Sport on TV: Tiger Tim earns stripes with a bit of brave banter

As a player Tim Henman divided opinion – little gem or Little Englander? – and as a pundit he seems set to do the same, if the sports desk here at the Indydome is anything to go by. There is the "Not Bad At All, Especially For A Beginner" camp, ranged against the "So Bad He Makes Alan Shearer Seem Endlessly Fascinating" faction. Fist fights have been breaking out all week, nearly.

So is he the new Lawro or the new Garth Crooks? For what it's worth – "not much", a nation roars – I think he has been fine, though he has landed on his feet, at the feet of the master of the tennis commentary box, John McEnroe. Peter Fleming, with whom Supermac won 50 doubles titles, including four at Wimbledon, displayed legendary modesty when he said: "The best doubles pair in the world is John McEnroe and anyone." Similarly, if you've got even a couple of neurons firing, you can't really lose with Mac at the mic next to you.

Henman was in on Andy Murray's first-round tie against Fabrice Santoro. After the first game, won by the Frenchman, Andrew Castle enquired: "Comfortable start, Tim?" He was asking about Murray but it could have been about Henman. "As long as he's proactive he shouldn't have too much trouble," said Henman, who could also have been talking about himself.

He was relaxed enough to mock the Mac, when Paul Annacone came up as an example of a classic "in-yer-face" player. "Paul Annacone beat you somewhere – in the US Open, didn't he?" he asked. McEnroe grunted. "Thank you for bringing that up." He had the good grace not to retort: "And how many US Opens did you win then, laddie?"

McEnroe continued: "I did come back and beat him later, I'd like to point out ... but yes, he beat me in the first round of the US Open."

"That was the only one I was interested in talking about," Henman said. "And how many Wimbledons was it?" McEnroe didn't ask.

What Henman has to remember – as David Ginola put it in On the Ball: The Story of Sports Commentary (BBC 1, Saturday and Wednesday) – is that he is primarily there to entertain. "You have to perform," the pouting Frenchman said.

The great Sid Waddell agreed. "It is an act," said the bard of the board. "But, crucially, I've never deliberately set about amusing anybody but myself."

The programme was too bitty and frenetic to be satisfying. But it did contain some rarities, like Peter Alliss saying "bollocks" and John Motson saying "Bloody hell – have you ever seen anything like this?" when he thought the mic was off. And Jimmy Greaves, under a tarpaulin up a gantry with Brian Moore in deep midwinter. "We look great up here," he muttered. "Like a couple of right dickheads."

It brought to mind Clive Tyldesley during the Russia v Spain Euro 2008 semi-final (ITV 1, Thursday), as lightning forked over the stadium: "It's reassuring to be sitting among all this electrical equipment on a night like this."

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