By Gaelle Legrand
April 17 2020, 19.25
Follow @SW_Londoner
A Tooting sport commentator broke the internet by doing life commentary in lockdown.
Freelance commentator Nick Heath, 41, became an internet sensation describing mundane life events in a sport commentary style.
Over the past two weeks, Mr Heath’s videos have attracted hundreds of thousands of views and gained him 120,000 followers on Twitter.
He said: “I could see that the work was drying up on the horizon in terms of my sporting engagements and professional commentary.
“While I was having a walk outside, I could see a couple of guys playing football in the distance so I decided to start filming them.
“I thought of just doing a bit of parody commentary thinking it might get a handful of likes from a few of my followers. And then I break the internet.”
Mr Heath’s videos bring to life daily activities, like the “2020 Crossroad Dash” showing a crowd crossing the street, “Middle Class Arena” following shoppers in a local supermarket or “Drag A Load Of Tat” commentating on a passerby disposing of rubbish in the street.
He said: “I’m humbled by the messages I’m receiving and people who are saying it’s providing much needed levity for them during these times.
“There’s a slight sense now that I am helping people take their minds off a pretty anxious time. So if I can do that then I’ll do my best.”
He has been a sports commentator for ten years on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, specialising in women’s rugby competitions such as the Women’s League, the Rugby World Cups and the Women’s Six Nations.
He also runs the podcast Cue Commentator with famous commentator interviews.
Like other freelancers, Mr Heath, who hosts live pub quizzes on Youtube too, has seen his income disappearing and has set up a donation page for anyone who enjoyed the live commentary videos.
“I’m hugely grateful to everybody who took the time to donate because it has made a difference and it has probably substituted my wages for a couple of months, which is fantastic and very unexpected,” he said.
Asked about the next commenting video, he said: “Probably me doing my domestic chores because we’re all going to have to do the indoor games as I called them.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to be allowed to do serious commentary again.”
Picture credits: Nick Heath.
