This book provides
the first detailed account of the formative decades of BBC televised sport
when it launched its flagship programmes Sportsview,
Grandstand and Match of the Day. Based on extensive archival research in the
BBC’s written archives and interviews with leading producers, editors and
commentators of the period, it provides a ‘behind-the-scenes’ narrative
history of this major institution of British cultural life. In 2016 the BBC
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its television coverage of England’s
World Cup victory. Their coverage produced one of the most oft-played moments
in the history of television, Kenneth Wolstenholme’s famous line: ‘Some
people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over … it is now!’ as Geoff Hurst
scored England’s fourth goal, securing England’s 4-2 victory. It was a
landmark in English football as well as a watershed in the BBC’s highly
professionalised approach to televised sport. How the BBC reached this peak
of television expertise, and who was behind their success in developing the
techniques of televised sport, is the focus of this book.