When Murray called 6-Love-6
You can carry your phone all day and no-one calls. As soon as you put it down for five minutes, your boss, your superiors and the boy you've been pretending to ignore for days phone. In my case, my boss called and left me two text messages involving the words: "urgent."
A little unnecessary - all they wanted me to do was go to the roof and read texts for John McEnroe. Yes, he's a cult figure, yes, I know his reputation (McEnroe that is, not my boss) but what was he going to do, eat me?
Far from it. In fact he barely spoke to me, I spoke when spoken to and posed the questions we invited listeners to send in. My favourite: "where would you rank the number one women's player in the men's ranking?" A fair bit of goading and the inclusion of Andy Murray led to some pretty inflammatory remarks.
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A year ago, I might have jumped on the defensive, arguing about women in labour and making the point that in a recent ultra-marathon only 50% of the men's field finished but 100% of the women made it across the line. I didn't for once - I kept schtum. I kept irrelevant facts to myself and listened.
No I haven't abandoned my burning bra. For one of the first times in this tournament I thought before I opened my mouth: you can't compare the two. It's like saying, "Is that apple as good as that banana?" They're different. You see, every day really is a school day.
Comment number 1.
At 09:54 2nd Jul 2010, carrie wrote:Spelling again.
Grammar again.
That voice again.
Someone has made a big mistake putting Helen up for a job that is quite clearly beyond her all abilities.
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Comment number 2.
At 10:35 2nd Jul 2010, Ellie Reuter wrote:Typo corrected, Carrie.
Grammar seems ok to me.
(And presenters' voices are always going to be a matter of individual taste).
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Comment number 3.
At 11:21 2nd Jul 2010, carrie wrote:Sorry but I can't see why I shouldn't complain about what you probably think are trivial things - there is an expectation that the BBC employs people who at least can use a spellchecker before posting a piece that millions (!) might read.
Maybe I should have posted "use of the English language" rather than "grammar", it doesn't make any difference, it is an awful piece of disjointed writing.
I am not alone in thinking Helen's voice is difficult to listen, to by the way.
Glad to see you are here Ellie.
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Comment number 4.
At 11:22 2nd Jul 2010, ryanw wrote:Another incredibly vacous post. What about some real insights what goes on behind the scenes at the tournament, how hawkeye works, how the BBC brings you such great pictures, a human interest story of the week of the tennis loving old bloke who minds the park across the road and tames the queues of tennis lovers who camp overnight.
You may as well be in a cave. This post has little relevance to Wimbledon, provides no meaningful insights into tennis or the coverage and does not have a worthy human interest angle. You could have written it about anything anywhere.
It's as if you've been told to get paid by us to watch tennis all day and quaff champagne you've been asked to read a couple of 140 character messages out and you've been told you need to contribute to the 5Live blog. So you've given it five seconds thought (perhaps I am being too generous) and written some lightweight fluff about you. Are all blue peter presenters obesssed with themselves?
Please, please try harder! Who's in charge of quality control? Does the BBC have standards any more?
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Comment number 5.
At 15:02 5th Jul 2010, David Shield wrote:Keep up the good work Helen, I for one look forward to hearing you again on Five Live in the future.
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Comment number 6.
At 07:40 6th Jul 2010, Jackstumps wrote:Is David Shield Fedster reinvented?
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