There was a TV mystery the other day that still puzzled and perplexed despite everyone knowing whodunnit.
The plot centred around a hugely important football match, the twists and turns of which kept those at Tannadice gripped until the very end.
Just under 11,000 people felt it was significant enough an event to dig out the thermals and sit in the cold on a Friday night in the busy run-up to Christmas.
I am talking, of course, about Dundee United’s tense 1-0 win over Hibs, a result that pushed the Tangerines level on points with the Edinburgh club at the top of the Championship.
While the Premiership trophy has already donned the green ribbons and made its way back to Celtic Park (well, almost), the story is a whole lot more intriguing down a division.
So that begs a question that even Hercule Poirot would have trouble answering.
It is: how have the BBC managed to get away with dropping highlights of Championship football from Sportscene?
Surely those of us left who, for whatever reason, can’t watch on cable, online or by means other than mainstream TV are being short-changed by the national broadcaster.
It’s not just about United or Hibs either. What about the late penalty drama at Dunfermline deserving an airing or even the umpteen other interesting fixtures this season?
The danger for Sportscene is that they carry on ignoring what many regard as Scotland’s most fascinating league while a thrilling title battle thunders on between United and Hibs.
The clashes between the division’s top two have been well served elsewhere, with Friday’s Tannadice tussle being shown live by BT Sport and Sky broadcasting the Hibs v United clash at Easter Road on October 2. Also, the next meeting in Edinburgh on Friday, January 6 will be shown live by BBC Alba.
This mystery isn’t really a mystery, though.
The reason is that the Sportscene bigwigs have chosen to walk away from showing the second tier following the promotion of Rangers back to the Premiership. Or, let’s be charitable, they haven’t fought hard enough to make it happen.
Back in August, they defended the decision to drop the Championship footage in the wake of criticism.
In a statement, BBC bosses said: “The Sportscene highlights programme has historically concentrated solely on the top tier of Scottish football. In this respect it mirrors the remit of Match of The Day.
“From the start of season 2012/2013, the SPL and SFL, at the behest of the live subscription broadcasters, offered a temporary extension of existing television rights deals to allow for coverage.
“These matches were selected by Sky or BT, and BBC Scotland was able to access the footage for our highlights programme. This extension of the rights deal ended last season and our contract has now reverted to one that only allows us to broadcast television highlights of games played in the Scottish Premiership and either provided to us by the SPFL or taken from Sky and BT live games.
“BBC Alba will continue to carry 16 live Championship/League One games this season and we will continue to report on lower league matches on radio, online, and across our sports news outlets.”
The BBC are absolutely right to highlight where they do give a fine service to Scottish football and I, for one, have always enjoyed their radio output in particular.
However, when it comes to Sportscene and the Championship they are guilty of a self-inflicted wound and it doesn’t need Sherlock Holmes to tell them that.
