over-cooking it a bit for me.
 
Last edited:
I watched the first few races on ITV today which is the first time I’ve tuned in for ages. Given the general slating they get on here I must say I was very pleasantly surprised. Not bad at all.
 
Last edited:
I'd thought there was hope for the TV team when they'd got the pronunciation of Achelois right recently but I'm afraid Chaldean today has found them lazy in their research.

It's 'kal-dee-an', relating to the Chaldees, where the ancient city of Ur was sited.

(Ur is an oft-used part of answers in cryptic crosswords.)
 
Megan Nicholls.....her voice is starting to grate on me. I spoke to her father on Wednesday after the other daughter won a point to point and he told me Megan was keen to develop her media career....oh dear.


And she’s just announced her retirement from riding......to concentrate on her media career.....oh dear!

Much better rider than a presenter. Abysmal rhetoric and the constant use of "obviously".

Still a fine line between her and Leona Mayor (Motor Mouth) as to which one is worse...
 
Yeah she’s not great and I find her voice grates more than a bit. And there’s a slight “attitude”? “I am a Nicholls.....” but I think ITV are pretty good at giving media training so she should improve.
 
Last edited:
I must admit that I thought she did rather well this weekend. She certainly does her homework. Her dress sense is better than Francesca’s was. I do like Leona, though; she should have a voice that grates on me but for some reason it doesn’t.
 
Yeah she’s not great and I find her voice grates more than a bit. And there’s a slight “attitude”? “I am a Nicholls.....” but I think ITV are pretty good at giving media training so she should improve.

Wouldn't have a job if her name wasn't Nicholls. Be difficult to get worse. Not sure who ITV think they are targeting with the eye candy presenters. I think Leona and Adele are pretty knowledgeable actually and seem to do some thorough homework as opposed to Cesca who says 'what do you think....' a lot rather than anything else. The only good bits are watching McCoy and Walsh trying to keep their patience under control when she says/asks something 'stupid'.
 
Yes I agree. I interviewed Paul back during the Point to Point season after other daughter, Olive won a race and I got the feeling he was very pro her pushing her media career and reading between the lines, I thought he had been a pretty big part of setting it up. I may be wrong....
 
Watched an Epsom replay 'blind' yesterday. Don't know who the RTV commentator was, but he never mentioned any horse's colours throughout the race. Richard Hoiles (who was presenting, I believe) is usually meticulous in that respect.
Of the others, Jason Weaver & Adele Mulrenan know what they're talking about, and it shows.
Rishi is still learning, the rest just hype up inanities imo, and cannot be taken at all seriously as racing presenters.
 
Last edited:
Watched an Epsom replay 'blind' yesterday. Don't know who the RTV commentator was, but he never mentioned any horse's colours throughout the race. Richard Hoiles (who was presenting, I believe) is usually meticulous in that respect.
Of the others, Jason Weaver & Adele Mulrenan know what they're talking about, and it shows.
Rishi is still learning, the rest just hype up inanities imo, and cannot be taken at all seriously as racing presenters.

I rarely watch re-runs with the sound on since I’m either wanting to concentrate on how a particular horse has run, or wanting to see if anything jumps out at me. Commentary is a distraction to that, for me anyway.
 
Same here but since you've quoted Reet I can see what he's said and I agree with it.

Hoiles is excellent at pointing out the colours in the first half of the race but there are two things I don't like about his commentaries:

1. His 'conversational' style, if I can call it that. I don't think it adds anything to the race.
2. He's too busy talking his way through the race he confuses [me] by jumping all over the positions of horses to the point I lose track of which horse he's talking about. He'll say things like, ".... and towards the rear Here's Dickie with There's Tom and Look At Harry is still in the lead." By mentioning LAH in that manner I'm looking for it at the back with the other two.

It's probably just me but I do find it distracting, if not annoying.

Commentating must be a very difficult job but there's no need to be a smart ass about it.
 
Gary O'Brien does a nice job when he has to fill in on comms

Richard Pugh is not so bad but his race endings can be a bit too theatric

Of the UK comms, I do like Simon Holt
 
I rarely watch re-runs with the sound on since I’m either wanting to concentrate on how a particular horse has run, or wanting to see if anything jumps out at me. Commentary is a distraction to that, for me anyway.
But circumstances dictated that I watched without knowing the colours or draw of my selection, and the near-useless commentary did nothing to enlighten me.
 
Back
Top