BECOMING TV GREAT IS NO EASY MATTER
SAM MATTERFACE is the latest football commentator to discover the human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all – and the most difficult to play.
But as ITV installed their new No.1 commentator behind the microphone at Wembley, Matterface counted his blessings that he wasn’t even required to call the tune.
You don’t get a second chance to make first impressions, and the footballers of England and Wales may never recover from their ignominious, tone-deaf recitals of their national anthems.
Matterface (right) had not even dusted down his first one-liner, nor unfurled his first statistic from almanac, when the choral society of scalded cats and foghorns stole his thunder.
One hidden drawback of international football with no fans in attendance is everyone at home can hear the players sing (top).
Or, more to the point, hear that they can’t sing.
Once we had removed the fingers from our ears, Matterface settled adroitly into his role as ITV’s new voice of football.
Taking over from longserving Clive Tyldesley, who had been first-choice for England games since the great Brian Moore retired in 1998, Matterface proved a safe pair of tonsils. There were no inspired one-liners for the archives, no They Think It’s All Over moments, but some of the knee-jerk verdicts on Twitter, that fortress of good taste and fairness, did him little justice.
“Less is more – shut up once in a while,” barked one social media critic. “Pure Channel 5 commentator,” said another.
For Matterface (below), the long-term challenge will be to make his dulcet tones part of the furniture at England games.
On the radio, where he rose to prominence with talkSPORT, too many voices voicm sound alike, merging into a melting pot of blandness.
To be ranked with the greats on TV, that voice will need to become instantly identifiable like the invincible David Coleman, whose warble decorated five World Cups as the only commentator whose Spitting Image puppet sounded more like him than the great man himself.
And if Matterface becomes as synonymous with the Three Lions soundtrack as cricket legend Richie Benaud’s observation about a confectionery stall at Headingley, where Ian Botham deposited a fearless six in the Ashes 39 years ago, he will be in clover.