<\/p>
Steve Cram has labelled Sue Barker one of the \u201call-time greats\u201d ahead of her stepping down as part of the BBC Wimbledon presenters<\/a> team.<\/p>\n Cram \u2013 who worked with Barker on BBC\u2019s athletics coverage \u2013 was full of praise for his former colleague as she prepares to step down following 30 years in the hot-seat at SW19.<\/p>\n Three-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist Cram is gearing up to commentate on live coverage of the 2022 event in Birmingham later this month and claims that Barker\u2019s transition from the court to the studio helped his own journey into the media.<\/p>\n Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a>, Cram said: \u201cShe is somebody who I\u2019ve known for a long time even before we were both competing. She is a little bit older than me, I think! I got to know Sue in the \u201980s. You go to events and things and she was always so much fun, such a laugh.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen she went into television, she did such a great job, and made such a smooth transition into it. That was something which helped me a lot. You see people like Sue make the move across as smoothly and as brilliantly as she did \u2013 it helped.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was one of those people who, when I first joined the BBC, it was so good to work with her. I was very lucky. First Des Lynam, then Sue. I got to hang around a lot of these, even [David] Coleman from commentary perspective. I call them all-time greats. And she\u2019s definitely one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Cram said Barker spoke to him about her departure at the end of 2021 as the pair were on tour with a stage version of A Question of Sport.<\/p>\n The 61-year-old explained the key to her success and why she, in his eyes at least, is the very best in the business.<\/p>\n \u201cI spoke to Sue in the winter,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were doing the A Question of Sport stage tour. She was telling me then that this might be her last year.<\/p>\n \u201cSue to me has been, without doubt, the best. For me, anyway. I just love Sue\u2019s style, as a person she\u2019s lovely. When you sit at home and Sue comes on the telly, you just feel comfortable, she makes you feel comfortable.<\/p> \u201cThere\u2019s nothing ever confrontational or anything like that, even though sometimes she\u2019d been in situations where she was presenting things where there might be big issues happening \u2013 she could do that as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI always loved the way she handles all of her guests. Everyone was always made comfortable. I worked with Sue for so many years on athletics and she was just a joy to work with. I really miss her from the athletics team. I told her when she left, I was like, \u2018why are you going?’\u201d<\/p>\n He laughed: \u201cShe\u2019s probably going to have about 10 send-offs this week, isn\u2019t she?\u201d<\/p>\n For more Wimbledon features, check out: Wimbledon FAQs, facts and figures<\/a> |\u00a0Who has won Wimbledon the most times?<\/a> | How does Wimbledon Hawk-Eye work?<\/a><\/p>\n Check out our live tennis on TV today<\/a> page for all the major tournaments taking place this week and in 2022.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch, check out our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>, or visit our dedicated hub for more Sport<\/a> news.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a> with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Michael Potts Published: Friday, 08 July 2022 at 12:00 am Steve Cram has labelled Sue Barker one of the \u201call-time greats\u201d ahead of her stepping down as part of the BBC Wimbledon presenters team. Cram \u2013 who worked with Barker on BBC\u2019s athletics coverage \u2013 was full of praise for his former colleague as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18228,"template":"","categories":[7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/steve-cram-praises-all-time-great-sue-barker-as-she-steps-down-from-wimbledon-tv-coverage-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/steve-cram-praises-all-time-great-sue-barker-as-she-steps-down-from-wimbledon-tv-coverage-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/steve-cram-praises-all-time-great-sue-barker-as-she-steps-down-from-wimbledon-tv-coverage-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/steve-cram-praises-all-time-great-sue-barker-as-she-steps-down-from-wimbledon-tv-coverage-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/steve-cram-praises-all-time-great-sue-barker-as-she-steps-down-from-wimbledon-tv-coverage-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/steve-cram-praises-all-time-great-sue-barker-as-she-steps-down-from-wimbledon-tv-coverage-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/steve-cram-praises-all-time-great-sue-barker-as-she-steps-down-from-wimbledon-tv-coverage-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Michael Potts Published: Friday, 08 July 2022 at 12:00 am Steve Cram has labelled Sue Barker one of the \u201call-time greats\u201d ahead of her stepping down as part of the BBC Wimbledon presenters team. Cram \u2013 who worked with Barker on BBC\u2019s athletics coverage \u2013 was full of praise for his former colleague as…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/18227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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