The BBC is undeniably loved and loathed in equal measure. On a wider level that’s not a massive surprise. When we all have to pay for it, understandably, we tend to have strong views over its behaviour.
The news that it has, on more than one occasion, turned down free golf is a relatively small issue but in many ways explains why so many of us have a big issue with it.
When I read Ewan Murray’s story last night, it got me thinking about Peter Alliss, for so many years the man who held the BBC’s golf coverage together. I have a very special reason for making that connection and to me the legendary commentator neatly epitomises the BBC.
BBC turns down chance to show PGA Tour golf highlights for free https://t.co/8ViPsB2x5E
— The Guardian (@guardian) March 8, 2023
At his best, Alliss provided some unforgettable TV. His words as Jean van de Velde unravelled at Carnoustie in 1999 were touching, funny and illuminating at the same time. He had a knack of just saying the right thing to add to the drama. His ‘this could spin’ commentary as Sandy Lyle hit the shot of his life out of the fairway bunker on 18 in the 1988 Masters was just masterful.
However there was another side to Alliss. He famously did little research on players he didn’t know and never hid the fact that, clearly, he was watching a player for the first time live on air. Contrast that to the incomparable Jim Nantz, who would rather have amputated a finger than go into a tournament not being fully briefed about every competitor on show.
However it was a surreal moment, watching and listening to Alliss commentate on the British Women’s Open in 2009 – I think… apologies I can’t be 100% sure of the year – that is my abiding memory of the man.
It was one of those Sunday mornings when you are a little bored and not sure what to do. I flicked through the TV and was pleased to see the BBC were covering the final round.
Very shortly after I heard Alliss say the following words: “I’ve had a letter from Tee to Green magazine.”
I nearly fell off my chair.
Why?
Well because at the time I was running a couple of free-to-golf-club magazines. You have probably seen them… you get a few left in your clubhouse. I owned Yorkshire Golfer and Lancashire and Cheshire Golfer and, when you are in such an industry, you know exactly who else is doing something similar.
One of my ‘rivals’ was Tee to Green magazine but why was I so annoyed Alliss had randomly made this announcement?
The now-defunct publication was co-owned by Alliss’ son Gary.
To brazenly use his platform to give his son’s golf magazine a plug to tens of thousands of viewers didn’t go down well… as you might imagine.
The next day I emailed the head of BBC sport Roger Mosey and another gentleman in a senior position. I was assured Alliss had received the correspondence on ‘his personal email’ and it was obvious they were not going to ‘give up their man’.
Emails went backwards and forwards and I did consider sending the email exchange to the Daily Mail but then I remembered I despise The Daily Mail with every fibre and the matter ended there.
My surreal ‘relationship’ with Alliss continued when I met him for the first and only time shortly afterwards. He was the honorary captain of The De Vere Club and I attended the ground-breaking scheme’s launch at Oulton Hall. As I walked into the designated function room it took me less than five seconds to notice Alliss’ name had been spelt wrong. He was to be sat at the end of a long table along with assorted De Vere bigwigs. Each one had a name plate for identification purposes and, on the far left, was ‘Peter Allis’.
The great man, during his speech, wasn’t going to let that bizarre faux pas go – who can blame him – but the day took an even stranger turn as Alliss ‘drove in’ the De Vere club, watched by dozens of guests and journalists.
It was a damp morning and he slipped so badly in hitting the shot off the first that he collapsed in a heap. For a moment it looked like medical attention would be required. Thankfully he got to his feet with the help of a couple of De Vere people.
Just before that I had gotten to speak to him and he was warm, friendly and interested in what I had to say. Nobody was talking to him and I felt a bit sorry for him. I think he was grateful there were still people bothered enough to want to have a chat. I asked him about his time as a pro at North Leeds club Moor Allerton and straight away he came to life and he told me about some of his experiences.
For a while I felt bad I ‘got him into trouble’ over the Tee to Green incident but the BBC has/had strict rules about using your platform for commercial advantage.
To be honest I was more bothered about the BBC’s pitiful response. To be told ‘Peter assures us he did get a letter from Tee to Green on his personal email’ did make me wonder how robust the corporation’s internal mechanisms for a such an incident were. I guess there is one rule for one and another for ‘the talent’.
But should I really have been surprised?
The BBC has compiled a record of spectacularly shocking management decisions.
When BBC Sport moved to Salford ten years ago, dozens of jobs were advertised. I applied and so did many other journalists I knew. As someone who had recently been a sports editor of the Hull Daily Mail, I had strong management experience and, I felt, a lot to offer.
But I should have seen what was coming down the line when I filled out the 30-minute application form online. The questions ranged from the bizarre to the ridiculous.
The BBC had outsourced the recruitment side of things and we were effectively filling out a personality test. Experience? Overrated apparently!
Unsurprisingly the whole thing turned into a shambles and people were put into positions without the first clue what they were doing.
But that’s the BBC again. The haven for unashamed mediocrity.
It creeps into every corner of an institution that encourages the culture of ‘take my oversized pay packet and run’. So things like Peter Alliss not researching players becomes just a given.
A couple of years later I did get an interview with BBC Sport and outlined how I felt I could improve standards and help those clearly struggling. I used a football report as an example… possibly the worst-written sports report I have ever read.
My interviewer looked shocked as I had the temerity to raise the issue of standards. He also outlined how the BBC has a duty to cover all sports, major or minor.
But apparently not golf.
It has money to splash on a docu-soap called Scarlett’s Driving School in which former Gogglebox ‘star’ Scarlett Moffatt opens a driving school for struggling learner drivers, but paying nothing for golf is off the table.
When Ricky Gervais pitched ‘The Office’ to BBC Comedy bosses there were concerns that no-one would believe someone that incompetent would rise to such a position.
Gervais simply used the BBC as an example of why that was untrue.
It is time to wave goodbye to the BBC in its current form. There is no justication for asking people to pay for it when you consider how the TV world has changed.
Especially when many of its ‘senior’ sports journalists receive huge sums for not very much. Someone once said the genius of Apple was making its products 25% better than everyone else but charging 75% more.
At the BBC journalists, on the whole, get 25% more but are 75% worse.
The corporation should only be allowed to make programmes that can also be sold overseas. It should be self-funding. There is no reason for it not to be.
If it was… free golf might be considered quite a good idea. It’s about time it had one or two.
