the big match revisited part two: simon moore interview

In the second part of his feature on ITV4’s The Big Match Revisited Goalfood’s Simon Harvey spoke to one of the programme’s editors.  Simon Moore talks about commentating, his beloved West Ham, the World of Sport and of course, his dad . . . the late, great Brian Moore, ITV’s Big Match presenter.

Being Brian Moore’s son, was it inevitable that you’d go into television in some way?
I went to the University of East Anglia, which I think is where Martin Tyler went. It’s got a good reputation for sports journalism. Then I went into local newspapers in Bromley before I got an invitation from Mark Sharman (former director of ITV News and Sport) to join TVS as a news sub, then went on to the London News Network. I’ve effectively been working within ITV Sport since ’88, more recently as a programme editor.

So how did the opportunity to put together The Big Match Revisited come about?
Probably because I’m the oldest git in the office. But we also have a fantastic ITV archive here in the office.  ITV4 are progressive in looking at different ways of doing sports programmes and they can offer slightly more airtime than you can get on ITV1. They’re always looking to do additional sports programmes and someone there thought about putting the archives to good use. So the idea of The Big Match Revisited came about as a suggestion and probably because I am about the only bloke in the office who actually remembers the games. Then there was my connection through my old man so we went ahead and did it and it’s been really good fun and a nice thing for me to do personally. It seems to have got quite a niche audience and I guess it really strikes a chord with people of a certain age.

It’s fascinating to watch so many different facets of the game which have changed – do you think that’s why the programme is so popular even though it’s niche?
From a slightly anal TV point of view we’re looking at things like the graphics and as modern-day professionals we’re wondering what on earth they were thinking putting that team board up like that, it looks so old fashioned and antiquated and then, oh my god, the opening titles – they’re absolutely terrible. On their day they must have been cutting edge but it’s interesting seeing how they did it compared to what we do now.

The production values leave a lot to be desire don’t they
Absolutely. We obviously plundered other region’s archives to show the games and not just London Weekend Television. I’d have to check with my colleagues but I think it looks to me like Gerald Sinstadt is in some sort of open air Portakabin in one programme because he’s sitting there in a great big chunky skiing jacket and you can see the breath coming out of his mouth when he’s doing the links. I can only assume they had a little Portakabin without windows which they used to take round the grounds.

Do you think it’s all part and parcel of the Life on Mars retro movement?
It is really evocative. People say to me that the programme starts off a whole series of memories for them – Sunday lunch, the smell of bonfires, going outside to have a kick around last thing on a Sunday and then back in to do your homework. I think in some ways we all very lucky to have enjoyed that English football era because now there’s football on the telly every night of the week.

How did you go about selecting the matches for the programme?
Basically it comes down to what is the best archive which is left. Ourselves and Granada still have a good archive. In the very first season we covered, which was 1982/83, there were also some TVS games with Fred Dineage presenting. ITV4 wanted to match the broadcast week to the actual archive week 30 years ago so that it mirrors where you are in the season. So we’ll look at the matches played on the weekend in 1979 and choose the matches. Obviously if we’ve got Crystal Palace 0 Orient 0 in London and Granada have got Everton 4 Manchester United 1 then that’s a better game to show and we just ring round to see if they’ve got it. We would like to get more Yorkshire and Anglia region stuff in but their regional offices have been run down so much more these days by the inevitable erosion of the ITV network and their archiving is not as good as it is here so inevitably there’s a sort of London/Manchester bias to the programme. They were generally 56 minute programmes and we cut them down to about 46/47 minutes so we nick out about 10 minutes but you still get a fair whack if you’re on second. You’ll see about 10 minutes of that game.

What are the viewing figures like?
Being a daytime programme on ITV4 the audience is niche. We’re rated at about 135,000 which, for a daytime programme on ITV4 is pretty respectable.

Can the project go further? Could there not be a channel exclusively showing retro matches?
Well it could. In these times when everyone’s feeling the pinch the thing we’ve got going for us is that it’s a relatively cheap programme to make. So long as you can find the tapes, you haven’t got to hire a studio or spend a lot of money getting someone to front it. It’s all there – you just need to edit it down. I think there definitely is a move towards nostalgia and it’s set our minds thinking what different series we could do. I mean there’s a World of Sport archive that probably needs a bit of plundering as well – I think Dickie Davies might well be coming you way again soon whether by TV or DVD. The ITV sport archive is so vast and there are so many hidden gems in it that we’d be daft not to use it.

Do you get much feedback?
Since you’re a Sheff United fan I perhaps shouldn’t tell you I’m a West Ham fan. But I was on one of the West Ham sites the other day and there was a fella relaying the match on the website as he was watching it. It was the match against Newcastle which we won 5-0 and he was watching it as if it was happening for the first time, saying things like: ‘We’ve just gone 2-0 up but I’ll bet we’ll throw it away like we usually do!’ It’s nice to know that people are enjoying it in that way.

Through your father Brian you had a more personal involvement in the programme. Do you remember him making the programmes first time round?
Oh definitely. I was very lucky because he used to take me along with him most of the time so I’d go with him to the game on Saturday when he’d do On the Ball from the ground. Then he’d commentate on the match and he’d go back to the studio on Saturday night to do the links. Finally we’d both go back in to the studio again on Sunday morning to record the programme. So I spent most of the weekend with him and I suppose I was a very lucky little boy.

Are they fond memories?
Definitely. And it’s a nice way to re-live them although sometimes I look at him on the screen and realise he’s younger then than I am now. You know what it’s like with your dad, you always think they’re ancient – I used to think he was ancient then and I now realise I’m older than he was then when he made the programmes!

Do you think your dad’s voice and commentary is a key factor in evoking memories of the time?
Everyone’s got their favourites. I’m sure people say that nowadays about Motty and Kenneth Wolstenholme before. But maybe for that Sunday lunch-type thing we were talking about maybe it is evocative for some people.

Did he enjoy commentating?
Yes he did. He used to genuinely enthuse about football but I think commentators by nature have that enthusiasm as a default setting. Even nowadays if you asked Clive or people like Motty they’d tell you the same – they’re all such enthusiasts for the game. I don’t think you could do the job if you weren’t – living it every day, researching the matches and the players. I think commentators are much more under the spotlight now than when dad used to commentate. Every newspaper has a columnist ready to take them to the cleaners if they make a mistake which is quite unforgiving, but I don’t think dad was as much under the microscope.

Do you think your dad was more respectful of the players and managers he was interviewing?
I think most of the present-day commentators would say they have all just as good a relationship with the managers as they did back in dad’s day because by and large it tends not to be the commentators that are putting the boot in. It’s more the fringe stations who spoil it for everyone else.

After such a thorough grounding, did you ever think of going into the commentary business yourself?
Oh no, it’s way too hard. He could do the thing that I could never do – the talkback –when you’ve got someone in your ear telling you one thing and you either have to commentate over the top of it or actually listen to what they’re saying and repeat the instruction without repeating some of the shorter four-letter words which have been said to you from time to time in your ears. I have a lot of respect for people who can do that but I’m certainly not one of them.  Also, it was a long old weekend when you think about it. He did On the Ball for 45 minutes on Saturday morning, straight into a live commentary, back into the studio that night and then back in again Sunday morning.

You must have seen some cracking matches?
Yes I did. Being a West Ham fan as well there are quite a few matches which spring to my mind. I remember a 3-3 with Derby County when Frank Lampard senior scored a fantastic goal in that one. And things like the whole Clough stuff that’s been around recently. Dad became good friends with Clough and it was nice to get a boys-eye-level of Cloughie when he was in his pomp although that could be quite frightening sometimes. It’d be nice to have a pundit like him around these days just to liven things up a bit.

So are there plans for a further series once the look back at 1979 has finished?
Yes I think so. It’s been so well received that I’m sure we’ll be doing another one. The difficulty is that ITV4 want to try and capture a certain audience so they don’t want to go too far back. Although you and I would probably enjoy it, if you go too far back into the early 1970s your audience starts to tail off a bit. So the next one may come into the late 1980s. We tend to think our Andy Townsend is quite contemporary and a fairly recent player but I guess if you were born in the early 90s you won’t have seen him play. Time moves on.

Do you get to see the Hammers much these days?
Not as much as I’d like but I do whenever I can and it’s been a lot of fun this season.

Cheers Simon. Good luck with the programme and for next season
Thanks. It’s really useful to get the feedback on the programme. We think it’s entertaining but it’s nice to know it’s appreciated.