Who is popular today?

BBC commentator known as ‘the voice of golf’ who had a successful career as a player
Peter Alliss was one of the pioneer broadcasters who learned their trade as they went along and, as most of them put it, “by the seat of their pants”. That was in the primeval days around the middle of the 20th century when fuzzy monochrome pictures of live sport were the province of the BBC outside broadcast department. But while Alliss, who has died aged 89, qualifies for membership of such an ancient company, he could equally be celebrated as the trailblazing first of a brand new breed.
For unlike the peer group he joined at the television microphone in the early 1960s – which included David Coleman, Harry Carpenter, Bill McLaren, Eddie Waring and the two Peters, West and O’Sullevan, who had all come to the BBC from print journalism – Alliss took to the commentary box after a career as a sportsman. One of the world’s best professional golfers, in a 21-year span he won more than 20 tournaments, half a dozen national championships, and appeared in 10 World Cups and eight Ryder Cups. When he stopped playing the game he went on to describe it – and so helped to effect the now established idea of a former player working in the commentary box. Continue reading...