The Richard Keys and Andy Gray Sky Sports off-microphone fiasco, which I shall dub “Bantergate”, brought out a considerable percentage of the nation to tut, tweet, taunt and trivialise. These two football chat merchants managed to knock far more substantial news stories off front pages and television news headlines, seemingly endorsing Bill Shankly’s observation that the game is much more important than life and death.
The nation was divided between those who thought it was just lads exchanging typical male, flippant, childish comments and those who were apoplectic that such prehistoric views could be uttered by men about women in this day and age. Just in case, you have been living in a bubble, they made sexist remarks about women in football – comments not meant for broadcasting, but leaked somehow through the colander that is the media industry. The tabloids exploited the story as if it was a national crisis. But the honours for fascination belong to radio.
Richard Keys, who was then still employed by Sky, although Andy Gray had been sacked, managed to get himself onto “Radio Bloke”, more properly known as TalkSport. He was given plenty of time and space on the Hawksbee and Jacobs show to explain what had happened and to offer apologies in measured, contrite tones. It was a risky strategy because he, along with Gray, had already been hung, drawn and quartered by the newspapers.
This was an hour of classic live radio. Several times, Keys said he was sorry. He spoke of “dark forces” behind the leaks. He vehemently denied that football was inherently sexist. He spoke slowly and clearly, as if he was in the dock, which was not too far from the truth.
Whatever Keys wanted to happen as a result of this exposure is neither here nor there because the next day he announced his resignation from Sky. “Bantergate” had claimed two prestigious heads and a section of the nation rejoiced. As for Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs, they were exposed as weak, passive and unable to turn the Keys appearance into a cracker of a confrontation.
Radio Bloke should always be up for such a scrap, unlike Desert Island Discs – a show that has a duty to be calm and gentle in its information gathering. Most of the time it is not much more than a standard chat show with records. However, every so often, it features a surprising guest.
Betty Driver, better known as Betty Turpin, the hot-pot catering queen of Coronation Street, was the best guest in a long, long time. She is a much-loved actress, not least because of her four decades in and around The Rover’s Return pub. She revealed that her childhood was horrible, mainly because of a rotten, ambitious, greedy mother who forced her to work singing in theatres. Young Betty did not see any of her earnings and could not recall ever receiving a single Christmas present. “We never got a kiss”, she said, which is a heartbreaking phrase to sum up her early life.
We can’t know for sure, but it is probably be a safe bet that Betty Driver would not have used the F-word to release her frustrations, but it is a word that sneaks into live broadcasting occasionally. The tiresome duo of Chris Evans and Elton John chatted on the former’s breakfast show and John let the bad word slip out.
In breakfast show terms, it is becoming like a badge of honour, as this is not the first time in radio history that the word has seeped out. It’s a kind of almost accepted “Oops” moment that generates publicity and many sincerely (ahem) delivered apologies. Which is more or less where we came in.
Joe Cushnan
