Robin Scott-Elliot: Plenty of country and western, but no taking your partners by the hand

View From The Sofa: Manchester United v Liverpool, Sky / Country at the BBC, BBC 2

It's difficult not to sing along to "Rhinestone Cowboy". You are probably doing it now, and will continue to do so at quite possibly embarrassing moments throughout the day. Sorry. It was also difficult to turn off Country at the BBC, no matter how deeply wrong it felt to watch a programme about country-and-western singers stitched together from appearances on Terry Wogan and Val Doonican shows back when chat was all everyone was talking about.

They knew how to do a set then. There were none of the harsh colours of the Match of the Day set-up; instead there were crackling fires and lake views from the Doonican chalet. It should have been France versus Ireland at rugby; instead it was Glen Campbell and Billie Jo Spears. With the game being called off only minutes before kick-off, the BBC did not have long to come up with an alternative. A runner was hurried to the library and the first thing the duty librarian could find was a VHS Alan Shearer had returned on the way to the MOTD studio that afternoon – he was still wearing one of his line-dancing shirts come the programme.

Or maybe the programmers reasoned that: 1) there was an episode of Gavin and Stacey where they have a barn dance; 2) they are Welsh; 3) the Welsh like rugby; 4) ipso facto get the country and western on to please rugby fans.

It at least offered a passage back to when life seemed simpler for the sports fan. The 1970s and 1980s, when sport stayed in its proper place at the back of newspapers. It was football's golden era of happy simplicity (if you ignore racism on the terraces, the fact many terraces were death traps or urine-driven water features, the hooliganism, tight shorts, Kevin Keegan's hair, Keegan's TV ads, poor pitches, the back pass and Tony Gubba).

We are spoilt with domestic top-flight football in England today, which has never been so entertaining, so consistently dramatic. Yet the world in which it operates has never seemed so objectionable. The Suarez/Evra affair is how Gary Lineker described Saturday's main feature, making it sound like a 19th-century diplomatic incident, and it may end up in gunboats on the Manchester Ship Canal (live on Sky Sports News).

Match of the Day's analysis began with an examination of handshakegate (the one that won't shut). Sky had pored over it earlier and had Geoff Shreeves sparring with Kenny Dalglish, the world's oldest teenager. There was no criticism in the Match of the Day studio of Dalglish, just of Suarez, who is overwhelming favourite for Pantomime Villain of the Year.

Sky dealt with it better. Sky has the luxury of more time, allowing Gary Neville to make a passionate defence of player passion – an area he has form in – in reference to Patrice Evra's celebration. Jamie Redknapp, someone who has spent the last two weeks in the real world, disagreed. MOTD kept it back to the second game after Jamie's dad's team. It was a bold decision and it allowed football to go first, which after all is what this was once supposed to be about.

News in pictures
World news in pictures
Arts & Ents blogs

Children’s Books: Recommended read – ‘A Monster Calls’ by Patrick Ness

Thirteen-year-old Conor awakes in bed one night to discover that the yew tree outside his house has ...

Made in Chelsea – Series 5, Episode 11: Louise plays and wins at Spencer’s game

It’s hard not to feel sorry for doe-eyed Andy. He spends months pining after Louise, has huge nostr...

The Returned: ‘Simon’ – Series 1, episode 2

Fragility of life looms large over an episode that closes with the scarring on Julie's stomach. Whil...

       
Independent
Travel Shop
Lake Como and the Bernina Express
Seven nights half-board from £749pp Find out more
Dubrovnik and the Dalmatian coast
Seven nights half-board from only £859pp Find out more
Prague city break
Three nights from only £199pp Find out more
 

ES Rentals

    'To farm I have to rape the countryside. It’s got to be wrong': The true effect of the badger cull

    The true effect of the badger cull

    'To farm I have to rape the countryside. It’s got to be wrong'
    Theatre review: Daniel Radcliffe gives an admirably honest performance in Michael Grandage's The Cripple of Inishmaan

    First night: The Cripple of Inishmaan

    Daniel Radcliffe gives an admirably honest performance in Michael Grandage's comedy
    Girls Guides drop religious reference but pledge to self and the Queen

    Guides drop religious reference but pledge to self and the Queen

    After 103 years, organisation changes oath to welcome 'all girls, of all faiths, and none'
    Steve Tongue: Joe Kinnear was one of the boys and a breath of fresh air... 21 years ago

    Steve Tongue

    Joe Kinnear was one of the boys and a breath of fresh air... 21 years ago
    Chris Froome: Free from 'pain in neck' after Bradley Wiggins' exit

    Chris Froome: Free from 'pain in neck' after Wiggins' exit

    Sky's lead rider says he is in fantastic form for the Tour and happy pecking order debate is over
    Hannah England: I've got the right times – now to focus on the chess

    Hannah England: Keeping Track

    I've got the right times – now to focus on the chess
    Beards, brawn and body art

    Beards, brawn and body art

    Meet London’s new batch of male models
    Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention

    Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention

    British love of shows such as The Bridge, Borgen and The Killing shows no sign of fading
    Behind the rhetoric what is really being done to combat desertification?

    The Great Green Wall of Africa,

    Behind the rhetoric what is really being done to combat desertification?
    Laughter Inc: the cheering growth of the chuckle industry

    Laughter Inc

    The cheering growth of the chuckle industry
    The bad science scandal: how fact-fabrication is damaging UK's global name for research

    The bad science scandal

    How fact-fabrication is damaging UK's global name for research
    To the manor born: The female aristocrats battling to inherit the title

    Female aristocrats battle to inherit the title

    A passionate protest is gathering pace among the women of Britain's aristocracy, who believe that men should no longer automatically inherit the family pile and title.
    Love struck: Photographs of JFK's visit to Berlin 50 years ago reveal a nation instantly smitten

    In pictures: JFK's visit to Berlin in 1963

    Photographer Ulrich Mack accompanied Kennedy on the entire trip. The results are an astonishing record of a watershed moment.
    Eat shoots and leaves: Mark Hix gets creative with fresh peas, mangetouts and sugar snaps

    Mark Hix gets creative with English peas

    English peas and their offsprings, such as mangetouts and sugar snaps, are great tossed into a salad, says our chef.
    Ceviche with a smile: Chef Martin Morales has turned South America's elegant cuisine into one of London's hottest food trends

    Chef Martin Morales: Ceviche with a smile

    Morales has turned South America's elegant cuisine into one of London's hottest food trends