The Independent is celebrating the greatest TV moments of the year so far, from the ones that got the nation talking to the scenes that moved us or made us laugh. In a series of articles running this summer, insiders share the part they played in making them happen.
Sunday night in the UK. A nation goes to bed with baited breath (unless, that it is, you decided to stay up). England would play Mexico in the third round of the World Cup at 2am UK time.
Let’s be honest, we’d not been playing brilliantly. The match against DR Congo was a major scare. Then there was the formidable atmosphere at Mexico’s Azteca Stadium, which some feared might just blow us all away. And what about the altitude? Everyone was saying it would turn the players’ legs into lead.
But the nation woke up in delirium. We’d actually done it! The England men’s team had delivered an absolute all-timer, and we hadn’t even had to go to extra time or penalties. Could it get better? It could. As we were brewing our morning coffees, we watched BBC presenter Kelly Somers have a word with the captain.
Quickly it became apparent that belting out Wonderwall with the fans had left Harry Kane almost completely hoarse. “We had to fight!” he squeaked as he explained England’s gameplan to Somers. The pair dissolved into giggles as they delivered TV gold. Kane, our national saviour, our sweet angel, seemed to have no idea what sound – if any – was going to come out of his mouth next, understanding his fate as a meme in real time.
Cut to the studio, where the BBC’s pundits were in stitches. “That’s the best interview I’ve ever seen,” said Wayne Rooney. “It’s hard work that singing Harry Kane cmon ENGLAND cmon WONDERWALL,” teased Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher on X. At the time of writing, the interview has had 81 million views on social media, and counting.
As one of the most dependable figures in football broadcasting, Somers has interviewed hundreds of players many times over. But, as she explains, she’s never done an interview quite like this one.
The atmosphere in the Azteca
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of, and I think it took me a few days to realise how special it was. I’ve been to Mexico before but not the city, and it’s wild. The passion was actually crazy. I’ve reflected a bit on what some of the England players have talked about because they said it was an incredible atmosphere, but almost not hostile. Sometimes England go to stadiums where the goal is to intimidate England. Mexico were trying to do that, but it was also an incredibly positive atmosphere as well. It was so loud, I’ve not heard anything that loud.
“Even during the rain delay, we were pitchside when we got moved into the bowels of the stadium – it was all quite depressing for us, but you could hear outside the DJ was playing English songs, then Mexican songs, trying to get them competing, and it was just an amazing party atmosphere. It just felt like two really strong footballing nations that were desperate to win.”
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Somers prepares for the post-match interviews, amid a concerning scene
“I think you just go into a bit of a zone as a reporter. I had a seat in the dugout, with Thomas Tuchel literally 20 metres to the left of me. I sit pitchside, and then someone from Fifa comes around and gets me on the 75th minute, so then you’re walking around the perimeter of the pitch, trying to watch the game at ground level, which is tough throughout anyway, but also walking and being instructed where you’re meant to go. So it’s a lot going through your brain at that moment. And then you have to go into the tunnel and watch from underneath just on a monitor for the last 10 minutes, which is also really strange. And then they pull you out as soon as the final whistle goes, you come straight back onto the pitch and wait.
“So I was standing there watching England singing Wonderwall. I saw Jordan Henderson fall and I saw Dan Burn help him. And then I was just waiting. And then it became quite apparent it was quite a serious injury. So it was a juxtaposition of two emotions because you saw England go from euphoria to then worrying about their teammate, and then eventually Harry Kane comes over.”
What it was like to do ‘the best interview ever’
“I’ve interviewed Harry quite a few times, and because of his teammate being injured, I didn’t want to catch him off guard with that, so I told him I’d have to ask about Jordan. He said, ‘Yeah, that’s fine, I don’t know much,’ and I didn’t notice his voice was gone. Obviously there’s a difference between talking to me closely and projecting your voice for a TV interview. So I think it surprised him as much as me that he couldn’t speak when he started talking. He didn’t know his voice had gone, which is what made it funnier.
“A few people said to me, ‘Why didn’t you stop? The poor guy couldn’t speak.’ But I’d spoken to him a few minutes before and he could speak, I’d seen him talking to the press officer. You know sometimes when you lose your voice, you haven’t lost it completely, you can cough your way back? Every time I asked a question I thought, I hope it’ll come back now. And it obviously never really did.
“It got more frantic after that, because I go down the tunnel and England are bringing their players out quite quickly for the rest of the post-match interviews. As I was going down, Jordan Henderson was being stretchered off in front of me, and there was actually a lot of concern around him. I waited in my position, which is kind of outside the England dressing room, and Harry came out pretty quickly, within five or ten minutes, with a throat sweet in his mouth and said he’d just switched his phone on and had so many messages not just about the game but about the interview as well, and that his voice had come back.
“That was probably one of the highest I’ve ever seen him. He’s very good at staying level-headed, but he was clearly loving the moment. I don’t know if he was embarrassed; I think he was, but took it in the best possible way. Then he went off and did loads of other interviews and word got back to us that he wanted to come back to us, so we did a second interview.”
The voice returns!
“This is my fourth major tournament with England and I’ve been interviewing players for a while. Sometimes players ask to do interviews if they’ve got something specific to say, but that’s pretty rare. But I don’t think I’ve ever had a player ask to do an interview twice. Everything Harry does, he does to the highest standards and wants to do things properly, so he wanted to show his voice was back and give his proper post-match message to the nation. He didn’t want to let us down.
“He’s such an elite sportsman and so professional, sometimes we don’t see the humourous side. So it was really lovely to see that in the second interview as well, that he saw the light side and can take the mickey out of himself.”
What it’s like to interview players after the final whistle
“Those post match interviews are the best ones, where you get the best adrenaline buzz, where the questions ask themselves. That was one of England’s best ever World Cup performances, and to be there, the one asking the questions, is an incredible privilege. They’re the kind of moments you live for. And we’ve seen so many of the opposite of those. Congo was brilliant in terms of the way we won that, then everything about the Mexico win was just incredible, and I knew how high the players would be.”
The reaction to the interview
“It’s been quite crazy, everyone messaging, sending memes, loads of WhatsApps and Instagram DMs. Obviously I knew it was funny he didn’t have a voice, but I didn’t quite realise how it had been received and how crazy it would have gone. Afterwards my producer told me the pundits were really laughing and I was like, ‘Oh, really?’ and then you’re on to the next one. Within a few minutes I’m interviewing Jude Bellingham, and at the end I said, ‘Thanks Jude, it’s good to hear you’ve got a voice,’ and he said, ‘Yeah I heard Harry had a bit of trouble.’
Why it captured the mood so perfectly
“In the UK it was four o’clock in the morning and everyone’s knackered and feeling a bit rough. I think there were probably a lot of people without voices at home as well.
“It almost felt like there was a collective, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s over, thank God we’ve done it.’ And then we needed a laugh, and he gave us a bit of a laugh. It was the perfect tonic to a stressful game. I think there was 11 minutes of added time, so we’re talking over one hundred minutes of pure stress! And then we all just got a big laugh. And people weren’t laughing at him, but with him and feeling his pain and just enjoying another moment that no one expected. It was an evening of the unexpected and that just capped it off really.
“We couldn’t have written it. But it shows how football and live TV and the unpredictability of it still provides these moments. Not only the whole night which was incredible, but these individual moments that we all love and need as a nation.”
