This is part 2 of the interview with Hannah England, written by RunBlogRun’s senior writer for Europe, Stuart Weir.
Hannah England on commentary
We spoke in Paris when she was about to share commentary with Chris Dennis. I wondered how they decided which races each would describe: “Generally we just go every other one. That’s the general rule of thumb and unless one puts a hand up and says, ‘you know I am desperate to do a particular race’. If someone is adamant they want to do a particular race, you might start at that midpoint and then extrapolate out. But it’s basically every other one so we try and make sure there’s a change of voice for every race.
An example of a time when Hannah might really want to do commentary is when one of the athletes is coached by her husband, Luke Gunn, is running – but equally, she admits, she might not be comfortable taking that race “because it’s too high stakes”. In any case, as she points out, impartiality and lack of bias is an essential part of the job. She is of course hoping for success for the British athlete but cannot let it be seen in her commentary.
What, I wondered, were the main challenges in commentary. Surprisingly she said it was arguably easier to commentate from a studio with one monitor, seeing what the viewer is seeing, sitting in a quiet environment only concentrating on one picture whereas in the stadium they are trying to keep across the field events while describing a race: “I think it’s that quite often you haven’t actually got ideal conditions or your computer system might go down or there’s someone talking, and saying something wrong in your ear like telling you what’s coming next and they might not be getting it right! It’s really hard to stay in the present as you’re trying to think ahead about what’s coming up and then you can easily miss something as you might be looking down at your timetable trying to figure out what’s going on”.
Another challenge, she suggests, is, when you make a mistake, to move on and not dwell on it and not spend the next 5 minutes being upset about the mistake trying to figure out why it happened and then making another three mistakes while thinking about the first one.
I told her that at the Paris Olympics, the men’s 100m finished and up on the board went the words “Winner Fred Kerley”. Seconds later it said “Winner Letsile Tebogo” and only at the third attempt did the correct name “Noah Lyles” appear. Hannah smiles in sympathy with commentators in Paris and described the situation when the commentator is relying on the information that flashes across the screen but feels very sure it is wrong. Do you go with what you have seen and contradict the official information – and confuse the viewer – or go with the screen even though you think it is wrong?
Another difficult situation is what to do if your co-commentator gets something wrong. Hannah is clear: “You don’t contradict him. The 101 of commentating is don’t make your co-commentator look stupid; it’s not fair. You know it’s a hard job”. Similarly an athlete many have told you something in confidence which would help the viewer understand what has happened but you have to keep confidences: “Sometimes I’m privy to stuff and I really try and only go by what’s in the public domain and it’s not fair for me to say I know this because I was in the dining room and so and so told me”.
Sometimes rather than the commentary box, she is doing interviews with athletes as they finish: “I really like the mixed zone and I have really enjoyed doing that and I think.
I do really remember those scenarios. As an athlete, when you’re absolutely exhausted and particularly when it hasn’t gone well and you have to go through that .I do try and think of different questions – not your normal. I understand that and try to be a bit extra sympathetic”.
Hannah with Richard Newman and Katie Smith has just launched Podium Athletic Podcast.
Podium Athletics – Podcast – Apple Podcasts
