Arthur Williams is instantly unlikeable, arrogant and not the brightest:forever getting names wrong and other significant mistakes.
Four years later and he is still as bad and still getting names wrong! Of the main disabled presenters I would say that Ade is the best of the bad bunch, just in front of Sophie, JJ and then the dreadful Arthur.
Marc Woods who does the swimming with Clare Balding has been superb and Liz Johnson has been much better than I expected. Iwan Roberts is a fairly safe pair of hands for the athletics and Stef Reid is a vast improvement on Sophia Warner who they initially had. Not a fan of Danny Crates though. Elsewhere Lee McKenzie was great at the Cycling (although I really rate her as a presenter and hopefully will get a higher profile for the Beeb come Rio) and Sonja has been okay at the Athletics asking the questions.
Four years later and he is still as bad and still getting names wrong! Of the main disabled presenters I would say that Ade is the best of the bad bunch, just in front of Sophie, JJ and then the dreadful Arthur.
Marc Woods who does the swimming with Clare Balding has been superb and Liz Johnson has been much better than I expected. Iwan Roberts is a fairly safe pair of hands for the athletics and Stef Reid is a vast improvement on Sophia Warner who they initially had. Not a fan of Danny Crates though. Elsewhere Lee McKenzie was great at the Cycling (although I really rate her as a presenter and hopefully will get a higher profile for the Beeb come Rio) and Sonja has been okay at the Athletics asking the questions.
I'm so pleased this thread has been revived as I need an outlet for my frustration about a couple of commentators:
Paul Noble in the swimming - that bloody annoying growl thing he does when the swimmers are coming up to finish. I cannot bear it.
Katharine Merry in the athletics - what is that accent?!! She doesn't annoy me as much as Noble and she probably can't help an accent but I find it really distracting the way she says "chee-airm-pee-yun" and "air-thletes".
I'm ok with the studio presenters really. They're not as good as the BBC's for the Olympics (Clare B rules!) but don't get on my wick. Ade is in a class of his own though - it's called Reception.
I find Clare Balding at these Paralympics a bit lost to be honest. It is like she does not know a lot about Paralympic sports and she has to rely on the experts to get her through the show
She constantly has to ask people, Who is that athlete. What was her background. Is she any good.
It would have been a lot better if she researched each athlete. especially in the swimming, so she does not have to ask so many questions
Because her presenting style at these Paralympics is becoming a little forced and not natural. She should relax a bit more and dont try too hard
I find Clare Balding at these Paralympics a bit lost to be honest. It is like she does not know a lot about Paralympic sports and she has to rely on the experts to get her through the show
She constantly has to ask people, Who is that athlete. What was her background. Is she any good.
It would have been a lot better if she researched each athlete. especially in the swimming, so she does not have to ask so many questions
Because her presenting style at these Paralympics is becoming a little forced and not natural. She should relax a bit more and dont try too hard
I don't think it's that she has done no research but she is asking the questions as she knows that large sections of the audience won't know about the competitors. Letting the experts explain things will be better as they will ultimately have more knowledge, otherwise why employ them? Clare's job is to know enough to ask the right questions.
Katharine Merry ... loved her as a runner but can someone explain to me why she gets so much commentary & in-stadium announcing work? It's mystifying to me.
Her intonation drives me up the wall and she's just so inane - "she ran the bend" (yeah, thanks Katharine, I did notice the athlete wasn't walking) and a myriad of other comments that add very little. She was no better commentating the field events on last year's IAAF live streams at the World Champs, so it's not an issue of any lack of knowledge of para athletics.
Thankfully, to rescue the situation, they have an otherwise solid team including the always excellent Rob Walker.
i was thinking the exact opposite. Latham is so bad at interviewing it's cringe worthy. Hasn't got the 'voice', experience or professionalism required to be the main interviewer for the Paralympic swimming programme. Not saying Davies was any good, but she's better than Latham
All she does is ask the same questions over and over, getting no interesting response whatsoever from the swimmers
Fit? Yes. Presenter? No
Both are poor. I watched most of the coverage on RAI sport as I was abroad and the Italian poolside interviewer was much better even when speaking in a second language.
I find Clare Balding at these Paralympics a bit lost to be honest. It is like she does not know a lot about Paralympic sports and she has to rely on the experts to get her through the show
She constantly has to ask people, Who is that athlete. What was her background. Is she any good.
It would have been a lot better if she researched each athlete. especially in the swimming, so she does not have to ask so many questions
Because her presenting style at these Paralympics is becoming a little forced and not natural. She should relax a bit more and dont try too hard
Totally disagree. I think CB is very well informed but asks all the right questions to prompt the experts into the explanations they are there for. Para sport is less well know and understood than able bodied sport so more explanation is needed. There's been a bit more chat than I would ideally have liked but generally I think they've done a decent job. Swimming team has definitely been the best.
Ade Adepitan introduces a piece about a Black Belt Judo star who has Downs Syndrome, he introduces him as the President !! After an ad break he looks rather sheepish and says that should have been 'resident'.
Then he introduces Dame Sarah Storey in the studio and says ' Welcome Dame'.
The best laugh of the games this chap.
I just wish he and his mate would stop interrupting studio guests with totally inane comments.
I don't think I'll ever understand the love/plaudits for Clare Balding's presenting but there you go ...
The two stars of the coverage have, for me, been:
R J Mitte - lovely lad, very humble, very thoughtful & erudite. Clearly loved every minute of the experience.
Liz Johnson - very knowledgeable and fluent. Interesting to listen to and a natural broadcaster.
Those 2 are definite keepers and C4 should do everything they can to employ them in Tokyo.
I would put Stef Reid in the top three contributors along with Mark Wood and Liz Johnson. All knew so much about not only our team but other competitors.
I would put Stef Reid in the top three contributors along with Mark Wood and Liz Johnson. All knew so much about not only our team but other competitors.
I agree 100%
There were a couple of times this week where I saw Ade Adepitan answering questions rather than asking them and it was clear that he is much better as a pundit than as a presenter.
Comments
Totally agree, I also hate the southern accent 'Norf and Sarf' but he can't help that.
Four years later and he is still as bad and still getting names wrong! Of the main disabled presenters I would say that Ade is the best of the bad bunch, just in front of Sophie, JJ and then the dreadful Arthur.
Marc Woods who does the swimming with Clare Balding has been superb and Liz Johnson has been much better than I expected. Iwan Roberts is a fairly safe pair of hands for the athletics and Stef Reid is a vast improvement on Sophia Warner who they initially had. Not a fan of Danny Crates though. Elsewhere Lee McKenzie was great at the Cycling (although I really rate her as a presenter and hopefully will get a higher profile for the Beeb come Rio) and Sonja has been okay at the Athletics asking the questions.
Love the swimming team and the Last Leg are excellent, as always.
I'd agree with all of the above.
Paul Noble in the swimming - that bloody annoying growl thing he does when the swimmers are coming up to finish. I cannot bear it.
Katharine Merry in the athletics - what is that accent?!! She doesn't annoy me as much as Noble and she probably can't help an accent but I find it really distracting the way she says "chee-airm-pee-yun" and "air-thletes".
I'm ok with the studio presenters really. They're not as good as the BBC's for the Olympics (Clare B rules!) but don't get on my wick. Ade is in a class of his own though - it's called Reception.
She constantly has to ask people, Who is that athlete. What was her background. Is she any good.
It would have been a lot better if she researched each athlete. especially in the swimming, so she does not have to ask so many questions
Because her presenting style at these Paralympics is becoming a little forced and not natural. She should relax a bit more and dont try too hard
I don't think it's that she has done no research but she is asking the questions as she knows that large sections of the audience won't know about the competitors. Letting the experts explain things will be better as they will ultimately have more knowledge, otherwise why employ them? Clare's job is to know enough to ask the right questions.
Her intonation drives me up the wall and she's just so inane - "she ran the bend" (yeah, thanks Katharine, I did notice the athlete wasn't walking) and a myriad of other comments that add very little. She was no better commentating the field events on last year's IAAF live streams at the World Champs, so it's not an issue of any lack of knowledge of para athletics.
Thankfully, to rescue the situation, they have an otherwise solid team including the always excellent Rob Walker.
Both are poor. I watched most of the coverage on RAI sport as I was abroad and the Italian poolside interviewer was much better even when speaking in a second language.
Totally disagree. I think CB is very well informed but asks all the right questions to prompt the experts into the explanations they are there for. Para sport is less well know and understood than able bodied sport so more explanation is needed. There's been a bit more chat than I would ideally have liked but generally I think they've done a decent job. Swimming team has definitely been the best.
Then he introduces Dame Sarah Storey in the studio and says ' Welcome Dame'.
The best laugh of the games this chap.
I just wish he and his mate would stop interrupting studio guests with totally inane comments.
The two stars of the coverage have, for me, been:
R J Mitte - lovely lad, very humble, very thoughtful & erudite. Clearly loved every minute of the experience.
Liz Johnson - very knowledgeable and fluent. Interesting to listen to and a natural broadcaster.
Those 2 are definite keepers and C4 should do everything they can to employ them in Tokyo.
I would put Stef Reid in the top three contributors along with Mark Wood and Liz Johnson. All knew so much about not only our team but other competitors.
I agree 100%
There were a couple of times this week where I saw Ade Adepitan answering questions rather than asking them and it was clear that he is much better as a pundit than as a presenter.