Technical facilities for Sunday’s races have been provided by EMG UK

BR 5

FilmNova and BBC Sport have revealed their plans for coverage of the Boat Race on Sunday, 3 April.

The pair are collaborating on the production, using technical facilities provided by EMG UK, which will be on air on BBC1 from 1.50pm until 4.20pm and go out to international broadcasters. FilmNova has experience with rowing, producing the Tokyo Olympics rowing for Olympic Broadcasting Services.

It is the first time the men’s and women’s Boat Races have been held on the Thames since before the pandemic, having been on a closed course at the the River Great Ouse in Ely last year.

Matthew Coliandris will direct, having also done so for rowing at the last three Olympics. Meanwhile, Lucy Cutler will produce and Sally Richardson is BBC Sport’s exectutive producer for the presentation. 

Clare Balding will anchor the programme from Putney pre-race and Mortlake post-race, while Lee McKenzie will be based at Hammersmith and Rishi Persad ready to bring initial reaction from the finish. They will be joined by a host of guests including James Cracknell, Kyra Edwards, Helen Glover and Katherine Grainger. Andrew Cotter will be joined in commentary by Zoe de Toledo, Matthew Holland and Wayne Pommen.

This year will see drones used in the live coverage for the first time, supplementing helicopter coverage as well as adding close-up shots suring pre- and post-race action. In addition, FilmNova has already embedded camera crews with both universities for a week in early March and the resulting series of films entitled ‘Life in the Boat’ will form the bedrock of the pre-race coverage.