Mark Clemmit, popularly known as Clem, is a reporter on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

's ''

Football Focus ''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974, broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. The programme, along with '' Final Score'', is a remnant from the former flagship sports show ...

''. He has also worked on many of the BBC's flagship football programmes including '' Final Score, The Football League Show, MOTD2 and Match of the Day Live''. He's one of the longest established voices on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

. He has also reported for

's topical daily magazine programme, '' The One Show'', presented the consumer programme '' How Safe Is Your House'' and written a column for ''The Times''.

Broadcasting career

Clemmit has described his broadcasting career as a happy accident. A chance comment on the way home from a football match, led to his idea for a radio fanzine programme, dedicated to his local team –

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

. Producing and recording a pilot, ''Red Balls On Fire'' was first broadcast in 1998. The programme was initially given a five-week run on BBC Radio Cleveland. (The station later rebranded itself as BBC Tees.) Within nine months and on a small weekly budget, ''Red Balls On Fire'' was nominated for a Sony Radio Award, repeating the feat a year later. Clemmit came to the notice of BBC Radio 5 Live and he began to do interviews and match reports for them. He has become a familiar voice on BBC Radio 5 Live, specialising in football below the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. He has presented the station's flagship '' 5 Live Sport'' and their coverage of the Great North Run. He is also an occasional host of BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra's coverage of the Football League. A Regional RTS Awards winner, Clemmit has worked as a football reporter and pundit on BBC Regional TV in the North East. He has been a regular contributor to '' BBC Breakfast'', the BBC News Channel and on Simon Mayo's Sports Panel. Clemmit's TV reporting credits include: '' Final Score'', ''

'', '' Match of the Day'' and '' Match of the Day 2''. He has also reported on major international football tournaments for the BBC. In 2009, Clemmit became the features reporter on BBC One′s '' The Football League Show''. In an interview in 2009, Clemmit said: "I love the game at the lower levels. There's more access, more closeness to it, you don't have to go through 100 other people before you can speak to the person you want. You can go to a lower league ground, knock on the manager's door and if he's not busy he'll see you. You see all the Premiership players arriving in what are virtual stagecoaches, dripping in diamonds, trailing their escorts. There's an aloofness about the game at that level that I'm not really comfortable with."

References

Clemmit, Mark
"About Mark Clemmit"
''Official Website'', London, 11 March 2020. Retrieved on 11 March 2020.

Broadcasting career

References

Further reading