World of Sport (UK TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| World of Sport | |
|---|---|
 Dickie Davies in the World of Sport studio. |
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| Format | Sport |
| Presented by | Eamonn Andrews, Dickie Davies |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | approx 1050 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 1230 to 1700 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | January 2, 1965 – September 28, 1985 |
World of Sport was a British television sport anthology programme which ran on ITV between January 2, 1965 and September 28, 1985 in response to competition from BBC's Grandstand. Like Grandstand, the programme ran for several hours every Saturday afternoon.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Eamonn Andrews was the first host and the programme itself was "compiled for Independent Television" by ABC. From the summer of 1968 it was produced by London Weekend Television - under the ITV Sport banner, with the other ITV stations supplying footage of events in their regions. Thames Television took over LWT's responsibilities for Bank Holiday editions. Dickie Davies also took over as host in 1968 and would remain the face of the show until it ended in 1985.
The programme's title is similar to Wide World of Sports. The proposed title was changed because the initial programmes featured sports from hardly further than the North Circular, and early Programme Editor John Bromley felt that "Wide" World of Sports would have looked rather silly.
[edit] Features
The show included popular segments such as On the Ball (a preview of the days football action), The ITV Seven (horse racing) and wrestling introduced by Kent Walton. It also showed sports not seen elsewhere, such as women's hockey, netball, lacrosse, water skiing and stock car racing or sports that is not popular with the British mainstream, such as NASCAR and ice speedway. It featured bizarre sports like the World Barrel Jumping Championships and even death-defying stunts.
It often showed show jumping and other equestrian events, especially in its earlier years, and towards the end of its life it showed snooker extensively. 'Minority' sports were a feature throughout its run. BBC had purchased the rights to as many established events as it could; a joke of the period was that the BBC were going through the list of sports in alphabetical order and had run out of cash before it reached wrestling which is how ITV got it. Two sports in particular Ten-pin bowling and Kart racing benefited from television exposure to a British public hitherto unaware of them. British stock car drivers such as Barry Lee also benefited from the show's exposure.
The programme also occasionally acquired the rights to genuinely major sporting events, such as the Tour de France and the Ryder Cup, admittedly this was in 1977 when the United States v Great Britain and Ireland match was regarded as something of a mismatch before Europe became the opposition.
The FA Cup Final also featured on World of Sport - with BBC and ITV often competing for viewers by broadcasting unusual features and occasionally early starts to their broadcasts to entice viewers to watch their coverage.
[edit] Demise
Despite being a sports programme with cult status, running for twenty years, it was cancelled on September 28, 1985 because of a change in emphasis at ITV Sport - racing coverage had switched to Channel 4, and there was a declining audience for wrestling at this point. Wrestling continued to have a programme at its own right but it was trasmitted on lunchtimes at 12.30 rather than teatimes and stayed on air until December 1988. It has recently been re-run on The Fight Network since March, 2004. Football coverage also continued with previous On the Ball hosts Saint and Greavsie and a results service also aired during the football season. Bob Colston had been the only regular results announcer for the duration of World of Sport, John Tyrrel was the regular reader of the racing results in its later years (and continued to work on Channel 4 Racing until 1994).
[edit] After World of Sport ended
Live coverage of sports such as athletics, ice skating, and snooker continued to play a part in the Saturday afternoon schedule on ITV for some time but gradually diminshed after a few years.
ITV paid tribute to World of Sport as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations in September 2005.
[edit] Theme tune
World of Sport had an iconic theme tune and opening credits which featured the ITV Sport logo and the programme name as trailing banners from light aircraft.
World Of Sport (UK) Theme excerpt
[edit] Historic, noteworthy or bizarre live events broadcast
- On May 11, 1985, World of Sport switched its coverage to Valley Parade stadium and match commentator John Helm described the events of the Bradford fire as they unfolded.
- Eric Morecambe appeared as a guest on the Christmas Eve edition of World Sport in 1977 causing mayhem by entertaining and trying disrupt his friend Dickie Davies' presentation links. [1]
- The most notorious out-take of the show featured a slip of the tongue from presenter Dickie Davies who mis-spoke when announcing the following week's "cup soccer". He read it as "cop sucker", which unfortunately sounded very similar to an expletive [2]
[edit] Trivia
- Fred Dinenage was the regular relief presenter for the show, occasionally standing in for Davies.
[edit] External links
- Archive episodes of World of Sport BFI Database
- The Wrestling Channel
