Alan Partridge’s Sporting Season

STEVE COOGAN: I remember these clips that I comment to… Armando just came in with a load of sports clips and just put them on and said “Just say some stuff to these”. There was no script, just see what’s happening, just say stuff. So it was all made up as we went along.

Steve Coogan on… his most iconic TV moments, British GQ

Earlier this year, I asked the question: when did Alan Partridge first appear on television? The answer was a VERY CLEVER ONE because I AM BRILLIANT.

It was also an answer which is a little beside the point. The first real TV Partridge sketch was in the first episode of The Day Today, on the 19th January 1994. Yes, it’s highlights of Alan’s Sporting Season.

But have you ever wondered exactly where each piece of sports footage from the above sketch came from? The answer, of course, is: “No John, only you and you alone have ever done that”. But for those of you who are interested, please enjoy the following.

“When it’s cycling championships you’re after, you can’t say fairer than the Tour de France.”
Actual Tour de France footage, licensed from Channel 4. This is the 1992 Tour de France broadcast a couple of years previously, specifically from Stage 2, going from San Sebastián to Pau, on the 6th July 1992.

Sadly, the Channel 4 coverage of this section of the race doesn’t appear to be online anywhere, but the Eurosport coverage is available, and comparison of the two clips shows that it’s definitely is the same race:

The Day Today

Eurosport

“It was a belter of a season for athletics.”
Peter Elliott falling in the 1500m in 1990 European Athletics Championships, broadcast on BBC1 on the 30th August 1990.¹

The fun thing about this, of course, is that the original commentator is David Coleman, and that’s exactly who Coogan is essentially doing in his own version of the commentary!

“But it was upsets all the way in the dive championships.”
The most famous clip in the sketch, this is US diver Greg Louganis hitting his head on the diving board at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This was the qualifying round for the 3 metre springboard, on the 19th September 1988.

Footage of this online is a little difficult to find, presumably thanks to the Olympics cracking down on their ownership of the footage, but you can see a terrible version of it here:

“But for my money, the best punches were being pulled this season in the boxing ring.”
Johnny Armour v. Ricky Romero at the Elephant & Castle Centre in Southwark on the 28th January 1993, and highlights broadcast by the BBC the next day. Sadly, I don’t think any other footage from this bout are online.

Damn, I feel like I’ve fallen at the last hurdle.² What a shame. Never mind, would the library music used in the sketch cheer you up? It’s a 1993 KPM track from the album Dance Frenzy, called “Kickin'”:

*   *   *

I will admit something here. I’ve delayed publishing the above article, unsure whether I should really post it or not. And the reason is: the clip of Greg Louganis smashing his head against the diving board.

The thing is: when divorced from reality and placed into The Day Today‘s universe, it’s very funny. “Down, double back twister, bangs his head and in – textbook.” But articles like this, which yank the clip back into the real world, can cause a bit of a problem. Because not only did Louganis suffer concussion – you’re laughing at a piece of footage which contains a real injury – but you start getting into some very dark areas indeed when you read up about the incident. About how Louganis was terrified he was going to infect another competitor with HIV through his blood in the water, and how his diagnosis wasn’t public knowledge at the time. Any transfer of infection was extremely unlikely, of course, but that’s not the point.

Now, it’s not that I never talk about serious things on this site. But I worry that the more you know about these clips, the more the real world intrudes on the universe of The Day Today. It’s one of the few times writing this site that I think that collating the facts together on something like this has the potential to “destroy” the comedy. One Foot in the Grave reshoots are fun. Throwing the real world back into The Day Today, sometimes not.

And I know all the arguments against that. For a start, the Louganis footage is easily identifiable by the layman if you know the incident. You don’t need production paperwork to figure that out. Nonetheless, it still feels a little weird. That Day Today joke works by pushing that clip into a parallel universe. Pulling it back into the real world gives it some context, but also partly destroys the context that The Day Today is using the clip in. And without wanting to get into details, there are worse examples than the Louganis incident elsewhere in the series.

Thirty years on from the original transmission, this stuff is still giving me headaches. Not that it stopped me publishing the above piece of nonsense. But I kinda want you to know that I thought about it, at least.

With thanks to Jam Mann, gimmicky50a, and Lee Wall.

1. Oddly the paperwork claims a date of the 17th September 1990. Maybe the action was repeated somewhere on that day, perhaps in a news bulletin. Or the paperwork could just be blatantly wrong. ↩

2. “Actually Minister, you can’t fall at the last hurdle when it comes to boxing, because…” “Thank you, Bernard.” ↩

Read more about...

alan partridge