Better than most of the commentators who got more lucrative jobs. Not shouty, intrusive or ill-informed on the laws. Had a good rapport with Ray Wilkins who also died this year.
As well as his fine work on Football Italia, I remember him as the voice of Pro Evo for many iterations. Other than friends and family, his was arguably the voice I heard most during my 20s. A class act.
I remember him first as a radio commentator/presenter (Sunday Sport? R2, then R5?). He had one of those voices that seems unchanged over decades.
It might seem like faint praise to characterise him as "not annoying" but it's actually meant as a tribute to his professionalism. He knew the sport was what mattered, not the person describing it. Obvious but often forgotten by many commentators.
I'm surprised but not horribly surprised, he looked about a million years old in the Football Italia documentary but was only 67 when he died. Didn't seem like the paragon of good health.
I'm pretty sure Brackley presented Futbol Mundial, which along with the Premier League highlights programme and World Soccer magazine was the holy trinity of my footballing youth.
I'm pretty sure Brackley presented Futbol Mundial, which along with the Premier League highlights programme and World Soccer magazine was the holy trinity of my footballing youth.
Following on from Flynnie's point, there was a slew of second tier commentators 15-120 yers ago who were either extremely well travelled or who had to pretend to be at matches that they were clearly commentating on from a cheap UK studio in front of a video. Often, to add insult to injury, after the fact; but their apparent ability to see into the future as play developed wore a little thin after a while. Belgium, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, etc - I got to see a lot of football leagues from around the world this way so I'm not complaining! I think this was often Brackley though I could be wrong. And obviously not his fault anyway! RIP Peter.
Martin Tyler used to do that. You can catch the end of him here before a Dutch reporter goes to speak to former Bury and Burnley midfielder Kevin Young:
In 1990, Brackley stood in for an indisposed Jimmy Greaves on the long-running ITV Sport show Saint and Greavsie. The commentator provided the voice for Greaves' Spitting Image caricature. He also undertook voiceover work for Brighton & Hove Albion F.C., the club he supported, and wrote a weekly column in the city's Argus newspaper.[7]
ITV broadcast a short tribute to him last night during the Nations' League highlights, with a clip from the 1994 World Cup. I remember him best from that tournament.
I have such happy memories of him on Football italia. At this distance it's still difficult to believe what an explosion of sunshine that show was, in the horrendous Gloom of the late Heysel ban/early premier league, when English football had its dark ages, and Brackley was every bit as much part of that as James Richardson.
It was one seriously smart move by Channel 4 - top-flight football had been snatched from terrestrial and there proved a big audience for Football Italia in the first season. Gascoigne's move to Lazio cemented matters, although he didn't feature in the first match transmitted - an entertaining 3-3 draw at Sampdoria on 6/9/92 that attracted over three million viewers. (C4 persevered by covering Lazio until Gazza finally debuted three weeks later.) Brackley's commentaries here were also key to the programme's success.
It was one seriously smart move by Channel 4 - top-flight football had been snatched from terrestrial and there proved a big audience for Football Italia in the first season. Gascoigne's move to Lazio cemented matters, although he didn't feature in the first match transmitted - an entertaining 3-3 draw at Sampdoria on 6/9/92 that attracted over three million viewers. (C4 persevered by covering Lazio until Gazza finally debuted three weeks later.) Brackley's commentaries here were also key to the programme's success.
I have to confess that as a 13-year-old I believed the programme had been created because of Gascoigne's move to Lazio – Gazza, Gazzetta... I genuinely thought it was a deliberate pun.
I thought the "Golazio!" cry in the intro was a direct reference to Lazio for years, until someone told me it was a sample from an Italian commentary on a World Cup final. Either 1970 or 1982 , I forget which.
When one is familiar with a language, the way those who aren't can hear it can be quite surprising (see also the ov/off chat on the Romanoffs thread). ursus minor episodically calls me up on this w/r/t to Japanese (which he has familiarity with, while I do not).i
Is it not Portuguese or Spanish? I've since heard that same piece of commentary in its original form, applied to a goal scored by one of Brazil's 1970 giants.
If Football Italia only appeared on Channel Four in 1992, what the hell was I watching in the late eighties on RTE then? I mean I have Vivid memories of this farce of a game. and when I went on holidays to Italy in 88, I was looking for a Milan scarf or Hat, but all we could find in Jesolo Market was some Napoli tat.
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