Present and Correct

Comedians make good pundits and presenters in the unpredictable world of sport.

It's a windy Friday lunchtime in late September, and on Britain's biggest dedicated sports radio station, a couple of comedians are getting some handy broadcasting work. The veteran stand-up Bob Mills is back in his old Friday mid-morning slot, having co-hosted that show every weekday, not too long ago. Then comic and broadcaster Charlie Baker finishes his week-long stint filling in on the early-afternoon show - he's usually to be found on that station at weekends.

Getting such a regular gig is particularly handy for comics these days, given the lack of live shows at the moment, and sport does seem to be perennially popular. At least on a station like that one, you won't hear long, depressing reports about all the lengthily grim other news going on in the world right now - mainly lots of stuff about the new football season.

And in truth you might as well hire comedians, rather than ex-footballers, as no-one can really predict the ups and downs that are to come; that's the joy of sport. If you do accurately guess the real long-odds winners and losers, you'd be better off heading to a site like Sbobet than doing punditry, as some of those guestimates would get you laughed at. Just look at the start of last season.

Not long after Spurs had made it to the biggest game in world football, the Champions League Final, you'd have got good odds on their popular manager getting sacked, then being replaced by former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho (although character comic Raphael Wakefield must have been pleased, as the follow-up to his tremendous show Wengerball probably writes itself now - he does a memorable Mourinho impression, wading into the audience in a wickedly creepy manner).

Last season was a weird one anyway, of course, and no-one could have guessed that it would turn out to be the longest in history, by a long way, kicking off in August and finishing in, er, August again, rather than May. Or that the BBC would commemorate the weirdness of lockdown by bringing together ex-England footballer Peter Crouch, Taskmaster creator/co-host Alex Horne, and former Radio 1 presenter Maya Jama, for a show called Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer. On prime-time Saturday nights. That did sound like a bored producer had put it together to win a bet.

Sport does get everywhere. It's probably worth pretending you're a fan these days anyway really, even if you actively dislike all of it, particularly if you've got something to plug. A lot of PRs clearly have no qualms about bigging-up their clients' interest in a particular football club, for example, in order to get them onto a popular sport-themed radio or TV show.

Then again, it's one of the more cringeworthy things you'll ever hear, as a sketchily-briefed presenter launches into a lengthy question about, say, Manchester United's dodgy form so far this season, only for their blatantly bewildered celebrity guest to respond with one-word answers, as they haven't the faintest idea what they're on about. Cue tumbleweeds.

That's one good reason to get a comedian on as a co-host. They're used to coping with awkward silences.