614 replies to this topic

[Jungle Boy]

http://www.petitiono...1/petition.html

For to long now Allen has ruined the ITV broadcast with his yammering and overall idiocy. He yammers on constantly and often talks over, and/or interrupts Brundle who is quite frankly a brilliant announcer who makes the race worth watching.

Please sign the petition if you are tired of James and would just like him to shut up.

Thank you.

[Riker!]

You do realise that online petition have basically fark all chances of working. Your better of Spamming there email address with James is crap, shut him up etc.

[Slatz]

If you don't like James Allen, why not petition ITV to hire someone you think will better at the job rather than putting down the guy doing it now?

[Jaybee]

That's being tried as well, to no avail as yet

[fifi]

whats the point.......... there not going to listen to us

[RTH]

It is extraordinary that he is widely regarded by everyone you speak to, many thousands of posts in dozens of threads here and elsewhere, and ordinary casual viewers - as not the man for this job.

I have no doubt ,this will have been the main feedback subject on ITV's own e-mail line, I have certainly written to them many times, suggesting other names, - yet he was put straight in to the job , having not been a race commentator before, no one else was tried out, yet despite a barrage of complaint there is not even the feintest hope of him being replaced, and it seems will be there at least for another 5 years, maybe much more. He must know something we don't.

[Nasty McBastard]

Originally posted by Jungle Boy
For to long now Allen has ruined the ITV broadcast with his yammering and overall idiocy. He yammers on constantly and often talks over, and/or interrupts Brundle who is quite frankly a brilliant announcer who makes the race worth watching.

swap 'allen' for 'walker' and the same thing has been said for years.....

personally ive got no problem with either.

[Ferrari_F1_fan_2001]

Whats wrong with Allen? The man is clever, provides good information and makes the show interesting, plus he gives insights into F1 gossip which is interesting to note and up to date. Walker was special and no one can replace him in terms of memories but Allen has done a good job in filling the void. Who would you prefer? Jeremy Clarkson with his anti French/American/German bias or maybe Tiff Needel with his droney like voice? Allen is the best option and does a superb job, too many of you have your hands up Murray's botto. He's gone, let it go please.

Aj

[littlewoodenboy]

i kind of like james allen...

[Arska]

I haven't seen that much of Allen's broadcasts, but from what I have seen, the only thing really bothering me is his "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" at the start.

Otherwise,

[Zmeej]

There was a time when I would have defended James Allen, but my patience has worn thin. Initially, when he'd talken over from Mister Murray, the humbling idea that he'd taken over from a legend kept his inanities to a minimum.

Now that he feels he's experienced, he spews idiotic puns and, as Jungle Boy pointed out, interrupts Brundle for no defensible reason -- i.e. the action in the race, which he loses track of with irritating regularity.

As for why he was chosen, it's probably got to do with the usual internal politics, combined with inscrutable (to us non-Island types) Brit audience preferences.

[Jack Rabbit]

Compared to our Canadian annoucers, Allen is pretty damn good. Trust me, there is a lot worse out there.

[fingers]

Originally posted by Nasty McBastard


swap 'allen' for 'walker' and the same thing has been said for years.....

personally ive got no problem with either.

What the hell are you talking about, Murray is an authentic human being who says what he feels it right he has charisma and a great genuine personality and a voice that even sounds like an F1 engine. James Allen is nothing more than a wannabe Murray Walker public schoolboy nerd.

[_bigbadbob_]

Allen annoyes the hell out of me, too, but as a pair, Allen and Brundle do an acceptable job.

Can ITV find a better announcer? Probably. But IMO Allen's shortcomings are being blown out of proportion. As Jack Rabbit pointed out, he's nowhere near as appauling as our English-language Canadian announcer.

[Ian Stewart]

If only his voice wasn't so harsh. Jumps to conclusions far too quickly as well. OK, it's a difficult job, and maybe he'll improve with time, but that voice just grates.

The best two commentators I ever heard were on Bernie's F1 Digital. John Watson and (I think) Ben Edwards.

[umma gumma]

bwahahahahaha!!!








I have a great e-commerce idea: selling James Allen voodoo dolls online ;)

[se7en_24]

I don't mind James Allen, he's knowledgable and apart from a few corny lines I think he does a pretty good job all in all. It took me a while to get used to F1 without Murray and I think myself and a lot of viewers unfairly judged him on that premise but after a few years of only having RTL having him is a godsend.;)

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Ian Stewart
The best two commentators I ever heard were on Bernie's F1 Digital. John Watson and (I think) Ben Edwards.

I never shelled out for Bernievision, but in their days together at Eurosport, Wattie and Ben were a great double act - especially when compared to Muddly Talker and Jonathan "when I was an F1 driver ...." Palmer. I used to have the BBC pictures on, with the Eurosport commentary playing through the stereo.

[Jordan191]

Originally posted by Jack Rabbit
Compared to our Canadian annoucers, Allen is pretty damn good. Trust me, there is a lot worse out there.

that is oh so true.

[Scorg]

When bernievision was cancelled I nearly went into a state of mourning, Having had a year of some amazing coverage, of all the sessions and the extra in depth behind the scenes stuff (also Peter windsor being insightful and amusing).
Even the pit to car audio was present, including the infamous montoya swareaphon in malaysia and Spa.
I was close to not being able to watch itv for the 03 season

[Nasty McBastard]

Originally posted by fingers
What the hell are you talking about, Murray is an authentic human being who says what he feels it right he has charisma and a great genuine personality and a voice that even sounds like an F1 engine.

thats my point. i love(d) murray, one of the best commentators of any sport i reckon......yet there were as many threads banging on about 'its time to go murray' or 'walker is such an old fool' etc, as there are about allen.

at the end of the day, people arent happy unless theyre moaning about something...or someone

[fastlegs]

Originally posted by Jack Rabbit
Compared to our Canadian annoucers, Allen is pretty damn good. Trust me, there is a lot worse out there.

I live in Canada and the Canadian feed that I watch comes from ITV via TSN with James Allen & Martin Brundle as the announcers.

Are you referring to the Pre & Post coverage that TSN provides with Vic Rauter & Gerry Donaldson?

[Gary Davies]

Originally posted by Ferrari_F1_fan_2001
Whats wrong with Allen? The man is clever, provides good information and makes the show interesting, plus he gives insights into F1 gossip which is interesting to note and up to date. Walker was special and no one can replace him in terms of memories but Allen has done a good job in filling the void. Who would you prefer? Jeremy Clarkson with his anti French/American/German bias or maybe Tiff Needel with his droney like voice? Allen is the best option and does a superb job, too many of you have your hands up Murray's botto. He's gone, let it go please.

Aj

Absolutely spot on! Well said! Well said!

[Mobil1NSXR]

The guy is entertaining, I'll give you that. For the US GP he said on Lap 73:

¡°And here comes Takuma Sato who's got his first ever pole position!¡±

Priceless. But is he doing it on purpose, or is he really that lacking up there?

[zac510]

Has anyone noticed that after he does the 'GOOO' (thanks Arska ), he always says 'xx [polesitter] has got away well', then about 3 seconds later they get overtaken by 3 cars into the first corner. It's like he is afraid of silence and the first car always looks like it is getting away well - so he says it is!!

Anyway I don't think he is that bad. I get the impression even Martin gets irritated by him too Can't comment on Ben Edwards but he sounds good.
In Australia we have this guy called Bill Woods doing the pre-race introduction. He would make any of you guys clamber for the ITV commentary! There was a whole thread here on his babbling recently

Was it Sheckter that did a few races in Murray's retirement year? I remember Monza that year?

[CampioneFerrari]

James allen is THE WORST commentator ever. Apart from being so obviously biased against Ferrari+MS he has the most annoying voice i have ever heard. One more line of "MONSTER MONTOYA" and i'm going to find him and give him a good beating. Please get this loser off the air.

[CampioneFerrari]

A tip for the thread starter, go to the http://www.thescuderia.net forum or for that matter any Ferrari forum and you will get many more sigs.

[PhilKerr]

Ben Edwards should be doing the F1 commentary for ITV

[se7en_24]

Originally posted by CampioneFerrari
Apart from being so obviously biased against Ferrari+MS

You're kidding, right?

[PhilKerr]

Originally posted by CampioneFerrari
James allen is THE WORST commentator ever. Apart from being so obviously biased against Ferrari+MS he has the most annoying voice i have ever heard. One more line of "MONSTER MONTOYA" and i'm going to find him and give him a good beating. Please get this loser off the air.

you are having a laugh yeah ?

Allen named his son after the late Ferrari boss, how much more biased can you get than that ?

[The Fazz]

I think the pairing of Allen (or Walker) with Brundle is acceptable. Brundle is excellent and rarely has off days. Allen plays the role of layman sufficiently. I only get annoyed by his sometimes poorly placed puns. And he doesn't seem as genuinely excitable as Walker - although he seems to make it appear so.

[masterhit]

Signed.

[Gilles4Ever]

What really irritates me is that Allen blabbers on constantly and tells you what you can plaily see for yourself. As a result when something actually happens (like JPM running wide in Q2 today) Martin has the decency to wait for the blabbering to end before he can say something by which stage it is already "yesterdays news".

This is TV we can see what is happening, James Allen should look at Radio!

[Ferrari_F1_fan_2001]

Some of his jokes usually arent well thought of and are spur of the moment.

Montoya on grabbing pole (2002 i think?) "That was a SNORTING lap from the Columbian". Very poor taste IMO.

[novocaine]

i could deal with james allen if he didnt goddamn yell 'go' at the start of the race.

that said he is unbiased and mostly professional. i have no idea how anyone could come to the conclusion that hes anti-ferrari .. but thats internet tifosi for you.

i believe the reason bbc employs him is because they feel that the excitable dumbass / calm know-it-all combination was successful in the past. i dont really see why we cant just have one commentator, as in a lot of football matches.

[StuckOnGrid]

Arrh, so maybe the reason the bbc employ Allen (novocaine) is to irritate ITV viewers beyond belief!!

For my money he is adequate. Yes, his HYPED UP GOOOOOOOs at the start are irritating but things could be worse...

And also, has F1 not been more boring in many ways since Muuray retired due to Ferrari DOMINATION. Consequently, there is less of interest for commentators to comment on, thereby detracting from the scope for interesting commentary ...

[Ferrari_F1_fan_2001]

Well, F1 commentary needs a dialogue for it to be succesful and i believe that Brundle and Allen have succesfully achieved that over the last 3 seasons. A single commentator would be monotonous and i thnk we would all become bored with Brundle's voice, same as if it were Allen's voice. A dialogue between commentators is always a good thing, it helps give insight into the sport and provide good commentary. Infact the commenatory this year has been more exciting than

[Ferrari_F1_fan_2001]

Well, F1 commentary needs a dialogue for it to be succesful and i believe that Brundle and Allen have succesfully achieved that over the last 3 seasons. A single commentator would be monotonous and i thnk we would all become bored with Brundle's voice, same as if it were Allen's voice. A dialogue between commentators is always a good thing, it helps give insight into the sport and provide good commentary. Infact the commenatory this year has been more exciting than the racing IMO. We need more 'GOOOOOOOOOOOO, RACING' from Allen because i am fed up with the sport TBH, its like having sex with the same girl for over 3 years = boring, no matter what she wears the end result/orgasm is always going to be muted.

[fingers]

Originally posted by Ferrari_F1_fan_2001
Whats wrong with Allen? The man is clever, provides good information and makes the show interesting, plus he gives insights into F1 gossip which is interesting to note and up to date. Walker was special and no one can replace him in terms of memories but Allen has done a good job in filling the void. Who would you prefer? Jeremy Clarkson with his anti French/American/German bias or maybe Tiff Needel with his droney like voice? Allen is the best option and does a superb job, too many of you have your hands up Murray's botto. He's gone, let it go please.

Aj

He's hopeless he's only just worked out that the current fastest guy in one lap qualifying isn't necessarily the fastest guy in the first sector I've been shouting at the screen at Allen so much since he started and I never ever remember me doing that even when Murray got things wrong, the point is Murray usually realised that he got things wrong and was never stubborn about it his passion was to provide us in fact half generate the excitement for us coupled with the race itself. Allen give the sport no added atmosphere whatsoever he is just a nerd commenting on stats that give the wrong impression stats that are too much affected by circumstance.
If you just watch the race or the qualifying its obvious who's faster or who's fast out there James just sits trawling through the figures trying to calculate who's the best. The lads didn't read a book to become an F1 driver so James Allen shouldn't read a book to be a commentator either.
He was harping on about Klien outqualifying Webber in some sort of significant manner and the way he harps on about Massa being so exciting and how he was outpacing Fisi at the start of the season he judges EVERYTHING from stats and refuses to open his slit-eyes. Things like Barrichello could win the championship still because he's not far behind and trying to sell Barrichello as some sort of championship contender, can't he see that Michael has won 9 out of 10 races and could've easily won the other one is he totally blind to that ?
Michael is the best out there and Barrichello did win the championship I wouldn't care a damn Michael is still better than him by far...try telling Allen that.

[fingers]

Here's another idiot bit of James Allen Montoya loving and biased jounalism "Montoya was slow in the early part of the race but found some speed as it went on. " http://www.itv-f1.co...RES&PO_ID=30667
Not a single mention of Fisichella on James's Allens Verdict, I think he's anti-Atuosport because he used to work there or soemthing, I dunno what IS the reason why he just can't bring himself to praise Fisi enough. Martin Brundle was talking about how good he was and James Allen quickly started going on about the safety car closing up the field. What about Fisi pulling away from Coulthard and then pulling away from Montoya and doing a race lap virtually the same time as Kimi whilst beating JPM and DC and Sato and Gene and Webber. Can't Allen bring himself to mention a good word for Fisi or what ?

[Nav-D]

Originally posted by fingers
Here's another idiot bit of James Allen Montoya loving and biased jounalism "Montoya was slow in the early part of the race but found some speed as it went on. " http://www.itv-f1.co...RES&PO_ID=30667
Not a single mention of Fisichella on James's Allens Verdict, I think he's anti-Atuosport because he used to work there or soemthing, I dunno what IS the reason why he just can't bring himself to praise Fisi enough. Martin Brundle was talking about how good he was and James Allen quickly started going on about the safety car closing up the field. What about Fisi pulling away from Coulthard and then pulling away from Montoya and doing a race lap virtually the same time as Kimi whilst beating JPM and DC and Sato and Gene and Webber. Can't Allen bring himself to mention a good word for Fisi or what ?

He named his son Enzo, he's ferrari biased as he proved in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He was literally having orgasms on the mic when MS won.

I think its more of a general boredom of f1 commentators because of the same winner every race, can't it be Rubens for once for feck sake. I remember when the race just finished at OZ and JA sounded as if someone just died. Even the bestest ferrari fans get bored over time you know.

[sensible]

Sunday was another spectacular pile of c***p from James. I'm not sure if he realsied, even after the race had finished that MS was on a two stopper. At any rate, he didnt even entertain the possibility until there were just over 20 laps to go. The man is useless. Even the once reliable brundle is falling under his spell of mediocrity. Sack him now!

[sensible]

Originally posted by Nav-D


He named his son Enzo, he's ferrari biased as he proved in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He was literally having orgasms on the mic when MS won.

I think its more of a general boredom of f1 commentators because of the same winner every race, can't it be Rubens for once for feck sake. I remember when the race just finished at OZ and JA sounded as if someone just died. Even the bestest ferrari fans get bored over time you know.

Did you watch it those years - he practically had an orgasm every time montoya came into shot - no actually it was every time a williams came into shot. He wasnt very good at telling them apart.

[RedIsTheColour]

Another disaster from Allen this week. I was timeshifting it and tempted to whizz on a bit everytime he opened his cakehole but with the ads etc that would only leave 5 mins to watch! He did indeed fail to realise Schuey had 2 stopped for a moment and had to harrumph a bit when the penny dropped. As well as the mandatory tongue up Brundle's arse re the London show ("how is it when people actually like you, Martin - I've always wondered...") he must have repeated Brundle's line about Schuey "backing" KR in to Ruby's clutches ten times, he sounded like a repressed gay character in one of those excrutiating British comedies. I've come to hate perky quirky super friendly Allan McPish as well: every time I see a wheel flying I say a little prayer to help it hit him square on. Brundle good as ever and a much improved Ted Kravitzzz as well though. Jardine is a bare faced liar to say there were dozens of overtakes as well, and the Silverstone website is **** which is his fault.

Rosenthal, Jardine, Allen - hope you get hit by a meteorite.
Kravitz - jury's still out.
Louise Whatshername - sorry about your fella, hope things aren't too awful for you.
Brundle - best thing on ITV.

[fingers]

Seriously though without picking on the guy is it something to do with this Ferrari thing why he loves Massa and because its faulsely believe Ferrari are not interested in Fisi James Allen sticks with the trendy vote everytime. The 'lads' drivers like JPM or JV he loves 'the lads' he wants to be one always the case when one isn't James eh ? Public schoolboy going for the rebelious drivers is it. perhaps Fisi is too prim and proper for a prim and proper nerd to give credit to.
Anyway there is definitely some blankling going on there he really isn't keen on Fisi and only for political reason of course James isn't sporty enough to know who's good at sport but he's enough of a bookworm to read into things political or for 'the show'

[Hunt the Shunt Fan]

Wow - the hostility on the board towards Allen dwarfs the hostility some here in the U.S. have had towards Paul Page

Maybe he has those Shumi-gasms because he knows the same person that's going to win this race will win the next race, and the next race, and the next race, and on and on and on etc.... He's got to do something to keep the broadcast exciting.

Didn't he do a very good job when he was a pit reporter working out fuel strategy and things?

[kouks]

James Allen should GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Give Eddie Irvine the microphone to partner Martin!

[RedIsTheColour]

Originally posted by kouks
Give Eddie Irvine the microphone to partner Martin!

Now THAT would be a dream team!

[sensible]

Originally posted by kouks
James Allen should GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Give Eddie Irvine the microphone to partner Martin!

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah man

[ckkl]

Hahahaha that would be hilarious...

But we all know the (proven) fixed structure of motorsport commentary is to have one knowledgeable ex-driver and a bumbling excited buffoon.

Two articulate drivers would be rather amusing as long as they don't go off tangent too much with their previous 1st hand encounters e.g. Brundle's waffle about being teammates with MS pops up every single race. I guess it's informative for the newbies who don't know who Brundle is, but it gets tiresome for us old hands.