Alex Jacques

Uh, everyone got very used to the way that Will had done it on the mic for a long time.

And then you're the new guy.

Uh, and then the new guy is never going to be popular when you've replaced someone who's become synonymous with it.

It's just the nature of it.

Um, and then the first time you, you know, you see your name on social media, uh,

And it's attached to something negative.

So you've never seen it on there at all.

And you're confident and you're passionate about your sport and you're eloquent, which is why you've got the chance in the first place.

And you've done your miles and you've done, you know, Colchester versus Rochdale.

And you've gone with an ISDM box across the country and you've built up all this showreel and you've got the opportunity.

There's some very talented people who wanted the job and you've got the job.

And then suddenly you're seeing your name just ticking, ticking down the screen on the desk scrollers.

in a negative context that is jarring and you would not be human if that did not have a a real sting to it um and then you go through it you deal with it you go okay uh is this is this something i'm willing to put up with yes i've wanted to be a formula one commentator since i was 10 years old uh and so i'm going to put up with it and i'm gonna and i'm gonna learn to deal with it and you do deal with it to the point of people not understanding people don't have to understand

People don't have to understand.

People have to put their TVs on and enjoy the motor race.

And you hope that if you do it the right way and you stick to the right principles and you do it authentically for how you think a sports broadcast should be handled...

people are going to like it people are going to dislike it um the you just get used to it after a decade and like i said we're quite lucky with formula one in that you will get quite a lot of feedback that shows it's working the just straight abuse is is usually just very funny you're just like okay well thank you i shall i shall take that i shall take that uh expression of where to stick my commentary and i shall i shall do what with it like what what do you want do you want me to do with it

um but a lot of the time and i've always found it quite useful someone will mention something and i'm like oh i'm not sure i agree but i get what they're driving at and maybe i'll have a look at that so i've always thought we've been quite lucky in that football commentary is just that is you know sometimes i'm not going to mention any names because you don't do this to fellow professionals but sometimes in football you've got the the commentators name trending ahead of

the players on the pitch.

So, uh, I, I think generally I've, I've had an, a fair, a fair shake of it.