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Alan Green's Match of the Day promotion is long overdue – he is opinionated, irritating and usually right
It has taken too long for BBC Radio 5 Live commentator to appear on flagship football show, because Northern Irishman is brilliant antidote to current identikit crop
The application had gone through. Now the candidate was presenting himself before an appointments board at Broadcasting House, London. He was hoping to be accepted for a job as a ‘sports news assistant’ in the BBC Radio sports department.
The board consisted of three people but the gentleman seated in the middle was asking all the questions. He was the important one. The interview was going well when this veteran head of department put what was to be the final question. “Supposing we give you a job here, what do you see as your future in broadcasting?”
The candidate thought for a moment and replied: “I suppose that in the long run I would probably like to get into television.” There was a splutter and a long drawn-out sigh, not to mention a bit of tutting, from his inquisitor and then: “Don’t you think if television were important, I would be in television?”
It was a view still held by many of that era; that television remained second to the senior service of the BBC, an ersatz addition to the real art of broadcast communication. It was very much the opinion held by many BBC executives in the early days of television when a secondment to Alexandra Palace, where the fledgling TV service was sited, was akin to demotion. It was thought of by some in those times as a technical experiment that would never catch on. Rather like the record label that turned down the Beatles.
Nowadays the generally held view is that a broadcaster, however much radio he or she may have done, has not really made it until television calls. Not a point of view to which I necessarily subscribe. It is often more to do with greater financial compensation and so-called celebrity.
However, television has very recently called on Alan Green. A few weeks ago he was introduced by Gary Lineker on Match of the Day as making his very first commentary for the programme. It sounded as though we were welcoming a complete newcomer to the business. Nothing could have been further from the truth, as anyone who has listened to football commentary on the radio over the last 30 years will know.
Green will still be the BBC’s principal radio broadcaster on the sport but will now also be doing television. A couple of years ago in this column I suggested Green would be an interesting addition to the MotD team. He is opinionated, contentious, tells it how it is and has a very distinctive voice. He broadcasts without fear and I felt he would make a welcome contrast to a squad of commentators who, while competent, can sound very similar.
But why has it taken so long for him to get his chance on TV? Has he spent years being Green with envy? Not exactly, but it is something that both he and his long-time radio colleague Mike Ingham, now retired, used to ponder occasionally when less experienced, younger people got the call instead.
Anyway, he has taken to TV commentary with the easy facility that one would expect. The rules are simple – talk less, silences are OK, leave out the geography of the pitch and no need to keep giving the score, it is always there in the corner of the screen.
Ironically, having joined the BBC as a trainee in news and current affairs in Northern Ireland, when Green made a switch to sport he actually found himself doing live television football commentary on matches there. Things like that can happen at the BBC. His first radio commentary was on England v Northern Ireland back in 1982.
The pity is that because for the moment Green is confined to edited matches on Match of the Day, he does not have time to share too many of his outspoken opinions with us. I am waiting for him to irritate me. Over the years he has regularly provided this facility but more often than not he is right.
By the way, the candidate for the job in BBC Radio all those years ago was offered a position and became a colleague of mine for a time. He did eventually fulfil his ambition by moving to television rather more quickly than Alan Green, where he remains a highly respected member of the Sky Sports football commentary team. He is Alan Parry.