Why Are We Always Indoors? , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Paul Armstrong

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306 pages

English

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A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Why Are We Always Indoors? (...unless we're off to Barnard Castle) is a personal chronicle of the strangest and darkest football close season in modern history. Having studied politics at university, Paul Armstrong spent much of his career running BBC TV's Match of the Day, then wrote the memoir Why Are We Always On Last? which was published in 2019. In March 2020, he embarked on a journal of London lockdown life against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic. This eventually spanned the 105 days between MOTD's Premier League highlights being removed from the schedules and returning in June. Musings and anecdotes about sport, TV, music and life under lockdown became increasingly overshadowed by the mounting tragedy, and a sense of despair and anger at how the crisis was handled at the highest level. This was informed by a lifetime of studying and following politics and by a network of contacts from television and sport, and in various other affected walks of life. A first-hand account of a slice of living history, conveyed with dark humour and a sense of urgency and immediacy.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Memoir

Informations

Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	31 août 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785318078
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2020
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Paul Armstrong, 2020
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785318023
eBook ISBN 9781785318078
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Contents
Author s Note
Foreword by Dick Clement
Week One
Saturday, 14 March 2020
Sunday, 15 March 2020
Monday, 16 March 2020
Tuesday, 17 March 2020
Wednesday, 18 March 2020
Thursday, 19 March 2020
Friday, 20 March 2020
Week Two
Saturday, 21 March 2020
Sunday, 22 March 2020
Monday, 23 March 2020
Tuesday, 24 March 2020
Wednesday, 25 March 2020
Thursday, 26 March 2020
Friday, 27 March 2020
Week Three
Saturday, 28 March 2020
Sunday, 29 March 2020
Monday, 30 March 2020
Tuesday, 31 March 2020
Wednesday, 1 April 2020
Thursday, 2 April 2020
Friday, 3 April 2020
Week Four
Saturday, 4 April 2020
Sunday, 5 April 2020
Monday, 6 April 2020
Tuesday, 7 April 2020
Wednesday, 8 April 2020
Thursday, 9 April 2020
Good Friday, 10 April 2020
Week Five
Easter Saturday, 11 April 2020
Easter Sunday, 12 April 2020
Easter Monday, April 13 2020
Tuesday, 14 April 2020
Wednesday, 15 April 2020
Thursday, 16 April 2020
Friday, 17 April 2020
Week Six
Saturday, 18 April 2020
Sunday, 19 April 2020
Monday, 20 April 2020
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Wednesday, 22 April 2020
Thursday, 23 April 2020
Friday, 24 April 2020
Week Seven
Saturday, 25 April 2020
Sunday, 26 April 2020
Monday, 27 April 2020
Tuesday, 28 April 2020
Wednesday, 29 April 2020
Thursday, 30 April 2020
Friday, 1 May 2020
Week Eight
Saturday, 2 May 2020
Sunday, 3 May 2020
Monday, 4 May 2020
Tuesday, 5 May 2020
Wednesday, 6 May 2020
Thursday, 7 May 2020
Friday, 8 May 2020
Week Nine
Saturday, 9 May 2020
Sunday, 10 May 2020
Monday, 11 May 2020
Tuesday, 12 May 2020
Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Thursday, 14 May 2020
Friday, 15 May 2020
Week Ten
Saturday, 16 May 2020
Sunday, 17 May 2020
Monday, 18 May 2020
Tuesday, 19 May 2020
Wednesday, 20 May 2020
Thursday, 21 May 2020
Friday, 22 May 2020
Week Eleven
Saturday, 23 May 2020
Sunday, 24 May 2020
Postscript
Sunday, 21 June 2020
Author s Note
I embarked on this book as a way of recording daily reflections on the most bizarre football close-season ever known, and to fill the long hours of lockdown. However, as events beyond our four walls grew darker, so the focus drifted from whimsical musings on football, TV and music to a growing unease with how a dreadful pandemic was being handled. Even then, it quite often drifted back again.
Unlike Dominic Cummings s blog about pandemics, this journal was written in real time, and sent to friends on a weekly basis. I ve amended certain words and phrases where necessary in accordance with legal guidelines, but any misinterpretations or inaccurate forecasts have not been edited retrospectively to try to make me look clever. As a former TV programme editor with an academic background in politics and (some) economics, I tried to remain evidence-based and well-sourced, even when ranting.
I d like to thank my weekly distribution list of friends and family for their encouragement and input. Especially Dick Clement, whose generosity and collaborative instincts from a lifetime of co-writing some of the greatest TV scripts of all time ( Porridge, The Likely Lads, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet ) were a godsend. All the attempts at silly or dark comedy herein are very much mine, though. And huge thanks to Jane Camillin from Pitch Publishing for her support. Why Are We Always On Last? (2019), covering my time in charge of BBC s Match of the Day , was very much their patch; this isn t, but they ve stuck with me, for which I m very grateful.
Most of all, thanks and love to Amanda from Stockton for tolerating several months trapped with me in our small flat and still being prepared to improve my syntax, grammar and punctuation on a daily basis.
Foreword by Dick Clement
I haven t spent a lot of time in Paul s company. The most memorable occasion was a trip to Stockholm in 1998 with him and my son Andrew for the European Cup Winners Cup Final between Chelsea and Stuttgart. Gianfranco Zola got the winning goal. Andrew and I got quite excited. I don t think Paul did as he supports Middlesbrough, as you will often be reminded in the pages that follow.
I feel I know Paul a great deal better now after reading his journal as it unfolded over the past weeks. When I read the opening segment, it hit me that a chronicle of living through this unprecedented crisis would be an invaluable document. I think I was the first person who compared him to Samuel Pepys and his Diaries , which chronicled the Great Plague.
Certain events feel like genuine watersheds. The attack on the Twin Towers was one. As I watched it on TV, I knew that the world would never be the same. We re living through another such event. This one is far more drawn out and unpredictable but in years to come writers will be asking themselves, Did this happen before or after COVID-19? because it s hard to imagine that we will ever go back to the way we were. Already TV shows where people get together in groups for a party or a play or a sporting event seem as if they re from another era. I flinch when people stand too close or - God forbid - hug and kiss each other on the screen.
Back to Pepys, writing in 1664, On hearing ill rumour that Londoners may soon be urged from their lodgings by Her Majesty s men, I looked upon the street to see a gaggle of striplings making fair merry, and no doubt spreading the plague well about. Not a care had these rogues for the health of their elders!
Full disclosure: I ve never read Pepys but the quote is bogus. England didn t have a queen in 1664 and the plague only took hold the following year. Can t really blame the author. We all need to find something to do during lockdown.
There is nothing fake about Paul s sentiments. His fury with miscommunication, lack of leadership, bad decision-making and trepidation about the eventual outcome leap from the page. The fact that he was able to finish the document is its own spoiler alert. Let s just hope he never has to write a sequel.
Dick Clement, Los Angeles, June 2020.

Saturday, 14 March 2020
Lord Olivier is indisposed and will be unable to take part in tonight s performance. The part of Macbeth will instead be played by Dave Lee Travis.
That was the response of my Twitter account @armoaning to the news that tonight s cancelled Match of the Day ( MOTD ) will be replaced in the BBC One schedule by an episode of Mrs Brown s Boys .
For all my ambivalence about this country, I m as British as it gets when it comes to expressing my feelings in public. I m in London NW3, in the borough with the second-highest recorded infection rate in the whole of England to date, on the day official figures for coronavirus (or its latest incarnation, COVID-19, to be more specific) in the UK reached four figures and deaths almost doubled to 20. Italy, which seems to be about a fortnight ahead of us in the global science fiction movie currently playing out, is burying its dead (over 1,000 already), singing defiantly from balconies above the deserted streets and applauding its overwhelmed medical heroes. The best I can do, publicly at least, is to rubbish a hackneyed but harmless comedy show by reworking an old Paul Calf line my mate Rob Skilbeck has been using to express dissatisfaction for 20 years or more.
At least part of me is crapping myself, to be honest. I m only ( only ) 55, with a bit of a history of asthma, and Amanda is a little older with a strange auto-immune condition which can cause her to develop a cough even when nothing s ostensibly wrong. We re not in the highest at risk group (though I suspect we re in the city which is going to get this worst, and first) but my parents absolutely are. Aged 80-ish with underlying health conditions, and living in Kent with my brother and his school age daughters, so potentially not able to isolate themselves properly.
As BBC Sport presenters, pundits and production teams would tell you, my tendency when I have no control over events is to absorb as much information as possible in the hope that whatever happens isn t going to catch me on the hop. That works fairly well when you re in charge of a live World Cup broadcast, and know what analysis and features you want, with a contingency plan if the star man doesn t start or the kick-off s delayed. It s an absolute nightmare in a situation like this. Even the scientists don t seem to agree, so how can I find anything to cling on to? Worryingly, the UK government in the form of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his chief adviser Dominic Cummings appears to have taken its cavalier, maverick outlier approach to Brexit into the gravest health crisis this country, and indeed the world, has faced in a century.
The whole of Europe appears to be heading for a death toll far in excess of the Asian countries in which this virus first struck. Within Europe - and indeed the world, now that US President Donald Trump appears to