Euro 2012: Has Adrian Chiles struck a blow for honesty?

The match between France and Ukraine had to be suspended

Stupidly, I hadn’t remembered to Sky-plus the game. And I didn’t have my notebook with me to jot down presenter Adrian Chiles’ actual words verbatim. But he definitely said it, I swear he did.

And TV-wise, make no mistake: it was truly ground-breaking stuff.

“Don’t worry,” ITV1’s Chiles assured us, half-way through the thunder-and-lightning-delayed Ukraine-v-France encounter. “You won’t have to miss a minute of the England match.” Or words to that effect.

Now, I know this may not have sounded a particularly big deal – I don’t suppose it’ll be popping up one day on Channel 4’s Most Shocking Throwaway Remarks On Telly Ever – but don’t let’s underestimate its significance.

What Chiles was effectively saying, you see, was, “Stuff Emmerdale.”

That was the programme due to follow ITV1’s coverage of Ukraine-France. But instead of insulting our intelligence, as has been the habit of TV sports presenters for as long as I can remember, by avoiding any reference to a rival channel’s imminent live coverage of another crucial match – and pretending instead that Euro 2012 fans were all going to stay loyally tuned to ITV1 to catch up with the Dingle family’s latest scrapes – Chiles openly acknowledged that we’d all be switching over to England v Sweden, his remark alerting us to the fact that it had been delayed until 8pm.

Now, I happen to be quite a fan of Emmerdale, thanks to my day job as Britain’s fourth best TV Critic – I think it’s desperately sad, don’t you, the way the village’s former vicar Ashley has recently found himself homeless and destitute? – but even I wasn’t dim enough to believe this was the only terrestrial viewing option available to us football fans once the current game’s coverage was over. I don’t suppose many people were.

So top marks to Chiles, for cutting the traditional nonsense and just telling it how it was. They don’t tend to do that, do they, sports presenters? They rarely go, “Ooh, well, you’re obviously a football fan, or else you wouldn’t have stayed tuned to this so-so game for the last two hours, so I guess you’re going to be switching over to the other side for the big one in a few minutes’ time, right? Can’t say I blame you…”

And yet this was effectively what Chiles had done.

As I say, its significance may well have been lost of many viewers, but significant it most certainly was. Here was an unprecedented level of honesty and realism on a sports presenter’s part – a willingness to address us viewers as if we weren’t all idiots, to acknowledge that the coverage of this tournament was being shared with ITV’s biggest rival, and that this was where, Dingle crisis or not, most fans would be turning in a few minutes’ time. Usually they’ll refuse to acknowledge the rival channel’s coverage of any game, simply drawing our attention instead to their own late-night highlights package. And we’ll quietly chuckle / seethe at their daftness, amused by the fact they think we’d fall for such a transparently lame tactic.

As to where all this honesty will eventually lead, we can only speculate. But the possibilities for TV are endless:

“And now on BBC1, Panorama investigates the crisis in the Eurozone. But if I were you, I’d switch over to Corrie, where there’s a really good riot brewing in the knicker factory…”

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• NiceChappie

  “Adrian Chiles looks for all the world like a Toby Jug that has somehow
  learnt how to speak. A Toby Jug, filled to the brim with hot pizz.”
  (Stewart Lee)
  There is nothing to add to this brilliant observation.

• Frank_Poster

  Having lived abroad for a while, that’s the “great” thing that I notice about my fellow English, they’re so f’ing spiteful to each other. Making fun of AC, making fun of Roy’s speech impediment, and the list goes on and is endless. Meanwhile as they take the p1ss out of each other the country crumbles; every man / woman for themselves and two fingers to everyone else.

• NiceChappie

  Then I suggest you stay in foreign climes, sunshine.
  We’ll survive without you – somehow.

• oldwatcher

  Chiles is so lucky to have a job although he lost as a pundit.
  I am sure my dog knows more about football and can head a ball no bother.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OT2PEMIXDZQBGSF7HZ2D3A6OAM Banares

  Adrian Chiles is just another Mainstream Media Puppet who is happy to distort things and spread lies and rumour what sums up Chiles for me was no mention of him being a Croatian Suporter and background mentioned yet a few years back when he was on the BBC he had his Croatian shirt and flag draped over him proud as punch in the euro tournament!

• http://twitter.com/Leafuss C Yates

  Do you think that perhaps you’re reading too much into this? God forbid that anyone get in between you and your beloved Emmerdale, which you are apparently 4th best in the universe at criticising, but there has got to be far more you could nitpick at than that very innocuous, as you say, throw-away comment.

  For instance, in todays match I swear one of the commentators said of Andy Caroll: “there are things he can’t do and things he can do”… okay different match, but a stupid, mindless comment you could indeed take issue with. I’m sure you could have found fault with a plethora of better stuff than that…

  This whole article is lame and a waste of time but it got me to comment

  I think you should just stick to Emmerdale and its highly cerebral plotlines rather than mock the pundits… (An easy job you appear to be struggling with.)

• Frank_Poster

  Every presenter and panelist supports a football team, England or any other country that they come from. A complete toss pot comment.