For those that didn't hear Robbie Savage on 5 Live on Sunday, The Guardian covers it today (IMO very accurately).
You didn't need to know anything about football to connect with Sunday night's 606 Football Phone-In (5 Live). And you didn't need to like phone-ins, with their tendency towards oppositional points, roughly argued. In this special edition of the programme, hosted by Darren Fletcher and Robbie Savage to mark the death of Gary Speed announced earlier in the day, it was all about consensus and catharsis.
It was a remarkable and very moving hour's broadcast of shared memories, funny stories, and tears ? many, many tears. Most were from Savage, who kept breaking down as he spoke about his friend, team-mate and manager, his words wobbling then slipping away as he cried. "When you finish football," he told Fletcher, "you lose people, but not him." He remembered hearing about Speed's death in a phonecall that morning. "I, physically, I, I was retching. I even tried his mobile, thinking it can't be right, and it rang out," he said, dissolving again.
It wasn't just Savage. Listeners who had met or just watched "Speedo" called in with their anecdotes and a need to talk about it all. There was only one female caller in the hour; otherwise it was men being affectionate and warm and supportive to each other.
One caller sweetly rebuked himself ("I forgot my manners") for launching into a memory of Speed before offering his condolences to the family. Many praised Savage while noting that ordinarily it would be sparring talk about the weekend's games.
Thanks partly to the fact that the show went out as the story was still reaching people ? before speculation or front page headlines could get to it ? it had a rawness and warm male camaraderie that you don't often hear on radio. The programme ended with both Fletcher and Savage in tears, having done their work in celebrating Speed and leaving listeners with happy personal and footballing memories of him, poignantly intensified by the shock of the day's news.