10 July 1997 Edition
Television: RTE's Sporting Weekly
By Michael Kennedy
Readers over, say, 35, will remember Hall's Pictorial Weekly, a triumph of sophisticated satire that managed to treat its mainstream audience with warmth and respect. Nothing RTE has produced since has even come close to what Frank Hall created.
In its style and format, The Sporting Press Gang (Network 2, Mondays, 9.45 pm) has borrowed heavily from Hall's Pictorial Weekly, and combined with the intelligence its presenters bring to the programme, it makes for good television.
A sports review and analysis show, interspersed with comic skits, Tom McGurk and swimming champion Michelle Smith make it fast-moving, funny and packed with useful information.
Apart from the delicious irony of Michelle Smith quoting Tom Humphries, who more than any other Irish journalist has raised awkward questions about her Olympic success, this week saw discussion of the remarkable bronze medal feat of the Irish under-20 soccer team.
Reading from The Sunday Tribune, Smith pointed out that there is a huge drop-off rate from youth football. Of the 17 players on the 1985 youth world championship side, not a single one made it to senior level, she said.
For Britain's gallant also-rans at Wimbledon the pair reserved a little healthy schadenfreude, with McGurk describing `Rusedski' as ``a well-known British family name''.
``Incidentally,'' said Smith, ``Saturday's Wimbledon Diary in the Daily Telegraph gave us fascinating information about the regulations on how and when players can go to the loo during matches.''
A female player's toilet break may not exceed five minutes. The men do not have any kind of time limit.
Both sexes must be accompanied by an official, whose duty it is to ensure that that player is not receiving instruction away from the court.
The programme cut immediately to another skit, involving the (all male) committee at the All-England club, discussing how women ``pop in and out to the bathroom like there's no tomorrow, sometimes two at a time''. Throughout the conversation, of course, the stuffed shirts themselves run to and from the loo.
After predicting that the Nevada State Athletic Commission will fine Mike Tyson a relatively small sum for biting off the top of an opponent's ear, McGurk pointed out that Ireland's Steve Collins has just successfully defended his WBO super middle weight welter title in Glasgow, against Craig Cummings, a full-time fireman.
Another sketch, with a boxing agent on the phone to the emergency services. Thanks for the fireman, he's saying, lovely job. How about a paramedic or an ambulance man next week, then he could sort himself out after the fight, and save on medical bills.
Then there was the first interview with the South's new Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Jim McDaid, and he actually imparted some new information.
Currently, only 15 percent of national lottery money goes to sport - McDaid said he would attempt to increase this. He also promised to ring-fence national events - such as the football and hurling finals and some race meetings - from the grasping hands of pay-TV operators like Rupert Murdoch.
On the debate about whether sports funds are best used supporting a few big-name athletes or a greater number of young hopefuls, McDaid said he planned a scheme where if an athlete who is supported as a youngster becomes rich and famous, some of the money comes back.
A medical doctor, he said there was widespread abuse of drugs in sport, and promised that Ireland would lead the way in introducing blood-testing for athletes at home.
The `Main Event' section of the programme was a debate on whether professional boxing can go on, post-Mike Tyson: seven men in studio, no women; but at least some of them knew what they were talking about.
Barry McGuigan said Tyson should be barred for life from the ring, have to return the purse, viewers should get their money back, and boxing should go on as usual.
Kevin Myers argued that if boxing were truly an artistic sport, then hitting one opponent in the head would be banned.
``It is the potential peril to the boxers that makes the sport as attractive as it is. If you confined the target to the shoulders and the rib-cage, you wouldn't have an audience,'' he concluded.
Although it might have given us at least a gloating synopsis of how the English cricket team was being humbled by the Australians, and there was no mention of the British and Irish Lions' spectacular performances on their tour of South Africa, The Sporting Press Gang made for genuinely engaging viewing.
One wonders what would happen if McGurk and Smith were allowed to make a political satire programme along the same lines.
Readers over, say, 35, will remember Hall's Pictorial Weekly, a triumph of sophisticated satire that managed to treat its mainstream audience with warmth and respect. Nothing RTE has produced since has even come close to what Frank Hall created.
In its style and format, The Sporting Press Gang (Network 2, Mondays, 9.45 pm) has borrowed heavily from Hall's Pictorial Weekly, and combined with the intelligence its presenters bring to the programme, it makes for good television.
A sports review and analysis show, interspersed with comic skits, Tom McGurk and swimming champion Michelle Smith make it fast-moving, funny and packed with useful information.
Apart from the delicious irony of Michelle Smith quoting Tom Humphries, who more than any other Irish journalist has raised awkward questions about her Olympic success, this week saw discussion of the remarkable bronze medal feat of the Irish under-20 soccer team.
Reading from The Sunday Tribune, Smith pointed out that there is a huge drop-off rate from youth football. Of the 17 players on the 1985 youth world championship side, not a single one made it to senior level, she said.
For Britain's gallant also-rans at Wimbledon the pair reserved a little healthy schadenfreude, with McGurk describing `Rusedski' as ``a well-known British family name''.
``Incidentally,'' said Smith, ``Saturday's Wimbledon Diary in the Daily Telegraph gave us fascinating information about the regulations on how and when players can go to the loo during matches.''
A female player's toilet break may not exceed five minutes. The men do not have any kind of time limit.
Both sexes must be accompanied by an official, whose duty it is to ensure that that player is not receiving instruction away from the court.
The programme cut immediately to another skit, involving the (all male) committee at the All-England club, discussing how women ``pop in and out to the bathroom like there's no tomorrow, sometimes two at a time''. Throughout the conversation, of course, the stuffed shirts themselves run to and from the loo.
After predicting that the Nevada State Athletic Commission will fine Mike Tyson a relatively small sum for biting off the top of an opponent's ear, McGurk pointed out that Ireland's Steve Collins has just successfully defended his WBO super middle weight welter title in Glasgow, against Craig Cummings, a full-time fireman.
Another sketch, with a boxing agent on the phone to the emergency services. Thanks for the fireman, he's saying, lovely job. How about a paramedic or an ambulance man next week, then he could sort himself out after the fight, and save on medical bills.
Then there was the first interview with the South's new Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Jim McDaid, and he actually imparted some new information.
Currently, only 15 percent of national lottery money goes to sport - McDaid said he would attempt to increase this. He also promised to ring-fence national events - such as the football and hurling finals and some race meetings - from the grasping hands of pay-TV operators like Rupert Murdoch.
On the debate about whether sports funds are best used supporting a few big-name athletes or a greater number of young hopefuls, McDaid said he planned a scheme where if an athlete who is supported as a youngster becomes rich and famous, some of the money comes back.
A medical doctor, he said there was widespread abuse of drugs in sport, and promised that Ireland would lead the way in introducing blood-testing for athletes at home.
The `Main Event' section of the programme was a debate on whether professional boxing can go on, post-Mike Tyson: seven men in studio, no women; but at least some of them knew what they were talking about.
Barry McGuigan said Tyson should be barred for life from the ring, have to return the purse, viewers should get their money back, and boxing should go on as usual.
Kevin Myers argued that if boxing were truly an artistic sport, then hitting one opponent in the head would be banned.
``It is the potential peril to the boxers that makes the sport as attractive as it is. If you confined the target to the shoulders and the rib-cage, you wouldn't have an audience,'' he concluded.
Although it might have given us at least a gloating synopsis of how the English cricket team was being humbled by the Australians, and there was no mention of the British and Irish Lions' spectacular performances on their tour of South Africa, The Sporting Press Gang made for genuinely engaging viewing.
One wonders what would happen if McGurk and Smith were allowed to make a political satire programme along the same lines.