sportsperson of the year

Where was the bloopers package!?!

Beckham looked like a character from Grand Theft Auto 3.

Good news for your lads about Houllier in that programme as well, Chris. I was glad to see him looking well. Looking forward to the Arsenal - Liverpool clash on the 23rd, btw?

Lynam=Past it, no longer great but nonetheless better than Bob "I leer at the camera like a paedophile" Wilson.

Lineker=Dullard.

The future is the flirty chemistry between Hanson and Lawro.

Hansen is one of the coolest people on telly. Having said that however, his golf round up was abysmal last night - he sounded as if he had been drinking buckfast.Did you hear when Lineker said that Alan "squeals like a pig"? I was gigling like a 13 year old.

he did squeal like a pig though, I love seeing the pundit's reactions to games when they're not being filmed formally, Hansen went so far up in my estimations for that.

Will, unfortunately I will, most likely be on a coach on my way back from Glasgow when Liverpool - the arse is on on the 23rd, so I'll be updated by the power of wap.

Ronan, the Hansen/Lawro flirt factory needs a man to bounce off, Lineker is the ideal candidate for me. He's a nice bloke and knows far mopre about football (sport in general) than Lynam who is merely autopiloting his way into retirement, let's face it ITV won't get the footy again for a while after this fiasco and the BBC have already replaced him.

Lineker = really good, and getting better, whereas Lynam = I have no idea why he's so popular. He sounds awkward all the time, buggers it up with alarming regularity, and is an old duffer with a TACHE, for god's sake!

Hazel Irving = rowr?

not as Rowr as Isobel Lang, the most attractive woman on BBC1 at the mo.

She's dead wee though - she has to stand on a box to deliver the weather forecast. Does that make her more rowr?

Does fancying tiny women make you a misogynist? ('The lady in my pocket' kind of thing).

Isobel Lang - I made a filthy comment about her a few weeks back on ILE. Rowr indeed.

Was on phone with friend Stu while this was on; he's like "listen to this" and puts the phone up to the TV - Knights of the Jaguar, Derrick May remix. It's a different world youse got over there, it really is.

On the subject of Beckham's award, if it had been for sports person of the year, I'd have no problems with that. But no, it was for sports *personality* of the year. Now of course it's not fair to expect all our sports men and women to be witty, articulate intelligent and charming. (In fact, we'd probably hate them if they were.) But neither is it fair for sportspeople lacking in these attributes to get awards supposedly acknowledging what a wonderful personality they have.

I think a sports personality award should be precisely that, an award for a great personality, irrespective of the success they've gained in their chosen sport.

And as the end credits rolled, it was plain to see how ill at ease Mr Beckham looked. It reminded me of the opening podium introductions on "Shooting Stars".

So all in all, the awards ceremony was a comedy classic.

DB = Mr Personality compared to past winners (NIGEL MANSELL!!)

It's also worth remembering that the GBP have given this award to both red rum and princess anne in the past, i think "personality" was just introduced as an alternative to "sportsman". but why did they have people talking about any sport other than the one they normally do? why no darts coverage (despite the fact that it's one of the few things they could show without "courtesey of a.n. other channel" in the corner)? why stupid arty vision mixing business (cf zooming into beckham's eye (i shit you not, ppl who missed it) before he takes the freekick against the greeks) instead of HALF DECENT FOOTAGE? and why no silly game in the studio??? too many unanswerables, but there you go...

Steady Mike might disagree and [alan] parry with with memories of c.1987, but I reckon this prog is a lot better than it used to be. There go theories of universal cultural decline.

Houllier: great moments, and a real surprise for me. But the location he was in was painful - back of an Anfield loading bay, or something; on walks Ian Rush sans moustache...