Whisper has won a BAFTA for its coverage of the 2022 Women’s EURO that it produced with the BBC. The 2023 BAFTA Television Awards, hosted by Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan, took place on Sunday 14 May, celebrating the best of British Television.
On Sunday 31 July 2022, millions of fans across the country will remember where they were – glued to BBC One/BBC iPlayer to see England win their first major football trophy since 1966. On a day when 87,192 packed Wembley, an all-time UEFA tournament record, coach Sarina Wiegman and her players made themselves legends, a story Whisper and the BBC shared with the nation.
The stage had been set in the three weeks before, with extensive programming from Whisper across 31 live matches and over 100 hours of coverage. Whisper and the BBC produced a huge range of features and analytical content, creating stars and role models from across the England team and giving the audience a reason to feel invested.
Throughout a memorable three and a half weeks, every match and minute was delivered live, with expert presentation and analysis from a diverse presentation team including Gabby Logan, Alex Scott, Ian Wright, Fara Williams, Jonas Eidevall, Laura Georges, Anouk Hoogendijk and Vicky Losada.
With extended build-ups of up to an hour ahead of matches, in line with previous men’s coverage, the programmes included creative features, immersive profiles of players, content that brought the stars of the game to the fore, tactics, back-stories, match-ups and analysis of teams and key moments from each game.
Whisper also wanted to attract new viewers, hooking them in with stardust from the world of entertainment. Singer Joy Crookes featured in the titles, Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman helped deliver the launch film and Kasabian performed for the closing sequence, along with a contributions from the likes of David Beckham, the Duke of Cambridge, Zoe Ball, Geri Horner, Lewis Hamilton and Anthony Joshua – along with super fan, Tess.
There were many powerful moments from the coverage – in particular, after the Semi-Final, Ian Wright said “If girls are not allowed to play football just like the boys in their PE after this tournament, then what are we doing?”. Gabby Logan’s closing words to end the Final and the EURO coverage also had huge gravitas “‘The Lionesses have brought football home. Now it’s down to the rest of us to make sure it stays here. They think it’s all over? It’s only just begun.”
Whisper is proud to have delivered this production with a diverse team, featuring more than 50% women. With 20% of project staff coming from ethnically diverse and under-represented areas.
Whisper has produced women’s football since 2017. It continues to produce the Women’s Super League and The FA Cup on the BBC. On the day Whisper and the BBC won the BAFTA, many of the team were on site at Wembley, delivering The Women’s FA Cup Final, from a match that saw another record breaking-crowd.
