Hides and Rats invade BBC

Oliver Hides and Kevin Ratcliffe were left holding the fort when the BBC took 7,658 employees to cover the World Cup. Bizarrely, they were asked to front the 606 phone in on Five Live, discussing England's progress amongst other things. The BBC received this letter of complaint:

Dear Sir,
I am writing to complain about the disappointing quality of the BBC's 606 phone-in programme hosted by Oliver (Ollie) Hides on 30th June.

It was immediately apparent that Hides was presenting the programme from a neutral viewpoint. For God's sake, this is Britain. We are all British aren't we ? Hides appeared to be interested in the World Cup per se, whereas we all know that England's participance is the only point worthy of discussion.

Hides' disgraceful attitude was made worse by his apparent ignorance of football terminology. Does he not know that John Terry must be referred to as a "gladiator"? Is Frank Lampard not "due a goal" in his little Welsh World ? Does he not realise that Gary Neville has "grown in stature," and that Peter Crouch is "surprisingly good with his feet for a tall fella." He even spoke positively about Owen Hargreaves, who is surely the worst player ever to play for England.

But most disgustingly, there was not a single mention of 1966. If you must go abroad to get a radio host, make sure that it's someone who is happy with dual-nationality, like Green or Hansen. There's nothing worse than a petty jingoistic Taff.

Your Sincerely,
Dave Thurlow, Slough