Extra Credit

In a world where television isn’t always all I want it to be, it’s delightful when something feels 100% entirely right. So it was on Sunday night, where the BBC broadcast its closing montage for the World Cup. BBC Sport always do these wonderfully – I have a soft spot for the one made for the 2016 Rio Olympics, and yes, the music there was the obvious choice – but I fancy this is one of the very best they’ve ever done. Every time I watch it, I spot something new. When the planes appear at 29 seconds and the lyrics kick in, I get goosebumps. But here’s the thing I truly love about these montages: those credits. Endless names thrown onto the screen. Well-known faces, or the very definition of a backroom boy or girl. Each of them important, each of them making the output just that little bit better. In a world where the BBC is asking “What has the BBC ever done for me?”, those credits are a reminder that in order to do those things, it takes people. It doesn’t all happen automatically,…