HIGH summer is a lean season for new television programmes, but it’s a feast for sports fans. My week inevitably involved a great deal of tennis, as coverage of Wimbledon, the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, began (BBC1 and 2, and iPlayer, from 30 June).
I’m still mourning the loss of Sue Barker from our screens, but it’s comforting to have Clare Balding (always a pleasure) taking the reins instead, with support from the cricket commentator Isa Guha.
Among the experts on hand in the commentary box is the ever-salty John McEnroe, and the affable Pat Cash, two reassuringly recognisable and knowledgeable voices, who add a familiar feel to the proceedings. McEnroe provided the commentary for Jannik Sinner’s match against Aleksandar Vukic. The Italian beat Vukic in straight sets, and I was rooting for him — the first time I’ve knowingly cheered on a Sinner.
The coverage is a quintessential, albeit twee, element of the English summer. Fingers crossed that another feature of English summers, torrential rain, stays off during the second week.
Formula One provided an alternative to all the tennis, as I tuned into Hill (Sky Documentaries, Tuesday), an absorbing documentary about the former world number one racing driver Damon Hill. In 1975, his father, Graham Hill, a Formula One star and larger-than-life reveller, died in a horrific plane crash. Horribly, the crash was reported on the news while Hill was watching at home. He was just 15.
From then on, the shadow of his father loomed large in Hill’s life. “I never wanted to be a racing driver,” Hill says. “My whole life, people asked me if I was going to be one . . . like my dad.” His lifelong battle to escape his father’s shadow becomes inescapably entwined with his ambition to be the best racing driver in the world.
Worth watching alongside this inspiring story is the 2017 film Williams: Formula 1 in the blood (BBC4, Thursday), about the man whom Damon Hill once raced for, Frank Williams. After being involved in a near-fatal car crash in 1986, Williams has lived as a quadriplegic. He provides an alternative model of competitive racing driving, one that differs considerably from the shy and gentle Hill.
In both stories, the unsung heroes were the wives in the background, keeping the real show on the road. On attending a sports day with one of their sons, Hill’s wife, Georgie, defends her decision to allow their child just to take part, teaching him that “he doesn’t always have to be the best at something in order to enjoy it.” For Hill, a man who was driven by beating the competition as well as his own demons, this was a valuable lesson, too.