EURO 2024
Commentator Clive Tyldesley tells Simon Barnes that less is more — and silence is golden
As the European Championship gathers pace, many of us will fill the quieter moments of matches by mocking the commentator. “Blimey, who is this clown? I could do better myself.” And then, of course, we forget all that when the big moments come and all we can exclaim is a loud “Yeeees!” or simply “Wow!”
“Being a commentator is like being a referee,” says ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley, who also now co-hosts a football podcast with ex-player and coach Martin O’Neill. Tyldesley should know, he’s been doing it all his life: five World Cups, five European Championships and about ten million less-exalted matches. “You don’t notice them – until there’s a big call to make.”
Towards the end of the Champions League final of 1999, as they played time added on, the score was Bayern Munich 1, Manchester United 0. “Can Manchester United score?” Tyldesley asked as United went up for a corner. “They always score!” They did so twice in the next three minutes.
All the same, the expression “memorable commentary” isn’t far from being an oxymoron. “You’re not as important as the players. Get rid of your ego. You’re the soundtrack of a great film. There have been many great soundtracks, but no one goes to the pictures to listen to the soundtrack,” he says.
“If the best you can do is ‘incredible’ or ‘amazing’, well, that’s not good enough. You want to write the perfect headline – and do it within seconds. One of the best pieces of commentary I ever did was the seven or eight seconds of silence I left after Manchester United had scored for the second time in 1999.”
If you thought the secret of good commentary was research, you’d be wrong. Research is merely essential, like remembering to put your trousers on. “Anybody can do research,” Tyldesley says. “It’s how and when you use it.”
You can buy prints of Tyldesley’s “Commentary Charts”. Find the one for your favourite match and hang it on the wall: hand-written, beautifully calligraphed sheets full of names, facts and stats. “It’s your comfort blanket,” he says. “Not a safety net, because if you fall on a live broadcast, there’s no catching you.
“But it gives you the feeling that you’ve done everything you possibly can. I’ll also have up to ten Word documents. If I used more than 10 per cent of it all, I’d be boring the viewer to death.”
When we speak, he is about to cover May’s Champions League final for CBS. “I’ve done a lot of work on penalty shootouts. I’ll prepare a sheet to use if Borussia Dortmund win, and another if Real Madrid win. For example, if Madrid win, it will be for the six
