‘He was a natural broadcaster,’ said Nick Higham, after the death last week of the rugby player and sports broadcaster Cliff Morgan. I wondered what he meant. ‘Natural’ as in born to the task? Or ‘natural’ as in his ability to communicate as if chatting directly to you, and only you, with no pretension or affectation, just a desire to tell a good story, to convey his enthusiasm?
I still miss Morgan on Saturday mornings. He had such a warm voice, and something more: a real and genuine interest in the stories behind the athletes, tennis stars, rugby players, basketball champions, wrestlers, rowers, cyclists, swimmers, gymnasts, equestrians he chatted to on Sport on Four, which disappeared from the airwaves in 1998. (I never forgave John Peel for replacing Morgan’s sporting truths with Home Truths.) Morgan’s conversation was always prompted by sporting achievement, but it was never limited by that. Yes, shot-put is brilliant, archery totally absorbing, synchronised swimming a hoot. But what makes sport interesting to non-sporty types like me? Morgan understood how to keep us engaged by giving us the human dimension, the back story. He could even persuade me that football was worth watching.
All Morgan needed to keep us listening was a mike and mixing board — but also the electricity to power up the studio. On Thursday Radio 5 Live tried to survive for 12 hours without the National Grid. As a gimmick with a purpose, a vast inflatable dome was set up outside 5 Live’s base at Media City from which to broadcast for the day. At least that was the intention. This column will go to press before the solar panels, wind turbines, humanly inspired kinetic energy (via a peloton of exercise bikes) and back-up biofuel (a vat of old chip fat from the BBC canteen) have been properly put to the test.
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