In a world where television isn’t always all I want it to be, it’s delightful when something feels 100% entirely right.
So it was on Sunday night, where the BBC broadcast its closing montage for the World Cup. BBC Sport always do these wonderfully – I have a soft spot for the one made for the 2016 Rio Olympics, and yes, the music there was the obvious choice – but I fancy this is one of the very best they’ve ever done. Every time I watch it, I spot something new.
When the planes appear at 29 seconds and the lyrics kick in, I get goosebumps.
But here’s the thing I truly love about these montages: those credits. Endless names thrown onto the screen. Well-known faces, or the very definition of a backroom boy or girl. Each of them important, each of them making the output just that little bit better.
In a world where the BBC is asking “What has the BBC ever done for me?”, those credits are a reminder that in order to do those things, it takes people. It doesn’t all happen automatically, and you can’t do it with just a couple of harried producers in a room. To make tournaments like this happen to the quality which audiences expect takes not just a team, but teams of teams.
Which is as it should be. The thing which makes television worthwhile is because it is people speaking to other people. It’s the entire point of the endeavour.
Anything else is meaningless.