A career in football commentary with Peter Drury

National World - LocalTV

Transcript

00:00 Firstly, Peter, before we get into any of your actual career in commentary and broadcasting

00:06 and media, where does your love for football come from?

00:12 I don't know really, I guess it was just innate. I grew up with brothers kicking a ball around

00:16 in the backyard and I went to school where football was a thing and I guess my love for

00:25 it at a sort of professional level comes from having grown up locking myself in my bedroom

00:30 listening to the radio. Back in the 70s there was much less live football on the television

00:37 and I was absolutely hooked on it and my heroes were the footballers but also the people who

00:45 broadcast it, the great names of BBC Radio 40 years ago and together I've been fortunate

00:53 enough to be able to sort of twin those passions.

00:56 And so just bridging on top of that, if you enjoyed the commentary so much as a child

01:02 is that why you chose commentary to get into because of course broadcasting and media and

01:06 football there's a lot of avenues, you could go into presenting, you could go into punditry

01:10 for example, but was that why commentary was the one that you chose?

01:14 Yeah, I mean that makes it sound as though it was a plan which it never was, I didn't

01:20 expect this to happen to me but insofar as it has happened to me, yeah certainly because

01:28 truth be told and I constantly say this, the thrill of my job is being there and you know

01:35 that's the privilege that the commentator has which sometimes the presenter doesn't,

01:40 just absolutely having the ringside seat is what makes it as special as it is.

01:48 Now you've worked in both television and radio in your career so far, what is the difference

01:52 between commentating for a TV audience and commentating for a radio audience where of

01:56 course they can't see the pictures?

01:59 Yeah it's a massive difference and everybody who's done both would acknowledge that, as

02:07 you say on the radio the commentator is absolutely essential and can't stop and is required to

02:13 create the picture and the very best radio commentators do that beautifully, it's about

02:20 in football terms the geography, we need to know where the player is on the pitch when

02:24 he or she is kicking it, we need to have a sense of how hot or cold it is, we need to

02:30 be able to smell the burger through the radio if you know what I mean, that's the job of

02:34 the radio commentator and truth be told the television commentator is nowhere near as

02:39 essential, the basic rule of thumb for a television commentator is only to speak if you can add

02:47 to the picture and if you follow that to its extreme really, certainly for a big game you

02:53 barely need to speak at all so we don't follow it to its extreme, you know when it's Arsenal

02:58 against Manchester City people know who the players are on the whole and you could sit

03:04 there thinking that you're of no value at all and I frequently do but I guess if there

03:12 is a value in television commentary it is in somehow articulating the feel of the game,

03:21 having a sense of the stadium and having a sense of the rhythms of the matches they're

03:25 playing out and essentially identifying the players and feeling the moments when the moment

03:32 comes. You mentioned Arsenal versus Manchester City there, now for long periods that game

03:38 was nil-nil, is it a skill to be able to make a nil-nil draw, obviously that game didn't

03:43 end up nil-nil in the end but is it a skill to make a nil-nil draw that perhaps doesn't

03:47 have many of those moments as you mentioned in it seem exciting as a commentator? I don't

03:53 think it's your job to make it seem exciting, you know the viewing public aren't stupid

03:57 and you can't tell them that something which is not that exciting is exciting. I think

04:03 you're required on a day like that to try and find the points of interest such as they

04:08 are and Arsenal versus Manchester City is a good example because it was so not the game

04:14 that people expected it to be that it became quite an interesting almost academic project

04:23 and it's on occasions like that actually that you lean quite heavily on your co-commentator

04:27 in that case for me Gary Neville who has interesting things to say and is prepared to say them

04:36 whether or not some will disagree with what he has to say and some will agree. That is

04:41 important but I think it's also important to acknowledge that even if the game is a

04:47 slightly quote academic game in the sense that it's of interest without being thrillingly

04:53 exciting minute by minute, the fact that it is tight and close merely adds to the jeopardy.

05:00 So five minutes out at nil-nil you could you know without saying well this has been a fabulous

05:06 game because it probably hadn't been from certainly from a neutral perspective, what

05:09 you can say is if somebody scores here it's a big deal you know we're all on edge, there's

05:14 jeopardy and of course that played out. Now of course you're now working for Sky Sports

05:22 replacing Martin Tyler, how much have you enjoyed your time in this new role so far?

05:28 Yes so far so good, I've really enjoyed working with the people I've worked with, you know

05:33 it's a huge privilege to be moving into that slot and it's a privilege which comes with

05:43 a certain pressure because Martin had done it so brilliantly for so long and you know

05:51 to step where he stepped I could only do it respectfully and to an extent sort of trepidatiously

05:58 you know. So my sort of bottom line is to try and not offend, I can't help not being

06:06 him but I can only do my best and so far I think I've stayed alive.

06:15 Now I saw a video on social media the weekend actually of you showing your commentary notes

06:20 I think it was a question about how often do you think about the Roman Empire given

06:24 that's prominence at the moment but your commentary notes were absolutely stacked, how much preparation

06:29 does it take to just prepare for one game?

06:33 Well I always say that the average for a football match is one day at the desk for one day's

06:41 football so maybe an eight hour office day. Actually for the really big ones or the slightly

06:47 more complex ones that can grow into maybe 10, 12, 14 hours but the truth is you're never

06:54 as ready as you want to be, there's always another click you can go, you can always go

06:58 a stage further, find another stat, find another piece of information that just might be interesting

07:05 and the frustration is that you do all of that and actually only a tiny tiny percentage

07:10 of it gets used. I sit at my desk thinking interesting thoughts, at least interesting

07:15 to me possibly not to other people, thinking interesting thoughts and writing them down

07:20 and then I come off the gantry at the end and thought oh you know that was 40 minutes

07:25 of my life that I needn't have bothered with. For instance this weekend I did a whole study

07:32 for my own interest into the possibility of Manchester City winning four consecutive titles

07:39 which no one's ever done and a comparison to when Arsenal won three titles way back

07:45 pre-war because I thought that in a moment of idleness that might come up and of course

07:53 even though there were plenty of moments of idleness it never felt appropriate to bring

07:58 it up and so I'm glad I didn't but equally I'm thinking that's 40 minutes of my life

08:06 I'll never get back but that's the essence of homework, the point is to try and be prepared

08:11 for all eventualities in the full and certain knowledge that all eventualities won't occur.

08:18 But of course this preparation at times and you mentioned of course moments in television

08:23 commentary this preparation can certainly create some of your iconic lines I think of

08:29 Greek God in Rome, do they just come to you off the top of your head or have they been

08:34 meticulously planned?

08:38 The one thing you don't prepare is what you're going to say during a football match, to a

08:43 certain extent you prepare what you're going to say up until kick-off, obviously you see

08:47 when you watch a game on Sky or anywhere you see the team graphic come up and the players

08:50 and so on, obviously you're preparing that because that's a sort of set piece but once

08:56 the game kicks off then you simply have to rely on the homework you've got factually

09:01 speaking and your instinct hopefully for finding something appropriate when the moment occurs.

09:11 If you try to over prepare that then it sounds over prepared and it's not authentic and real.

09:20 You mentioned the Rome one as people kindly do, if you think about that at all you'll

09:27 realise that it would have been impossible for me to prepare that.

09:31 If you believe that I had words ready for a Greek centre-half scoring the third goal

09:35 against Barcelona that put them through having been behind, that's just preposterous, you

09:43 couldn't, this Greek bloke scored a goal and I had to think of something to say about him

09:47 and that's sort of slightly odd monologue is what came out on that particular evening.

09:52 That's obviously a very unusual one, it's, you know, and lots of goals happen during

10:00 the course of a season and maybe two, three percent of them are really special ones, there's

10:09 seven, eight, nine, ten percent you sit in the car afterwards thinking I didn't do that

10:12 very well, you know, I wish that could have gone better or whatever and the rest are just

10:18 another goal, you know, and you just have to be prepared to articulate a moment as and

10:24 when it comes.

10:25 And just to summarise, do you have any particular moments yourself that you look back on with

10:30 a lot of fondness and just to add to that as well are there any ones from perhaps other

10:34 commentators that you listened to when you were sort of getting into your stride that

10:38 you thought oh yes that was also very good?

10:40 In terms of moments I've witnessed, I have great memories of some lovely moments, what

10:49 I don't do is associate them with myself because I'm always keen to remind myself and others

10:55 that, you know, I didn't score Aguero's goal, he did, you know, I didn't score that Manolas

11:03 goal, he did, you know, that's nothing to do with me, the commentator is a very lucky

11:07 guy who sits and watches and gets to sort of express him or herself in the moment.

11:15 So you know, there's no better football match I've seen than the last World Cup final, I

11:24 don't think there's a much better football match that anybody has seen, so of course

11:28 I'll carry that one to my grave, until that World Cup final I've always felt that the

11:35 warmest feeling I've had around a football match was when Xhavailala scored for South

11:39 Africa at the start of the World Cup in 2010, which I thought was a very meaningful goal,

11:45 you know, in terms of the unity of the world and what sport could do for it and so on,

11:50 and that's the one that sends a shiver up my spine or brings me out in goosebumps really,

11:56 that whole occasion, that match and a significance that sort of transcended football.

12:02 So yeah, I mean, so many, so many, but I stress nothing to do with what I said, just to do

12:09 with what the players did.

12:13 And finally, my very last question, for those, I always ask this to anyone in sort of a position

12:18 of broadcasting media, for those wanting to get involved, perhaps if they were younger,

12:22 wanting to be a commentator, what advice would you give?

12:27 My advice is A, to make sure you really are enjoying it, never let it be a chore, be authentic,

12:33 be yourself, don't pretend to be somebody else and do it because you love it.

12:41 If you think there's something to be gained from some sort of spurious fame or infamy,

12:48 I promise you there's not, you know, the fun in the job is being there, being invested

12:54 in it and really having a sense of your own good fortune, frankly, because it is a massively

13:04 privileged thing to do.

13:05 So if you're going to do it, go for it, because it's a wonderful way of earning a living,

13:10 but do it for the right reasons.

13:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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