Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Broadcaster whose sheepskin coat and commentary on 29 FA Cup finals and 10 World Cups made him the voice of football.
On the island
Eight records
Three LionsFavourite
The Lightning Seeds featuring Frank Skinner and David Baddiel
they wrote this song, which was really a look back on all England's near misses and what it was like to be a fan when we were hoping we were going to do this and then it didn't happen. And of course it was called Three Lions, sometimes known as Football's Coming Home.
Billy Cotton and the Johnson Singers
the song was called The Red, Red Robin.
it was simply called Diana, and it was by the one and only Paul Anchor [Paul Anka].
this one, I've picked it out because it was the song I remember when I joined BBC Radio. This would be the early 70s. This song by Elton John was a really haunting one. And it was Daniel My Brother.
I just want to simply dedicate this song to her. It is Annie's song, and it's by John Denver.
when I got back to England, guess what the biggest show in town was? … my wife had got tickets almost as soon as I got back to go and see Elaine Page in the lead role. And my word, didn't she sing that song well? Don't cry for me, Argentina.
the cup final has always had one very precious moment, a hymn. … It was quite simply Abide With Me.
I think the album in which I had the most pride was Graceland … I'd just like to have another one off that LP called The Boy in the Bubble.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:08What is it about football that sets your heart racing?
Well, I think it's the background to my early life, really. My father got me into football when I was very young. I picked up the sense of excitement the first time he took me down to the valley at Charlton, which is where I saw my first match. Everything to do with the colours, the crowd, the goals. I got hooked on the game and then began to take a much wider interest in it.
Presenter asks
3:35Over half a century, did you always have nerves before commentary?
Yes, I did. Um they weren't quite as bad at the end, but but but apprehension would have been a better word probably then. I'll tell you what it was like. … It was living on a knife edge the whole time. … I was literally on the edge of my seat, but I mean, in a figurative way, I was terrified that something was going to happen in a crowded penalty area, and I wasn't going to be able to be absolutely certain who it was or what it was.
Presenter asks
5:00You've commentated on ten World Cups. What was the biggest thrill in all of them?
Well, the biggest thrill from an England point of view w was it was a thrill while it lasted. It did end in disappointment was when we got to the semi-final of the World Cup in 1990. But I suppose the most vibrant experience I had was when Euro 96 was played here in England because there was so much excitement and it became a festival.
The keepsakes
The book
J.D. Salinger
the great adolescent novel about Holden Caulfield, which I did at college. I just said everything about how I felt at the time really
Presenter asks
9:20How much preparation and how much worry goes into a big event like a cup final?
Well, weeks of worry and days of preparation. The first cup final I ever did in nineteen seventy seven, Manchester United, Liverpool, I'd never done a live match on television before. … All the build-up was down to me, how the band were going to form up for the Abibe with me, and the Queen was there for some of the cup finals I did. … I condensed it, as I have every commentary somehow or other, onto one colourful card with my felt-tipped pens and the things underlined that I thought I would have to bring into the commentary.
Presenter asks
29:52During that interview with Brian Clough, he gave it to you with both barrels. You looked very calm. What was going on on the inside?
Well, what was going on on the inside is this is good. This is gold. Everything that Cluffy did was gold duster. I knew I had the interview in the palm of my hand. … I just stood my ground with him, really. I mean, he liked that. He liked the banter to and fro.
Presenter asks
41:29What has football meant to you?
Well, it's it's meant a a a lifetime of pleasure. It's been an obsession. Um it's been a a wonderful way to earn a living. It's socially put me in into places and with people that I would never otherwise have met. It's been a phenomenal playground in which to work and also to live. And I can honestly say that in spite of the Bright Club interview, I have loved every minute of it.
“I got hooked on the game and then began to take a much wider interest in it.”
“It was living on a knife edge the whole time.”
“This is gold. Everything that Cluffy did was gold duster.”
“from where I was sitting it looked to me right from moment one as a case of overcrowding. So I wanted to get any suggestion of crowd misbehaviour out the way straight away.”
“It's meant a a a lifetime of pleasure. It's been an obsession. … It's been a phenomenal playground in which to work and also to live.”