Now I find Frost hard to warm to. I love the grainy images of him playing the part of Disraeli on TW3, using a 19th century First Lord of the Treasury to have a big pop at Alec Douglas-Home, but as he aged, he switched sides. His days as the leading satirist of his generation (can you believe that this obsequious, slurry-spoken, red-socked knight of the realm used to be more highly regarded than Rushton, Wells or Ingrams as the leading satirist of his generation?) are but a distant memory, and for most of his days in colour television he has given political figures and the powerful and pompous a notoriously easy time.

So, we get to him and Ferguson. I was very cynical as I tuned in. I’m no supporter of Manchester United but I adore football and its hold on the country, and I am an admirer of Ferguson’s achievements and fascinated by his life. For all that, I want Paxman to grill him (“so then Alex, you assaulted your star player with a spare football boot, didn’t you?”) but that clearly won’t happen, irrespective of who Paxman’s employers are. What on earth can one knight who never offends draw from another who never bites?

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Tagged as Ferguson’s first feature-length interview for a decade, Frost asked him about selling Jaap Stam and whether it really was about the unwise revelations in the Dutch defender’s autobiography which forced Ferguson’s hand. Nope, an Achilles injury, a loss of pace and a massive offer from Lazio. We can choose not to believe Ferguson, of course, but that depends on whether you support Liverpool or Manchester City or have dinner regularly with Laurent Blanc’s agent.

Also, Ferguson’s relationship – or utter lack of – with the BBC came up. I was genuinely shocked and very pleased it did. Ferguson simply wants an apology from the corporation (he’s refused to speak to the Beeb for many years since a documentary said unkind things about his son Jason’s dealings as a football agent) but admits he is unlikely to get one. It remains very unsatisfactory to United fans and football fans in general to listen to Carlos Quieroz bleating about refs each week on Match of the Day but at least we’ve heard Ferguson’s word on it now.

Frost didn’t press Ferguson on his hypocrisy over referees – calling for them to be respected and supported one week, then laying mercilessly into them the next – but apart from that this was the most fulfilling piece of television I’ve seen Sir David complete since he dribbled over Debbie Greenwood on Through The Keyhole.

There’s always a danger when sporting contracts change hands for the new incumbent to try too hard to stand out and stuff their coverage with gimmicks. Setanta certainly haven’t gone in this direction, and indeed it looked very much like you’d expect it to look – perfectly professional and adequate, it did what it had to do and that was about it. There were no real innovations but, in the end, all that matters is the 90 minutes.

One thing that might need sorting out is the opening of the show. The build-up to the 5.15pm kick-off begins at 4.30pm, while the rest of the day’s matches are being played, so the first half-hour intersperses the features with a scrolling vidiprinter and match reports. Sadly, host Angus Scott was unconvincing at this when he was alone in the studio on ITV’s unlamented results service The Goal Rush, so to expect him to try and link a live game from a stadium at the same time was asking for trouble. Given 99% of fans will be watching Soccer Saturday or Final Score, it might make more sense just to assume viewers can get this info elsewhere and just start the build-up at 5pm, or have someone in a studio monitoring the scores alone all afternoon, rather than this rather awkward compromise.

Still, it was nice to hear Jon Champion for a full 90 minutes, as he’s a fine commentator and has been inexplicably marginalised by ITV (who apparently he’ll continue working for throughout the season). Interviewer Alex Hayes was a bit at sea at the end (“Steven, you’re the Barclays Player of the Week, er, game, er, Man of the Match!”) but he’s a print journalist first and foremost so let’s give him time to get used to it.

In the end, Setanta made a decent start of it, and there was enough professionalism to make it look like their 101st Premier League game rather than their first. It doesn’t have the glitz and glamour of Sky Sports but it’s no England vs Poland on Channel 5-esque disaster either. And because I’m on Virgin, I’m getting it for free, so how can I complain?

However, Sky aren’t resting on their laurels and have amazed us all in the new season by … putting the commentators in vision at the start again, after an absence of many years. I always love seeing this sort of thing, and what better way to emphasise the dynamism and razzmatazz of the Premier League than putting ugly, balding sixtysomething Alan Parry in vision?

Fortunately, this figure didn’t get any bigger last night given the scheduled Liverpool vs Arsenal match was called off. Only Sky could turn the announcement of a postponement into a full half-hour programme, including an ad break, with interviews with the referee, the stadium manager, both managers and the assembled pundits. Sadly situations like this always bring out the pompous worst in Richard Keys, asking everyone why they couldn’t play it 24 hours later, when not only had this been explained (boring reason – the police need more notice) but if it had been, they wouldn’t have been able to show it because another match is scheduled.

In any case, the highlight of the week, and the season, on Sky Sports, came from Ian Darke’s commentary on Everton vs Chelsea at the weekend. I’ve never been crazy about Darke as a commentator – though at least he has a bit of life about him, unlike his monotone colleague Rob Hawthorne – but when Didier Drogba scored the winning goal, he hollered “Look at that, look at that!” This is a quote from one of the most famous lines by John Motson and it was great to hear what I’m assuming was an obvious homage from Darke.

If you’d like to know more about commentators, then why not take a look at this thread on Digital Spy, now nearly two years old and featuring 270 pages of incredibly intense commentator discussion, including a regular weekly sweepstake on who’s commentating on what for Sky. I find this absolutely fascinating.

Ooh, I wish you could post here anonymously.