JOHN MASTERSON

Getting the Wright stuff on MOTD

MY television viewing habits have certainly changed during lockdown. Gone are the long, leisurely sessions watching Tiger, Rory, Shane and supporting cast knocking a little white ball around America. Instead, it’s been all about CNN — with the highlight being the White House briefings.

‘The Donald’ suggesting that we ingest, or inject, disinfectant will remain one of my ‘I remember where I was’ moments, up there with the phone call telling me to get to a TV when the Twin Towers were attacked, or hearing Anne Cassin on the news telling us about Diana.

Skype TV works for me in current affairs, but entertainment needs an audience to react and for performers to play to. If Graham Norton isn’t holding me from his sitting room, then nobody is. The Late Late has thankfully kept Ryan in the studio, and by any criteria Dermot Kennedy was superb recently — but how I miss that audience.

It is not just chat shows. Will I be excited about watching the Ryder Cup behind closed doors, should that happen? Will I even bother?

Necessity is the mother of invention and my current must-view on Saturday nights was probably written on the back of an envelope in the BBC canteen. I am not a mad soccer fan. Apart from golf, I am a highlights-only sports fan.

I was not heartbroken when Match of the Day had no match to show. Fortunately, I happened upon MOTD Top 10. This programme began with

Gary Lineker, Ian Wright and Alan Shearer in Gary’s kitchen and has since moved each into their own houses as lockdown came in. Each week, they have a list. They show highlights. They are fun.

I cannot take my eyes off it. I look forward to it, and I haven’t done that since Dallas.

You have three people who were top players and are now top broadcasters. They love their sport. Put all that together and you never know where it will end up.

These guys are full of interesting opinions. Last week, they did the Top 10 Bonkers Moments on the pitch. I was beside myself with anticipation. Not surprisingly, Eric Cantona attacking a fan who had insulted him was No1 for all three. As you would expect from Auntie BBC, the French genius was roundly condemned.

Well, no. Wright began with a pause, a long one, before explaining that he understood what Cantona had put up with.

Wright was talented and tough on the field.

But when he began talking about the racist abuse he suffered over the years, it was hard not to feel shame for happening to have white skin.

Lineker told a story of being on a plane sitting beside John Barnes when two fans came to say hello and could not help themselves telling Barnes he shouldn’t be on the team. Not because of his ability. Because of his skin.

I have never been insulted because of the colour of my skin. I have been the only white person in a Zambian bus station and the only thing that happened was that someone figured I was lost and kindly ushered me to the correct bus. I have been the only white person in places in Asian countries and received nothing but normal civility. I have never even been abused for being Irish. Western, white, middle-class males do live a charmed life.

We are in the middle of a pandemic. That should remind us that we are one world and that this virus does not care what colour we are, what nationality or religion we identify ourself by, whether we are male or female, straight or gay. If only more of us were as intelligent as Covid-19.

‘I cannot take my eyes off it, I look forward to it and I haven’t done that since Dallas’