issue 26 3 September 2001 Moore post mortem
ITV's long-running football commentator Brian Moore, who died recently, was privileged to be present at countless great soccer occasions during his thirty one year TV commentary career, notably at Wembley for many consecutive FA Cup finals. In that time he coined the oft-imitated commentary gems "It's a goal!", and "It's in there!", slogans to make even Kenneth Wolstenholme jealous. Unfortunately his fine work at the microphone was largely missed by a nation faced with a choice of two channels on which to watch these key matches. Viewing figures bear this out; in 1972 when Leeds beat Arsenal 1-0 to claim the Cup 25 million viewers tuned in to hear David Coleman's version of events, a mere 51 people spent the ninety minutes in the company of Moore over on ITV. Such stark proof of a lack of popularity rapidly portrayed Moore as 'always the bridesmaid, never the bride' when it came to viewing statistics. Early on Moore decided to turn this to his advantage by hiring out his services as an actual bridesmaid at the weddings of friends and colleagues. Naturally this frequently clashed with his work responsibilities, and on a number of occasions he was seen racing away from churches after lunchtime ceremonies in order to make it to the match he was covering in time for the 3 o'clock kick-off. | |
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