“Remember that TV is a visual medium – commentary is so often unnecessary.”

Michael Barratt chairs a studio discussion between members of the public and the Head of BBC sport, Brian Cowgill, about the quality of sports coverage on BBC television.

Among the public’s bugbears are commentators stating the obvious and encouraging foul play, the redundancy of action replays, close up shots during team sports, the same teams always appearing on Match of the Day, the immediacy of sports coverage at the expense of more studied analysis, the priority given to horse racing, and the late broadcast time of many sport highlights shows.

Clip taken from Talkback, originally broadcast on BBC One, 12 January, 1972.

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