Events Where The Commentator Was Clearly Absent

[Satchmo Distel]

How many of our childhood commentary moments were actually edited in later?

With 'Jeux Sans Frontieres', I felt cheated years later when I realized that Stuart Hall was just watching these events on a telly somewhere. Same with Murray Walker on Grand Prix and David Vine on Ski Sunday (although Vine would sometimes do an outdoor location shot for an intro)

Ron Pickering's commentary on Bob Beamon's World Record jump also seemed suspiciously dubbed on (his reaction 'that's an enormous one' clearly post-scripted)

Was even 'Superstars' subjected to this tampering?

[Arturo]

Events Where The Commentator Was Clearly Absent

I've always got slightly offended at dubbed or 'fake' commentaries. It's a real bugbear of mine

For example, Tony Gubba's original reaction to Saeed Al-Owairan's wonder goal at USA 94 was near silence and almost apathy. So the BBC dubbed it with what sounds like an old commentary of his. "They've scored again" he yells, which makes no sense as they'd only gone 1-0 up.

I've never thought the Bob Beamon one sounded scripted though.

[Borracho]

Events Where The Commentator Was Clearly Absent

Putting dubbed commentary on old sporting events is the broadcasting equivalent of falsifying political-diary entries. It ought to be punishable by a heavy jail term.

ESPN Classic are notorious for this, getting the likes of Tony Jones and Jim Proudfoot to do events such as the 1967 European Cup final and Brazil-England 1970.

"Hello and welcome to Guadalajara . . ." Give us a fucking break, Jim. You were about two years old when this match was played.

It's a false economy -- ESPN Classic save a bit of cash by not buying up the original footage, but lose viewers for whom the entire viewing experience is totally ruined by this sort of cheapskate corner-cutting.

They don't do it all the time, thank god, but they do it far too often.

[Arturo]

Events Where The Commentator Was Clearly Absent

My dad gave me an Italia 90 football video a few years ago. Every game had Brian Moore's dubbed commentary on top of it, including over the games he'd actually commentated on for real!

There was a lot of this in the 1970's too, due to the lack of major football coverage the time. Two of the greatest title deciders of the era, Spurs v Arsenal 71 and Wolves v Liverpool 76, both suffered this fate.

Not to mention fake crowd noises too.