Fighting Talk
Contents |
Host
Regular radio hosts
Johnny Vaughan (Radio: 2003-4; Broadcast TV pilot: 2004; Any Other Business: 8 July - 5 August 2007)
Christian O'Connell (2004-5)
Colin Murray (2005-13)
Christian O'Connell, Jonathan Pearce, Matt Johnson (rotating hosts, 2013-4)
Georgie Thompson [as Georgie Ainslie from early 2015], Josh Widdicombe (rotating hosts, 2014-present)
Guest radio hosts
Terry Wogan (9 April 2005)
Gabby Logan (29 October 2005, 13 May 2006, 2 July 2011)
Dickie Davies (11 March 2006)
Richard Bacon (Any Other Business: 24 December 2006; Election Special: 3 May 2010)
Johnny Vaughan (10 March 2007, filling in for Colin Murray who was singing on Fame Academy, also 15 September 2007 and 2 February 2008)
Phil Williams (5 April 2008)
Kelly Dalglish (22 November 2008)
Jimmy Tarbuck (29 November 2008)
Kelly Cates (18 April 2009)
Chris Hollins (2 January 2010)
Alan Davies (9 January 2010)
Barry Davies (28 August 2010)
Nick Hancock (23 October 2010, 18 June 2011, 14 January 2012, 5 January 2013)
Jake Humphrey (9 July 2011)
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (23 November 2013, 1 March 2014, 5 April 2014)
Jim Rosenthal (31 May 2014)
Broadcast
World's End for Five Live, 4 October 2003 to present
World's End for BBC2, 2004
Synopsis
TV version of The Vaughan's BBC Radio Five Live sporting debates show. Four people who write about, broadcast on and participate in sport (and Graham Taylor) compete for points doled out by Johnny for saying something aggressive, interesting or patriotic about a given sporting topic. Points are deducted for being dull, repetitive, unopinionated or plain wrong.
Various buttons are used by Vaughan to cue in sound effects and video stings (Land of Hope and Glory, a dripping tap, a crying baby) to signify his opinion on what the panellists are saying.
In the final round, Defend the Indefensible, the two top scorers have 20 seconds to put forward a positive argument for a ridiculous proposition, such as "Robert Mugabe should win Sports Personality of the Year".
All in all, quite a fresh take on the panel game genre but it could dearly do with an audience to provide some laffs.
In 2006, the original radio show branched out into Fighting Talk: Any Other Business where the topics were news-based rather than sports.
Inventor
Based on a BBC Radio Five Live format, itself similar to ESPN's Around the Horn.
Champions
A "Champions' League" final was inaugrated in May 2010, held before an audience on the morning of the final of the UEFA men's club competition. It's contested by four of the best performers in the prior nine months of competition.
- 2010 Bob Mills
- 2011 Tom Watt
- 2012 Steve Bunce
- 2013 Martin Kelner
- 2014 Justin Moorhouse
Web links
See also
Mark Watson Kicks Off, a television adaptation of the format.
Weaver's Week review (2011) and comparison against Around the Horn.
