
After Extra Time and Penalties
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Narrated by:
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Mike Ingham
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By:
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Mike Ingham
About this listen
After almost a quarter century as the BBC’s chief football correspondent, Mike Ingham, MBE, shares a candid, comprehensive, and sometimes, controversial account of how the world of broadcasting and football changed beyond recognition throughout his career.
His broadcasting experiences saw him attend eight World Cups, commentate on 28 F.A. Cup finals, work with 10 full-time England managers, introduce sports report, present his own music show on BBC Radio 1, and he even covered Princess Diana’s funeral. He has enjoyed working with a who’s who of personalities from the world of football and has tales to tell about all of them.
With never-before-heard material from Brian Clough, this audiobook is a timely reminder of England's campaigns in tournaments over the last half century with a detailed and eyewitness account of what the atmosphere was really like over the years behind the scenes in the England camp.
About the author: Mike Ingham, MBE , was the BBC’s chief football correspondent for almost a quarter of a century and only the third person to hold this post after Brian Moore and Bryon Butler. In a radio career of over 40 years, Mike attended eight World Cups, commentated on 28 F.A. Cup Finals and worked with 10 full time England managers.
Starting out as a DJ in a nightclub, music and football have been his twin obsessions, and often, the two worlds have bounced into each other as many of his musical heroes have also been football fans.
The start of his broadcasting career at BBC Radio Derby coincided with the glory years for Derby County with Brian Clough and Dave Mackay and his final commentary for the BBC was at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio for the World Cup Final of 2014.
Shortly after his retirement, Mike became the first broadcaster to be given a Lifetime Achievement by the Sports Journalists Association.
©2020 Mike Ingham (P)2020 Mike InghamGreat listen
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Interesting but flawed
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Brilliant but flawed
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Let’s get the annoying technical problems out of the way. There were several occasions during the reading of the book where Ingham refers to recordings of interviews followed by a long silence. Clearly clips from those recordings were supposed to have been pasted into the spaces. Unfortunately they weren’t. An unforgivable lapse in quality control that really spoilt the listening experience. Then the quality of the recording was poor. It was possible to hear the fade down and fade up of Ingham’s microphone which drew attention to the silences between. This was distracting. Now given that this was released in April 2020 it is possible that the recording took place during the first lockdown and not in a studio. But I’m sure post production could have removed some of this obvious background distraction.
The book itself is also disappointing as it feels far too short and light on detail for such a long and illustrious career. The name Alan Green, for example, is never uttered. Considering they worked together for a considerable amount of time, this is odd. Perhaps I am not aware of some major disagreement between the 2 former commentators. Many events are only briefly dealt with. The Rio Ferdinand missed drugs test and the threat of the England team to Boycott a match in Turkey deserved a far fuller discussion than it got. This is just one example of events being skated over.
Ingham of course reads well and what he does tell us is interesting. I wholeheartedly agree with his disapproval of the BBC’s decision to reduce football radio commentaries from 2 to 1 commentators – perhaps this is part of the reason why the quality has dropped. His descriptions of colleagues like the late great Jimmy Armfield, Brian Butler and Bryan Moore were genuinely affectionate. Ingham comes across in print as he did on the radio as a thorough gentlemen. But the book as a whole remains disappointing and I feel a missed opportunity. In-fact I would go so far as to say it feels like an abridged recording. Unfortunately according to the Audible web site it is unabridged.
A disappointing Listen
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