I can't stand his stupid F1 commentary and all this wanky meaningless comments!

He should be put on a rocket to the Sun...along with Ainsley Harriot!

There is an ongoing discussion on this forum about chipping in money to buy demo players a licence. I think we should instead chip in money to get James Allen on one of the old Space Shuttles (the ones where the heat shielding is held on with sticky tape). A couple of pounds each and we'd maybe start a ball rolling that could result in him being removed from the ITV team.

P.S. I hate him too - I think almost anyone could do a better job.

at least you have f1 on tv

I think f1r3b4ll should replace James Allen!

Quote from Gabkicks :

at least you have f1 on tv

Can't you get Speed channel? My Comcast cable didn't have it as an option, so I missed 5 seasons in a row. Misery!

[edit] and James Allen is a tosser. In fact everyone I know who's called James Allen is a tosser, but that's a story for another day.

i dont have cable tv just cable modem

James who? (googled and found a lot of them, most dead btw...)

Quote from Itv-f1.com :

His sharp, often humorous analysis of team's race strategies and the goings on in the pit lane quickly became a feature of ITV's coverage.

Did i miss something? All i ever remember him pointing out is how long someone pitted and how many laps it gives them even though its shown on an on screen graphic.

grebroth your avatar is superb!

james allen, however, isnt
i get the feeling martin brundle would like to race against james, and smash him into a wall.

lol....more like sabotage his car! we dont want martin to get hurt too now do wee!!!

wonder if every sim forum has an i hate James Allen thread

i know they did on www.karting.co.uk!

James Allen isn't that bad, the problem is that he's following on from Murray Walker. I for one really miss Murray, but I wont hold that against James Allen simply because he's mortal.

I do hate the odd football reference he makes, like he's dumming it down to larger lout speak for me to understand because when I watched some world cup matches they didn't give me any motor racing parallels so that I could understand it.

The one broadcaster from ITV I really hated was that twat Jim Rosenthal, because he really did only talk about football and football metaphors and I never understood a word of it - but that was always bound to happen when I guy gets the job covering an event that he then confesses to never having seen a race before, then strangely retracts the comments the following week, despite having said it in multiple places.

As for James Allen, I dont really care, he's there to make a noise whilst Martin Brundle is taking air, and that works for me. He isn't very knowledgeable, but you cannot say he isn't enthusiastic and from this point of view, he's just like Murray. He just doesn't have the great mans talent.

After reading one of his books I don't like him much at all. Just another tosser F1 journo.

Quote from Becky Rose :

James Allen isn't that bad, the problem is that he's following on from Murray Walker. I for one really miss Murray, but I wont hold that against James Allen simply because he's mortal.

Have you actually listened to what he says? Murray Walker made mistakes during his commentary but he didn't often get things wrong, which is something James Allen does consistently. He comes out with some of the least meaningful comments I have ever heard. Often, when Martin makes an astute observation, James runs with it as though he had thought up the whole thing himself. Then there's his seemingly neverending love for Jenson Button.

Quote :

The one broadcaster from ITV I really hated was that twat Jim Rosenthal, because he really did only talk about football and football metaphors and I never understood a word of it - but that was always bound to happen when I guy gets the job covering an event that he then confesses to never having seen a race before, then strangely retracts the comments the following week, despite having said it in multiple places.

I didn't like Rosenthal when he first started in 1997 but I soon grew to like him. Regardless of however many GPs he'd watched before he started presenting the coverage, I thought he got into the sport and I was sorry to see him leave. Particularly since they replaced him with Steve Rider...

While we're on the subject of ITV coverage, it's really beginning to bug me that they all use 'Grand Prixs' as the plural of 'Grand Prix'. The correct plural is 'Grands Prix', which sounds exactly the same as 'Grand Prix'.

Murray has been gone for ages now, that’s got nothing to do with it. James Allen is just a prick.

They should get the other Martin to commentate with Martin.

As long as 'the other Martin' isn't Mark Blundell. Please, no. I wouldn't be able to make much of his whiney voice, and the underlying fact he was never as good as MB, nor as vocally talented. That's why he stands in the pits and makes a fool of himself before and after the race.

Does anyone else think that, MB's bits aside, ITVs pre and post race build up is awful? Sometimes they don't even bother to show the driver conference, or mention important stuff - they just show a replay of the most obvious moment that has already been analysed by Brundle accurately.

If the BBC get F1 back I will be a happy happy man, and I'd even give the BBC a cookie if they did!

God, I detest that bastard. I don't have enough harsh words to say about my loathing of him.

http://www.n138.net/stopcock.htm maybe we should buy some of these and send them to the itv-f1 team?

I say we insert a mass damper into his anus and see if that improves his commentary.

Although i think todays ITV build up to the qualifying was excellent, but thats because it was stuffed with Brundle explaining how they adjust brake balance and diff settings in the car...with lots of fancy computer graphics too :P

Quote from tristancliffe :

As long as 'the other Martin' isn't Mark Blundell. Please, no. I wouldn't be able to make much of his whiney voice, and the underlying fact he was never as good as MB, nor as vocally talented. That's why he stands in the pits and makes a fool of himself before and after the race.

I'd settle for hearing him construct his sentences using correct English grammar.

and vats wot i want too, at vis point in time

I never really minded James Allen until the French GP, when Alonso and MS were having a wee bit of showman ship and racing each other in qually he had the audacity to exclaim that they shouldn't be doing that and that the stewards would have a chat with them. Every single spectator and every person that enjoys motorsport (I'm sure) thought that this is what they wanted to see and more of it! Now my opinion is firmly set that he does not actually know what racing is and probably would not enjoy it if he saw it. Martin Brundle should (IMHO) be put in charge of production for the ITV F1 coverage. He is a car nut, loves and understands racing and has a genuine passion for all that is motorsport. He is even fairly level headed about his patriotic duty and will happily support DC if he happens to do well. Something alot of other commentators fail to do. Out with the bullshit 'glamour' of F1 and bring back the wheel to wheel racing I remember when the red and white McLarens, blue and yellow Williams and red Ferraris remembered that they were there to RACE.

Predictions for tomorrow, Button FTW?

Quote from yegadoyai :

I never really minded James Allen until the French GP, when Alonso and MS were having a wee bit of showman ship and racing each other in qually he had the audacity to exclaim that they shouldn't be doing that and that the stewards would have a chat with them. Every single spectator and every person that enjoys motorsport (I'm sure) thought that this is what they wanted to see and more of it! Now my opinion is firmly set that he does not actually know what racing is and probably would not enjoy it if he saw it. Martin Brundle should (IMHO) be put in charge of production for the ITV F1 coverage. He is a car nut, loves and understands racing and has a genuine passion for all that is motorsport. He is even fairly level headed about his patriotic duty and will happily support DC if he happens to do well. Something alot of other commentators fail to do. Out with the bullshit 'glamour' of F1 and bring back the wheel to wheel racing I remember when the red and white McLarens, blue and yellow Williams and red Ferraris remembered that they were there to RACE.

Totally 100% agree! 100 points for you!!

Quote from yegadoyai :

Predictions for tomorrow, Button FTW?

Oi! Bring back those points!! GIMME!!

Quote from StewartFisher :

Then there's his seemingly neverending love for Jenson Button.

That is so so so true. Before JA, F1 coverage used to be quite impartial, but now we just get JA going on about how great Jenson is, or how crap his car is this weekend. You could tell he was excited this weekend seeing as his old buddy JB got into the top 4.

I agree that ITV sucks wang too. Adverts, I loath adverts. Please don't waste my time with bloody adverts! Especially the stupid ITV sequences with some daft oriental punk waving a gay flag etc etc.......where the hell did that intro come from!!!!!111!!!..........

Bring back the BBC with no adverts, no JA and a proper intro and that good old theme tune! You know the one

Bum ba ba bum badda badda bum bum............

"oriental is food.... oriental is luck... I AM not oriental!!! i am asian!!! i am chinese!!" thats what some azn dude said once when a gringo called him oriental

anyone know if there's gonna be any stream of the race somewhere on the internet? it really annoying having to wait a week after the races to watch them -_-

yeah... i noticed ITV does quite a bit of Jenson Button nuthuggery

Quote from Gabkicks :

"oriental is food.... oriental is luck... I AM not oriental!!! i am asian!!! i am chinese!!" thats what some azn dude said once when a gringo called him oriental

anyone know if there's gonna be any stream of the race somewhere on the internet? it really annoying having to wait a week after the races to watch them -_-

yeah... i noticed ITV does quite a bit of Jenson Button nuthuggery

I've seen a service offering the 4 main uk channels over the internet ( www.liveuktv.com ), but to be honest the monthly subscription is way more than the cost of the cable package that Speed channel is usually on. Also, I wasn't totally sure of it's legailty, what with UK licences, etc.

Speed have better commentary anyway, despite Brundle's best efforts to compensate for the rest of the ITV 'team'.