As a Manchester City supporter it’s impossible not to take some pleasure in the documentary but it pulls its punches, fails to probe and is nothing but a gloriously glossy club commercialWhy am I so reluctant to watch All or Nothing: Manchester City? The eight-part Amazon documentary series covers my team’s season mirabilis – 2017-18 when we won the league with record points, wins and goals, playing the beautiful game more beautifully than it’s ever been played in the Premier League. Fellow fans tell me it’s incredible and rivals say it’s a must-see. Even non-football fans are waxing lyrical. Perhaps that’s part of the problem. Related: Football transfer rumours: Keylor Navas to Manchester City? Related: How Lazio’s ultras must wish...
England’s glorious day in the sun lifted the BBC pundits but there was still caution amid the commotionComplain about the licence fee if you must but the bottom line is the BBC’s comprehensive World Cup coverage offers something for everyone. Toddlers across the land, for example, have been cavorting joyously to the simple pleasure of the Kicky Kicky Kick Kick song from the Hey Duggee cartoon. Meanwhile on Radio 5 Live there is the Robbie Savage breakfast show, for those who have not yet graduated to CBeebies.It is a broad church. But the actual match coverage must please everyone at once, no mean feat. England’s support can be roughly split into two categories – the blindly optimistic and the morbidly fatalistic – and...
The fetishising of Team GB feeds into the notion of medal hunting, of glossy PR at the expense of sport for allIn medical practice the phrase “the dose is the poison” is sometimes used to describe the principle that an excess of anything can be deadly. Take enough of it and it will kill you, from kitten tears to unicorn laughter to everyday ingestion of diesel residue from your own family car.At times during the BBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics it has been tempting to wonder if this rule also applies to extreme, nauseating doses of public niceness; if it is possible, given sufficient exposure, to die of niceness. Related: How much will Team GB's 'medal moments' in Pyeongchang really...
Matt Smith and co had a solid opening despite a late wobble, while there’s an Ashes bromance in the air for Graeme Swann and Damien Fleming, but the adverts did jar a littleFade in. Interior, an extraordinarily messy room with a massage bed in the middle. Clothing and footwear are strewn across all visible surfaces and large bags are scattered haphazardly across the remaining floor space. Pads and bats are piled up, leaning against benches and walls. Exposed pipes meander around the ceiling, not in a trendy architect‑inspired Pompidou‑Centre way but just in a couldn’t-really-be-bothered-to-hide-them way. In the corner a television is attached tightly to the wall, so that instead of facing into the room it points straight ahead, allowing...
The TNT mainstay has provided fine entertainment over the years but it is becoming increasingly hampered by hot takes and bullying“Inappropriate. Whiny. [LeBron James is] all of the above. The Cleveland Cavaliers, they have given him everything he wanted. They have the highest payroll in NBA history. Does he want all of the good players? He doesn’t want to compete?”Skip Bayless has forged a career as a LeBron James troll. From ESPN to FS1, he fills time through the calendar year ripping the greatest basketball player in the world. As James continues to pile outstanding season on outstanding season, Bayless’ unyielding attacks have grown increasingly pathetic and baseless, whatever credibility he once had as a talking head falling away faster...