London Marathon: BBC Sport looks back in order to move forward with coverage of one of sport’s most joyful events

No remote production workflows this year - but under consideration for 2022 race

BBC Sport senior producer Micky Payne on the Mall during the 2020 London Marathon

Ahead of this weekend’s London Marathon, SVG Europe caught up with BBC Sport senior producer Micky Payne to find out how the race coverage will be produced now that COVID restrictions have been eased in the UK.

The London Marathon is one of sport’s most joyous televised events.

From the potential 50,000 runners pounding 26.2 miles through the streets of London (plus another 50,000 virtual runners doing the same distance elsewhere around the UK) and one of the best elite fields outside the Olympics – to the iconic landmarks on the course and the countless human interest stories raising millions of pounds for charity. It is an event that provides hope in ways that other sports and tournaments don’t.

Thanks to COVID-19, last year’s race was reduced to an Elite level-only race, albeit, with thousands of virtual runners. The 2021 Marathon will be much more familiar though – and not just in terms of route and the number of runners.

BBC Sport is the current UK rights holder, as it has been since the first London Marathon took place back in 1981. It is also the host broadcaster, providing both the domestic and international cuts. Its coverage, and the OB set-up, will also be a hark back to 2019, as senior producer Micky Payne (pictured above) explained to SVG Europe in the week before the event.

“The Marathon is a big production effort and for this year, with the uncertainty around COVID, and the uncertainty around absolute confirmation of what the race would look like, we’ve decided to keep the model from 2019 and then review it after this year.”

“We are pretty much lifting and shifting from 2019,” he acknowledges. “So, for this particular year, and we’re going to review it after this year, we’ve still got exactly the same model. We’ve got six outside broadcasts: The Start, Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, Blackfriars and The Finish. Each has its own sets of cameras, directors and reporters.

“That is supplemented by six RF cameras on motorbikes – two on each elite race: wheelchairs, women and men. So, a bike with the lead group and a bike to follow and track whatever the story is behind the leaders. And then two helicopters help to join the dots between the OBs for the elite race. Once the elite races are finished, we concentrate on the masses properly with those six OBs and our reporters.”

While BBC Sport is looking backwards in order to move forwards, this approach hasn’t been without its trials.

“[The challenge] is trying to remember and relearn what we did!,” he says, only partly in jest. “In the two and a half years [since the last full Marathon] there’s obviously been a lot of technological change that’s been exacerbated by the lockdown, especially around remote production.”

Nothing will be done remotely this year, he adds. But that might change in 2022, assuming the BBC holds on to the rights for the race. Its current contract expires this year.

“The Marathon is a big production effort and for this year, with the uncertainty around COVID, and the uncertainty around absolute confirmation of what the race would look like, we’ve decided to keep the model from 2019 and then review it after this year.

“It feels like there are a couple of aspects of it, where we could do a bit of remote stuff, which would help both the carbon footprint and push the green initiatives and it might help with some costs long term.”

Although Payne is keen to embrace remote, there are caveats – especially from an editorial perspective.

“Because it’s such a big event, if the main editor or producer is back in Salford, doing the main output remotely, it could definitely work technically, but editorially you feel so far away,” he says.

“Remote production will work. It’s just getting your head around it and letting go of the hands-on control you would normally have.”

“All those weekend conversations with your presenter, with your reporters with the marathon people, with the OBs. Instead of having it face-to-face, or at least in the same sort of area, you would be doing it on the phone or over TalkBack. And it would be quite unsatisfactory, from a purely personal level.

“We might have to do that though because that is the way things are going. It will work. It’s just getting your head around it and letting go of the hands-on control you would normally have.”

Feeling like you are part of the race, and relaying that to viewers back home, is also harder when you are many miles away, he acknowledges.

“I think particularly when you’ve got thousands of people back on the streets doing a run, plus thousands on the street in certain parts of the country supporting them and cheering them on. That’s such a huge part of what we’re trying to get back into showing and reflecting. Being there is all part of that. You can feel it much more. I think, coming back after two and a half years, that’s important for this year.”

Race coverage

The London Marathon is very much a game (or race) of two halves: the elite; and then the charity fundraising and human interest.

Payne picks up the story: “So, the wheelchairs are first off and that has got good domestic interest and strong international interest. You’ve got David Weir, who has been there forever – so we cover that with the OBs and with two motorbikes. One goes with the lead men, one goes with the lead women.

“We give that all the build-up and the coverage that it needs. But then the complication comes at 9am. The women’s race has started. So you’ve got two races on the course and you’re basically cutting between the respective motorbikes on those two races and where they hit the London landmarks.

“You want to show off the geography too as they go over things like Tower Bridge and around Cutty Sark because they’re the key moments and they’re the moments that international audiences like.

“We are going to reflect that through a mixture of lovely big helicopter shots, wide angles, nice OBs and the detail of the athletes on those bike cameras.

“And then at 9:30am the men and masses start. This is the iconic shot – with the bobbing heads, and everyone piling through Greenwich Park gates.”

At the front end of all three elite races are probably the best fields outside of the Olympics. The challenge for the BBC domestically, however, is that other than David Weir in the men’s wheelchairs, there’s no big-name British athlete. There’s no Mo Farah or Paula Radcliffe. Or Joyce Smith from days of old. There’s no one who is a household name. So the emphasis will be placed elsewhere.

“[Instead] we will try and explain a bit about who these fantastic international elite athletes are,” says Payne.

“We can do that through using our expert commentators, by having some graphical information, and by playing in some quotes from them, which we record during the week. This will help to personalise it a little bit so people who are watching those races can invest in it.”

“But actually, even though those races are then going on,” he continues. “We’ll be going back to the masses a lot because, domestically on BBC1 and BBC2, we want to show as many mass racers and charitable stories – even before the elite racers have finished.”

“The change in the coverage really is just trying to get even more human interest stories out and provide a flavour of the return of the mass-participation element of the race. That’s where we are putting a few more resources.”

“The key to the main output is getting that balance right between human interest, celebrities, human endeavour and the elite races,” he adds.

Running fans will be able to concentrate on the elite races via the red button and BBC iPlayer – and that output will also be made available as the World Feed. Once the elite races are done at midday, the BBC will change gear and concentrate on the charitable stores and the celebrities.

“We have got some nice music lined up,” he says. “We got some ticker graphics, where people can tweet and text in whatever they want to do and get their messages of support out on screen. This is a nice thing for people who are watching at home.

“The change in the coverage really is just trying to get even more human interest stories out and provide a flavour of the return of the mass-participation element of the race. That’s where we are putting a few more resources.”

Facilities

CTV Outside Broadcasts (CTV) and its fellow EMG UK companies, Telegenic, Broadcast RF and Aerial Camera Systems (ACS), are the main facilities suppliers to BBC Sport.

Payne reserved huge praise for the support and expertise they provide.

“We all have these production ideas and editorial ideas,” he says. “But the marathon is such a technical exercise. So without Nick Fuller of Broadcast RF or Greg Livermore at CTV, it would be impossible because, ultimately, you’re asking them to do stuff that you have no idea about – and I know that’s obvious because that’s how it all works! But even more on events like this. It’s led technically.”

Broadcast RF commercial director Chris Brandrick acknowledges that 2021 is a mirror of 2019 – but with one important enhancement.

“The primary coverage is pretty much a carbon copy of 2019 when we last did the full race route,” he says, “with six bikes and two helicopters using a fixed-wing aircraft to relay the signals back to the main OB at Canada Gate. The difference this year is that we are using HEVC RF equipment which allows a higher bitrate over the existing bandwidth allowing a better quality of pictures over the links.”

The wireless links are being provided by EMG’s in-house R&D division Livetools Technologies, he adds.

As in previous years, because the last 5 or 6kms of the route is scattered with bridges – which are generally not good for RF signals going “up” to plane relays – a specialist ground-based receive setup will be automatically cut to instead.

“This allows for seamless coverage for this part of the race using buildings to receive and bounce the signals back to Canada Gate,” says Brandrick.

ACS crews will be following the runners to the finish with a Railcam and a Cineflex V14 stabilised mount along with a SMARThead remote head. A Sony P1 camera position at the finish line will capture the joy (and anguish) on the finishers’ faces.

“Among the course will be the ACS KartCAM also keeping up with the action,” says ACS sales director Matt Coyde. “Extra crew will be deployed this year to ensure any de-rig of our railcam will not interrupt the last runners coming through.”

Presentation and reporters

The main BBC presenters will be at the Start and the Finish of the race. Gabby Logan will front the coverage, supported by former British athlete Jeanette Kwakye who will take on a reporter role. They will commute to the finish.

Reporters will also be based at the OBs at Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf and Blackfriars.

The majority of the stories that the reporters will cover are prepped in advance, with the help of the London Marathon and the various charities that they support, but there is still room for spontaneity and serendipity.

“It’s about 60/40 [in favour of prepped stories],” says Payne. “We’ll do a story around a couple of Macmillan Cancer Support runners which will be filmed and edited beforehand. And then, off the back of that, we will go to those runners live or recorded on the course for an update.”

“Rightly or wrongly there is a perception that this is a Southern-based event with blokes in bad shorts going for a run! That’s definitely changed over the past 20-odd years.”

“We do also do stuff on the fly. The reporters on the ground at those different locations are seeing people with fancy dress, seeing people who are happy or maybe in a bit of distress, and they’ll basically just choose to interview those, on the hoof. You need that flexibility. [Asa reporter] you want the ability to grab people and make your own choices because you’re in the best place to do so.”

A lot of those interviews are recorded ‘as live’, he says, “just so everybody’s comfortable with it. And there’s no awkwardness or someone saying something inappropriate.”

While COVID restrictions have eased, those reporters will still need to be aware of on-screen perception.

“We’ve got to still be seen to be cautious with interviews,” says Payne. “The reporter will have a radio microphone or a stick mic for themselves. But the athlete or runner will be 1.5 metres away during the interview and will talk into a separate microphone, possibly on a boom, handled by a sound assistant. So at no point will those athletes be close or sharing any equipment.

“Hopefully this will give confidence to the runners as well,” he adds.

Virtual runners

Although the main focus will be on those running the race around London, the BBC’s output will also cover the virtual runners. To find interesting stories to cover, invites have been sent out to participants and the most compelling will be used on-air (where technology and circumstances allow).

“The trick is to get a bit of diversity: a bit of geographical diversity, a bit of cultural diversity,” says Payne.

“Rightly or wrongly there is a perception that this is a Southern-based event with blokes in bad shorts going for a run! That’s definitely changed over the past 20-odd years and we’ve got to reflect that, and we’re trying to affect that in the virtual as well.

The BBC will produce what Payne calls “glorified Zooms with a bit of added security into them”. These will be shown on a big screen beside the presenters.

“We have got some lined up but they might not work for lots of reasons. For this year, the race in front of us is more important.”

For Payne, a successful 41st London Marathon will be one that is not only an exciting sporting spectacle but also showcases London, feels normal and brings a bit of hope.

“The marathon is all about people having some hope in themselves and in the event. There’s so much bad news around and you can’t ignore it but maybe for that little period of time you can just suspend it a little bit and rediscover a bit of joy in something as simple as completing a marathon course, whether you’re walking, running or in a wheelchair.”

The 41st edition of the London Marathon will take place on Sunday 3 October 2021. Coverage will be live across the BBC from 8am. 

Subscribe and Get SVG Europe Newsletters