Noo kids on the box pass the screen test

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Aug 8, 2004 | by Tom Shields

Setanta watch If there had been a BBC logo on the top left of the TV screen for yesterday's Aberdeen-Rangers game, casual viewers would have been unaware that there had been any change in the coverage of the Scottish Premierleague. Setanta Sport, successors to the Beeb in the business of disseminating our national sport, may or may not take that as a compliment.

The Setanta SPL Live product is leagues ahead of the hand-knitted service they served up when covering one-off Celtic games. Money has been spent, most usefully on the helicopter footage of Scotland's SPL stadiums, even the one in Inverness which is out in the cold.

There will be a few minor complaints, such as forgetting to tell the audience who the substitutes are, instant replays that weren't all that instant, and a general lack of cohesion in matching post- match clips to the pundits' analysis. As we said, the Setanta coverage is not that different from what we are used to.

There was some evidence of cost-cutting. Did you see co- commentator Mark Hateley's headphones and microphone? Definitely retro and strangely reminiscent of Dan Dare or was it Buck Rogers?

But Setanta have shelled out loads of their euros on the hired hands and it is largely worth the money. Anchorman Rob McLean has a pleasing style: slightly ironic, laid-back and nicely laconic. It is not easy to be a man of few words with all those satellite hours to fill, but McLean manages.

If there is a failing in the show, it is that none of his compatriots, who are too busy with the serious business of communicating, pick up on McLean's deft throwaway lines. New kid on the block Scott Booth offered the thought that Pittodrie was buzzing these days. McLean said: "New channel, same cliches."

Booth does not speak like a broadcaster which is hardly surprising since he has newly discarded his football shorts for a suit. Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood prefaced his pre-match interview with the gentle jibe: "Ah, Scott, ye've went to the other side." The dark side.

Booth is a very nice young man who will learn to cut his questions to less than a minute and, more importantly, to invest his words with deep seriousness. One of his duties yesterday was to update an anxious nation on the state of health of Rangers' Chris Burke, who had been carried off in mysterious circumstances. Chick Young, for instance, would have wrung every ounce of drama from this scenario. Booth simply stated: "He's alright. He's sitting up. He just fainted on his own."

Craig Burley is another shiny new recruit, as shiny as the new studio set. Burley fills the post of main studio pundit admirably. He's got the suit. He knows the game. He imparts his analysis sensibly and reasonably simply. Burley's other attribute is that he has an instinctive grasp of how to mix and mismatch the past perfect and the preterite tense.

It's the old boy done good scenario. With Burley, it's more a case of the boy has came, he has saw, and he has went and conquered. It is possible we're being a touch pedagogic here and the ability to mangle past tenses is probably a requirement for a pundit's job these days.

More pedantry, but we noticed that Burley pronounces the word new as noo. So we had a noo season with noo managers and noo players on this noo sports channel. Out with the old, in with the noo.

Burley's fellow panellist is far from a noo kid on the block. Walter Smith, who we would have tipped for the other comic role alongside McLean, was as reliable as ever. Just when you were drifting off halfway through the hellishly long three-hour-plus Setanta shift, Wattie would lob in a dictum such as "Scottish football needs a strong Aberdeen".

Over in the commentary box, the microphone is in the safe hands of Jock Brown, a kid who has been more than twice round the block. Brown manages not to say too much which is quite surprising given that he is a Philadelphia lawyer to trade.

Jock is a Cambridge blue at the fitba and his knowledge of the game is revealed with moments of insight when other microphone- wielders would plunge into speculation and guesswork.

His cohort Hateley more than makes up for Brown's relative taciturnity. The man with the outer space headphones has more knowledge than a London taxi driver but could keep his contributions shorter. His deliberations of man of the match nearly went into extra time and penalties.

What is unchanged is the basic SPL product. The Pittodrie game was all hurry and scurry but exciting towards the end.

And there was no shortage of manly challenges. Rob McLean said Alex Rae was in there to stiffen the midfield. He certainly stiffened quite a few of the Aberdeen midfield and a few of their defenders and attackers as well.

The football is back.