Mike Whalley
@mikewhalley.bsky.social
1) I once hosted a football phone-in with no callers
2) Paul Daniels gave me unsolicited dating advice
3) I've had two comedy sketches on Radio 4
4) My grandfather heckled Lord Hailsham during a live TV debate
5) https://mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
2) Paul Daniels gave me unsolicited dating advice
3) I've had two comedy sketches on Radio 4
4) My grandfather heckled Lord Hailsham during a live TV debate
5) https://mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
I've reviewed Jonathan Wilson's World Cup book The Power And The Glory for the new issue of @wsc.co.uk (WSC 459, Dec 2025), out now. Also featuring Cameron Carter's fine Match of the Month piece on Stockport v Exeter, complete with thoughts on Edgeley Park's new 'Bake Off Tent'.
November 7, 2025 at 12:18 PM
I've reviewed Jonathan Wilson's World Cup book The Power And The Glory for the new issue of @wsc.co.uk (WSC 459, Dec 2025), out now. Also featuring Cameron Carter's fine Match of the Month piece on Stockport v Exeter, complete with thoughts on Edgeley Park's new 'Bake Off Tent'.
On the blog: Went to Everton yesterday to cover a rugby league match, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also ended up writing about a pitch invader. And got home to discover I'd inadvertently photographed him in the act. A piece on the skill of misdirection: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/h...
How to crash the Australian national anthem
I didn’t realise until I got home and started looking through my camera roll, but I’d photographed the pitch invader in the act. So I can kind of see how he did it. Up to a point. You may well have…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
November 2, 2025 at 5:12 PM
On the blog: Went to Everton yesterday to cover a rugby league match, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also ended up writing about a pitch invader. And got home to discover I'd inadvertently photographed him in the act. A piece on the skill of misdirection: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/h...
On the blog: A lot has changed since my last visit to Wrexham, and a lot has stayed the same. But there's no other football club in Britain where I'd see the floodlights go out during the warm-up and think: Well, there's some good narrative tension: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/a...
Almost a no-light show: Wrexham 1 Oxford 0
Considering how much has gone on at Wrexham since I lasted visited 18 years ago, I was surprised how little had physically changed. What was the Racecourse Ground is now Stok Cae Ras. What was the …
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:33 PM
On the blog: A lot has changed since my last visit to Wrexham, and a lot has stayed the same. But there's no other football club in Britain where I'd see the floodlights go out during the warm-up and think: Well, there's some good narrative tension: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/24/a...
Very much enjoyed putting this together as part of the build-up to the Rugby League Ashes series: How Great Britain beat Australia with 12 men in 1994 - with an all-time great Wembley try: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...
Rugby League Ashes: 'I'd love to see a great Wembley try so they don't have to show mine'
Thirty-one years ago this week, Jonathan Davies scored arguably Wembley's greatest-ever try. This Saturday, he wants to see England produce a memorable moment to match it.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 20, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Very much enjoyed putting this together as part of the build-up to the Rugby League Ashes series: How Great Britain beat Australia with 12 men in 1994 - with an all-time great Wembley try: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...
How did a Portugal basketball international become an England rugby league player? Had the chance to speak to Luis Domingos for BBC Sport recently - a brilliant interviewee with a fascinating back story: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...
Wheelchair rugby league Ashes: Luis Domingos, the Portugal basketballer turned England rugby league international
Luis Domingos used to play wheelchair basketball for Portugal - now he is preparing to play wheelchair rugby league for England against Australia.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 15, 2025 at 10:19 AM
How did a Portugal basketball international become an England rugby league player? Had the chance to speak to Luis Domingos for BBC Sport recently - a brilliant interviewee with a fascinating back story: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...
By me, in the November issue of @wsc.co.uk (WSC 458), out now: Match of the Month, featuring Derby v Preston - ruminations on TikTok, statues, subtly altered retro shirts and time wasting. Includes perhaps the season's most hapless throw-in so far. The photos by Paul Thompson are excellent as ever.
October 12, 2025 at 1:31 PM
By me, in the November issue of @wsc.co.uk (WSC 458), out now: Match of the Month, featuring Derby v Preston - ruminations on TikTok, statues, subtly altered retro shirts and time wasting. Includes perhaps the season's most hapless throw-in so far. The photos by Paul Thompson are excellent as ever.
On the blog: Unravelling a Paul Whitehouse-related myth so entrenched that even the BFI has cited it as fact, involving a Reeves and Mortimer character who may or may not have disappeared from television because of Margaret Thatcher: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/v...
Vic Reeves and the vanishing Slitherer
Paul Whitehouse’s first television appearance? Don’t know. I can tell you what it wasn’t though, thanks to a little mystery contained on a DVD notorious among a corner of comedy fandom for its “ver…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
October 10, 2025 at 9:30 AM
On the blog: Unravelling a Paul Whitehouse-related myth so entrenched that even the BFI has cited it as fact, involving a Reeves and Mortimer character who may or may not have disappeared from television because of Margaret Thatcher: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/v...
On the blog: I'm buried in various work projects at present, so the blog is taking a back seat - but to keep it ticking over, here's a repurposed version of a post about the David Elleray wiring up controversy that ran briefly on the site last year: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/i...
‘If it makes you mad, it’s Out of Order’ – when David Elleray was mic’d up
It’s hard to tell if ref cams will catch on in the Premier League. At the start of the season, it was announced that they would be tested out in selected games, with the official in the middle wear…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
October 3, 2025 at 12:32 PM
On the blog: I'm buried in various work projects at present, so the blog is taking a back seat - but to keep it ticking over, here's a repurposed version of a post about the David Elleray wiring up controversy that ran briefly on the site last year: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/i...
On the blog: The tale of how Lynda La Plante once caused a character's first name to disappear completely from a script - yet it stayed in the end credits. Oh, and her story about refusing to let Freddie Mercury into her flat to play the piano: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/t...
Two Maggies, one Limahl, and a disappearing Juanita
“Who in their right mind would call a character Juanita Shervington?” Lynda La Plante, Getting Away With Murder, p.82 Lynda La Plante’s memoir, published last autumn, is definitely worth a read. I’…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
September 9, 2025 at 5:54 PM
On the blog: The tale of how Lynda La Plante once caused a character's first name to disappear completely from a script - yet it stayed in the end credits. Oh, and her story about refusing to let Freddie Mercury into her flat to play the piano: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/t...
On the blog: My first visit to the Edinburgh Fringe. Christ, it really is unsustainable at that size, isn't it? mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/26/f...
Funniest joke of the Edinburgh Fringe 2025
For the first time, I went to the Edinburgh Fringe this year. (Not to perform: just to watch. Although it’s possible a TV producer witnessed me edging through the crowds along the Royal Mile on the…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
August 26, 2025 at 4:24 PM
On the blog: My first visit to the Edinburgh Fringe. Christ, it really is unsustainable at that size, isn't it? mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/26/f...
As I wrote the most recent online piece referencing this incident, I feel responsible for this snatch of Google AI batshittery. All I can say is: If only...
August 24, 2025 at 11:59 AM
As I wrote the most recent online piece referencing this incident, I feel responsible for this snatch of Google AI batshittery. All I can say is: If only...
Have just sent the BBC Sport push alert to flag the first Premier League highlights edit under its new deal, and can't tell you how terrified I was of spelling Liverpool or Bournemouth wrong. Anyway, it's here: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
Premier League: Liverpool 4-2 Bournemouth - highlights
Liverpool begin their Premier League title defence with a win but needed late goals to beat Bournemouth on a night dedicated to former player Diogo Jota.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 15, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Have just sent the BBC Sport push alert to flag the first Premier League highlights edit under its new deal, and can't tell you how terrified I was of spelling Liverpool or Bournemouth wrong. Anyway, it's here: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
On the blog: Morecambe aren't my team, and it isn't my home town, but I've memories tied up with both, and not just because the local paper used to be edited by a man called Mike Whalley: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/03/n...
Not the Morecambe Visitor’s editor
The last time I was in Morecambe, nine months ago, my walk from the station to the football ground took me along the West End promenade, past the Alhambra. It’s a tidy venue now, by all accounts; t…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
August 3, 2025 at 9:41 PM
On the blog: Morecambe aren't my team, and it isn't my home town, but I've memories tied up with both, and not just because the local paper used to be edited by a man called Mike Whalley: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/03/n...
On the blog: St Johnstone won't recover from a difficult 12 months in one day, but the signs at least look positive for them: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/02/a...
A new beginning: St Johnstone 5 Partick Thistle 1
St Johnstone must feel as if they’re starting all over again. In today’s match programme, owner Adam Webb mentioned in passing that “the footballing journey brought its share of challenges over the…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
August 2, 2025 at 9:44 PM
On the blog: St Johnstone won't recover from a difficult 12 months in one day, but the signs at least look positive for them: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/02/a...
On the blog: What it's like watching a live broadcast of Radio 4's Any Questions in a venue where you once attended a life drawing class: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/20/b...
Bouncers in a library
The last time I visited Levenshulme Old Library, I spent two hours sketching a naked woman. I’d never attended a life drawing class before, and had approached the evening with apprehension. But the…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
July 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
On the blog: What it's like watching a live broadcast of Radio 4's Any Questions in a venue where you once attended a life drawing class: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/20/b...
On the blog: How the man who brought brass band music to the Proms couldn't quite bring it to Saturday night football, and how that wasn't really his fault: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/04/a...
A history of Match Night in seven Beatles lyrics
I. Roll up for the mystery tour Saturday, August 3, 1974. History was about to be made at the Royal Albert Hall, and not everyone was happy about it. For the first time in its 80-year history, the …
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
July 4, 2025 at 11:33 AM
On the blog: How the man who brought brass band music to the Proms couldn't quite bring it to Saturday night football, and how that wasn't really his fault: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/04/a...
On the blog: Accidentally taking my front door off its hinges, accidentally picking a 51-year-old for international football duty, accidentally assigning the wrong job title to the person who made the error. Everyone's having accidents this week: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/h...
How to pick a 51-year-old for international duty
On Monday, by accident, I managed to remove my front door from its hinges. I didn’t realise at first that I’d done it. One moment, I was trying to tighten the top hinge; the next, I looked down to …
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
June 5, 2025 at 12:46 PM
On the blog: Accidentally taking my front door off its hinges, accidentally picking a 51-year-old for international football duty, accidentally assigning the wrong job title to the person who made the error. Everyone's having accidents this week: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/h...
Was wondering if Liverpool v Crystal Palace next Sunday will be the first English league game where the new league champions face the new FA Cup winners within the season. And technically, it's not, because of Michael Thomas and 1989 and all that. (Also, there may be other examples.)
May 17, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Was wondering if Liverpool v Crystal Palace next Sunday will be the first English league game where the new league champions face the new FA Cup winners within the season. And technically, it's not, because of Michael Thomas and 1989 and all that. (Also, there may be other examples.)
On the blog: A new way of experiencing defeat, and the need to remain professional as it played out: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/a...
A Wednesday night in Stockport
Richie Wellens caught us all by surprise when he said it. None of the small group of reporters interviewing him at the side of the Edgeley Park pitch had known to ask him. And I suspect had his tea…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
May 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
On the blog: A new way of experiencing defeat, and the need to remain professional as it played out: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/a...
Thrilled to make my debut in Panenka magazine, writing about Alan Shearer, and the day/night in Huddersfield with Kevin Keegan and Bryan Adams that helped him become the world's most expensive footballer. Yet to hear if this means I'm now hip enough to sip cappuccinos with James Richardson.
Ningún futbolista valía más que Alan Shearer en 1996, aun con su vitrina de trofeos desangelada. Y a base de goles, la supo llenar de recuerdos, de las caras alegres de su gente, a la que nunca falló.
Así empieza el #Panenka148 www.panenka.org/miradas/alan...
Así empieza el #Panenka148 www.panenka.org/miradas/alan...
Alan Shearer: no todas las leyendas se escriben con títulos - Panenka
Ningún futbolista valía más que Alan Shearer en 1996, aun con su vitrina de trofeos desangelada. Y a base de goles, la llenó de recuerdos.
www.panenka.org
May 14, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Thrilled to make my debut in Panenka magazine, writing about Alan Shearer, and the day/night in Huddersfield with Kevin Keegan and Bryan Adams that helped him become the world's most expensive footballer. Yet to hear if this means I'm now hip enough to sip cappuccinos with James Richardson.
Well, seeing as BBC Sport won a Bafta for its Paris Olympics coverage, and I snuck on to the end credits for my online contribution, that now makes me a Bafta winner, and I am putting that on my CV from now on and you can't stop me.
May 12, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Well, seeing as BBC Sport won a Bafta for its Paris Olympics coverage, and I snuck on to the end credits for my online contribution, that now makes me a Bafta winner, and I am putting that on my CV from now on and you can't stop me.
On the blog: A long one, this. The curious story of the only Screen One drama that went out without a writing credit. And no, it wasn't Ghostwatch: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/09/e...
Even Ghostwatch had a writing credit – the curious story of Truth or Dare
I’ve been watching The Change: Bridget Christie’s comedy-drama about a woman who learns she is starting the menopause, has an existential crisis, leaves behind her useless husband and goes off to f…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
May 9, 2025 at 5:07 PM
On the blog: A long one, this. The curious story of the only Screen One drama that went out without a writing credit. And no, it wasn't Ghostwatch: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/09/e...
On the blog: Watching the conclusion of the Championship relegation scrap, which produced an outcome to surprise much of Radio Humberside's audience: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/04/a...
A day on the brink: Derby 0 Stoke 0
Seven days ago, I’d have told you Hull City were doomed. Penultimate game of the Championship season, at home to relegation rivals Derby County, they had fallen 1-0 down inside the final six minute…
mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com
May 4, 2025 at 3:35 PM
On the blog: Watching the conclusion of the Championship relegation scrap, which produced an outcome to surprise much of Radio Humberside's audience: mikewhalleyblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/04/a...
By me for @wsc.co.uk (WSC 453, May 2025 issue): Substitute stadiums on TV and film - when one football ground stands in for another, convincingly or not. Featuring Alan Carr's Changing Ends, Ted Lasso, The Damned United, Porridge and, most famous of all, Fist of Fun's 'York City are magic' sketch.
April 22, 2025 at 9:49 AM
By me for @wsc.co.uk (WSC 453, May 2025 issue): Substitute stadiums on TV and film - when one football ground stands in for another, convincingly or not. Featuring Alan Carr's Changing Ends, Ted Lasso, The Damned United, Porridge and, most famous of all, Fist of Fun's 'York City are magic' sketch.
Reposted by Mike Whalley
Well, as I’m sure you all know, we mark something important today. Yes: happy 45th anniversary of the thrremony at tremony at the liremony at the libraremony to all who celebrate
April 18, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Well, as I’m sure you all know, we mark something important today. Yes: happy 45th anniversary of the thrremony at tremony at the liremony at the libraremony to all who celebrate