Interesting one, this. AP McCoy, the great jockey, has just won BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Now, AP, as horseracing fans will know, is one of the taller of his breed. At 5ft 10ins, he is bigger than the average jockey.
It might just be me thinking this, but was the BBC trying to make AP conform more easily to the all-jockeys-are-titches stereotype? I say this because, in this most scripted and rehearsed piece of 'live' TV, they got Freddie Flintoff to present the award, a man against whom most people look small.
AP also made a claim for the short man territory by saying, in his acceptance speech, that there were a lot of sportsmen in the room he looks up to.
We are talking Sunday night before Christmas television here. The BBC knows its audience, who want their prejudices reinforced rather than challenged on such an occasion. Particularly where Sue Barker is involved.
So the logic of it goes thus: a jockey is going to win sports personality, most people think all jockeys are short and don't want to start engaging the brain on a Sunday night, particularly on matters of height - therefore, get a monstrous ex-England fastbowler (complete with nickname drawn from the Flintstones) and no-one has to question whether all jockeys really are small, or not.
Congratulations AP. But let no one think that you stand eye to eye with Frankie Dettori, who comes in at a more prejudice confirming 5ft 5ins.
