So farewell, then. . .

So farewell, then, A Question of Sport. Perhaps we should clarify that. The BBC have said that they’re not cancelling the show, they’re just not going to make it any more. Almost worthy of Sir Humprey Appleby that one, chaps. (eg the irregular verb - I give confidential briefings, you leak, he is being prosecuted under the official secrets act.)

I have some observations to make. Believe it or not I have been watching it for most of its fifty three year run. In the early 70s it was one of those shows which I sort of watched by osmosis – my father, who had not the least interest in sport – had a default mode of BBC1 – so if there wasn’t anything he wanted to see on ITV the telly would be on BBC1 (he was very much not a BBC2 sort of guy.) By the mid-late 70s I would really enjoy it, having developed an interest in sport through my schoolmates. I fact, it’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve really got out of the habit of watching it.

Look, a fifty plus year run is incredible for any TV show. But things do have their natural shelf life. And once a TV show has reached its old age, the rules change. Once a show gets to about 10 years old, then it can often do with freshening up a bit. But once it gets past 20, it works differently. The show will have a regular and loyal audience, to whom it has become a comfortable little luxury. To change the show, make it less comfortable and more, for want of a better word – ‘edgy’ is a dangerous thing to do. In 2021 AQOS did that big time. The show had been fronted by popular host Sue Barker for over 20 years. The two team captains, Tuffers and Matt Dawson had been with her for over fifteen years. All the familiar faces were swept out in one go. It was a brave, and dare I say it, foolhardy move.

You see, taking its lead from shows on other channels, the sport content, which to my mind had been reduced from the noughties onwards was reduced even further to be replaced with more family panel game entertainment. Which is not why we bought the ticket in the first place.

Who’s to say it won’t ever be brought back, though? But if it is, then the producers could do a lot worse than watching an old edition from the 80s and 90s to see how it’s really done.