planetf1.com

Just listening to the most recent Flying Lap podcast with Peter Windsor and John Watson, and Watson talks at about 56 minutes in about being snubbed for the 5Live co-com role by Jaime, and mentions that it will be both James Allen AND Jonathan Legard supplying the lead commentator role. I've searched online for this and can only find this source, but unsure how credible it is. It suggests that Legard will fill in at races James Allen won't be at.

http://badgergp.com/2012/03/jaime-algue ... 5-live-f1/

"Despite having their entire on-air seemingly poached by Sky, having Jonathan Legard and James Allen and now Jaime Alguersuari we're sure that the Formula 1 coverage on 5LiveF1 will continue to be as strong as is it was in 2011."

I hope this isn't true, would feel particularly sorry for those hoping to get a German sattelite feed and 5Live audio this year...

I never listened to him, but he used to commentate on F1 for 5 Live before going to telly ... I seem to remember people on this forum saying he was pretty good at it too, by all accounts.

Perhaps his style suits the radio better?

For me the BBC has two terrible commentators, James Allen and Johnathan Legard. I'm excited about Ben Edwards though, I like him doing the F1 reviews...

So I'll watch the GP's on SKY with Crofty and Brundle, then the record the BBC's highlight show...

Allen and Legard... the stuff nightmares are made of.

I have a theory on why people thought Legard was a good radio commentator, it's probably down to you couldn't see what was actually happening (because you were listening to the radio and not watching it for yourself on tv) and didn't know when he was making mistakes.. If he said it was Hamilton overtaking someone you had blind faith that's what was happening but it was probably Kimi in a different car completely passing a backmarker!

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I really couldn't stand Legard on the TV coverage but on the radio he's great. He never adjusted from being a radio commentator to a TV commentator. They are two different skills entirely.

Anyway he said on Twitter a while ago, he's doing Canada and a few in the summer as well.

spot on

Thank you. I've been thinking this for years and it's nice to see the theory supported outside of my circle of friends!

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McLaren Fan
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This , the two worse possible commentators you could chose.

Ugh, conspiracy theory here but maybe Sky made this happen to p**s off all the people who planned to watch RTL with radio 5 live on. Myself included


I'm of course joking..still!

I thought James Allen was pretty good until Hamilton turned up and he fell in love. Much better then Legard anyway.

On a side note having rewatched old races in the Murray era, his bias towards schuey is blatant. Not so much when Hill was competing with him but certainly 97 on. I dont think he denies it either.

In fairness to James Allen, one thing that is very rarely ever pointed out with regards to his Hamilton bias is that he was working for a commercial TV station during a time when there was more hype over a British driver than in any other time I can remember. He probably had to perform a not insignificant amount of corporate fellatio, so I certainly let him off there.

Legard, however, was awful. Just awful.

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James has great knowledge of F1 and is great as someone in the background in a none commentator role. But he's awful as a commentator.

BEST. ANTI-SKY. POST. EVER

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McLaren Fan
Go Jenson

<-- This!

A worse pair i struggle to think of.

Thats what I plan to do. Watch Sky's live, and then watch the bbc highlights. Depending on how good or bad it is I probably wont do it again after australia tho.

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I do recall him saying that it was ITV who forced him to be very pro-Hamilton. The while ITV show was tho. Even the BBC one was to an extent I guess.

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We mustn't forget that they're probably successfully catering to their biggest customer - the casual viewer. And that's none of us here, so we're bound to find it irritating.

I think anyone slating Legard's ability on the radio probably didn't hear him when he was doing it before - he was excellent, which was part of the reason why his TV work was so disappointing. As for those slating him for making mistakes...it's a hard job, and the commentators don't have the luxury of a large screen in front of them. Brundle and Coulthard made their fair share of errors last season.

As for James Allen - well, personally I think he'll be very good on the radio. He started to grate on me on ITV because he was so full of cliches (even more so than Murray Walker!), however I have always enjoyed reading his written pieces and his knowledge of and enthusiasm for the sport (beyond F1 as well) is second to none.

As long as Alan Green doesn't turn his hand to F1 we'll survive.
Never listened to Legard on the radio, but god he was annoying on TV.

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A McLaren fan

Not a fan of Legard but to be fair he was hung out to dry by Brundle. Whereas DC was helped Legard was left to die in silence or his mistakes highlighted. Obviously there was no love between them.

Fingers crossed Crofty does not suffer the same fate.

A slight aside here... This is the moment I truly realised Brundle shared the rest of the audience frustration with Legard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as243qAdUQU

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Cock-up yes but Brundle made some howlers in 2011 as lead and so did DC but they joked or 'nicely' talked their way out of it. Crofty and Ant had the same relationship. I repeat, I'm not a Legard fan but Brundle played his part in making sure his mate got a job.

And Murray wasn't called the President of the Nigel Mansell fan club for nothing. He was never ashamed at displaying it. Just remember how he was when Hill won the WDC in 96, although IIRC it wasn't just because Damon was British but also the fact he knew Graham Hill very well and had known Damon his whole life and what the family went through when Graham died.

I honestly enjoyed James Allen's commentary. As for Jonathon Legard's commentary? Best forgotten I think.

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Brundle makes loads of errors while commentating and comes across as a right big head like he has 7 world championships in his pocket.

I really don't get why he is looked upon as the god of F1 commentating, Im glad he went to Sky so I haven't got to listen to him anymore.

Because he knows exactly what he's talking about 95% of the time, makes sound, rational predictions, has built up a reputation as an extremely knowledgeable pundit, has a great sense of humour and wit and... Everybody makes mistakes.

Legard, on the other hand, was dreadful in all areas yet strutted around (figuratively, as far as I'm concerned) like a boss. Here's a good example of how bad he was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cYhPBb0wyA

A typical Brundle error would be to miss the overtake, a typical Legard error is to get it *completely* wrong.

To be honest, I don't even know why I'm addressing such an opinion; if you genuinely think Brundle is rubbish/not worthy of the praise he receives then I really don't know what to say to you.

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PLAY A RECORD KARL COS I'M GUNNA KNOCK YOU OUT!!!

I never said he was rubbish! I just said I didnt like him.

Christ people have chips on there shoulders on this forum if you disagree with someones opnion.

Er...?

Which is why I wrote "rubbish/not worthy of the praise he receives"; omit "rubbish". But you can see how I could have easily been led to believe you think he's rubbish when you post the sentence "I'm glad he went to Sky so I haven't got to listen to him any more"; forgive me to "jumping" to such a conclusion.

No chip on my shoulder, I just don't understand how you think making a few human errors (we all make mistakes, nobody's perfect etc) tarnishes his reputation.

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Still many times better than what you'd hear when Darryl Beattie or Greg Rust try to cover for the UK commentary team. It makes you think how the heck did they get on television - let alone as part of the F1 commentary.

i n f i d e l i t y

Nobody should be criticised for making mistakes doing the job that F1 commentators do... as you say we're human. I didn't understand the criticism of Legard for his mistakes either... for me it was more his overall misunderstanding of the concept of F1 (see his real-time analysis of Q1 as an example), and his seeming inability to string one word to the next. His pronounciation of "Pedro de la Rosa" was really quite something to behold. Confusing Vettel for Webber is forgivable, being totally out of your depth is not.

The 5live team for the season is James Allen(lead comms), Jaime Alguersuari (co-comms), Jennie Gow (Pitlane)

There's been no mention of Legard as far as I'm aware.

I wouldn't be surprised if he was on a standby list if James Allen couldn't make a Grand Prix for some reason, but as far as I know he's not going to be a regular.

I've said in this topic before, Legard is doing Canada and a few races in the summer. It turns out that Allen's wife doesn't want him going to all 20 races. It was discussed during the Grand AM race at Daytona with Radio Le Mans

same here ... blurgh

I'm doing the same for australia, get as much f1 in as i can this weekend to make up for the long winter. Plus will be interesting to see how the bbc coverage goes with the changes to staff.

Also hoping sky will provide F1 coverage, not Hamilton biased F1 coverage which ITV did, and the BBC to a lesser degree.

Can't think of two, only one.

Barry Davies, he was the king of: 'kill a show with your commentary'.

Did you ever hear him doing commentating on football?

Glad he didn't do F1.

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Legard was too rushed whenever something happened on track. if he took another second to think before spouting he would have been much better. A tv commentator doesnt have to explain every detail of the action. Thats why brundle is good because he is always pretty calm and when he does get excited its isnt over the top and his commentry remains at a good pace.