This is an unofficial website that has no connection with ITV plc
and is strictly non-commercial for historical research only.
Screen grabs, scans, logos. etc remain the property of the respective copyright owner.

upthemaggies@hotmail.com
 

Thanks to Andrew Berry, Andrew Boyd, Alan Buchanan, John Bourn, David Browne, Mark Bunn, Robin Carmody, Duncan Cavanagh, Julian Clark, Stuart Croucher, Kieran Cullen, Geoff Downs, Mark Eden, David Elson, Rodney George, Peter Gillatt, Daniel Gray, Rob Howell, Glen Isherwood, Paul Johnson, Graham Keyte, Daniel Mann, Ronnie McDevitt, Danny Morgan, Brian Mullowney, Robert Pedley, Steve Westby, Michael Whalley, David Williams, Steve Williams and Simon Winters.
 

Recent Site Updates

1st June 2013:- Contrary to popular belief, the appalling state of the Wembley pitch circa 1969/70 was not caused by The Horse of the Year Show, which was never held there. EDIT:- It was actually the Royal International Horse Show in the summers of 1968 and 1969. (Thanks Robin and Mark Jones!!!)......  During the 12/Sep/1970 LWT match between Orient and Sunderland, the players, officials and cameramen had to run for cover in a torrential downpour! The 02/Feb/1980 edition of The Big Match actually showed the Midlands game as their main feature whilst Spurs v Southampton was shown last, probably because the White Hart Lane clash was a 0-0 draw..... Also added a handful of missing regional match tags to The Big Match page (Thanks Jeff!!!)..... The 15/Aug/1970 edition of The Big Match showed a brief clip from a *4th* fixture - the Cambridge United goal in a 1-1 against Lincoln City, this being United's first goal scored in the Football League (Thanks to Jamie Pollob!!!)..... A two page TVTimes article from 25/Sep/1976 on the opening edition of the three part Thames TV series Saturday's Heroes <on Jimmy Seed> is here and here. The programme still exists in the Thames archive...... Brian Moore is confirmed as the commentator on the 24/May/1978 England friendly at home to Hungary, see this youtube upload....... And finally a moment of unique unorthodox commentating from John Helm on the 08/May/1982 Bradford City v Bournemouth match, just after Bradford had scored their first goal, see here.

1st May 2013:- A complete edition of The Big Match from 27/Dec/1969 <presented by Jimmy Hill because Brian Moore was ill> has recently been uploaded to youtube here (Thanks Robert!!!)...... Two matches ITV intended to cover during the three month strike on  25/Aug/1979 are known to be Arsenal 0 Manchester United 0 and Nottingham Forest 4 Coventry City 1 - these games were to be included on Big League Soccer, which was sold abroad to the USA, Australia and New Zealand, the programmes were produced by Thames TV and often used BBC footage, the series ended in 1988. (Thanks Dan!!!)...... And finally here's the Granada Kick Off Match titles plus ad break bumpers for season 1976/77.

1st April 2013:-  A missing televised match from after the end of the regular 1968/69 season is Granada coverage of the outstanding 17/May/1969 fixture between Manchester United and Leicester City, which would most likely have been Barry Davies' last commentary for ITV as well as being Matt Busby's last match before Wilf McGuiness took over as manager, Leicester needed to win to stay up and so ATV also showed it as a late programme change, but Leicester lost 3-2 and were relegated. Anglia. Westward, HTV, Border, Ulster and Yorkshire also showed it, probably Tyne Tees as well (Thanks to Robin for spotting that one!!!!)..... Staying with 1968/69, clips from the first match ever to be shown on The Big Match <and Brian Moore's first TV commentary> are on youtube here (Thanks Richard!!!)..... For highlights of the Euro '76 semi-final between Czechoslovakia and the Netherlands, Brian Moore's commentary feed from Yugoslavia failed for extra-time and Martin Tyler then had to describe the action off-tube in London, Tyler's job that night had been to edit the 1st half highlights, but within minutes of finishing that task he was whisked to a voiceover booth to pick up commentary (Thanks to Daniel Mann for relaying that story!!!)..... A page on BBC Radio commentator Peter Jones, with audio links, is here (Thanks Robin!!!)..... The 07/May/1983 ITV documentary "Paisley: A Champions Farewell" is on youtube here..... Added a section on World of Sport theme tunes to the Extra Time page, Don Harper - who was responsible for the classic 1968-81 WOS theme tune, issued an electronic version in 1973 and released it as a single under the guise of 'Homo Electronicus', you can listen to that version here...... A photograph showing the behind the scenes set-up of the World of Sport Results Service can viewed here, you can just make out the teams listed nearest to camera and deduce that the photo was taken on 3rd April 1976....... Details of official releases of The Big Match theme-tunes have been added to the LWT page.

1st March 2013:- Another item for the list of 'football related stuff' on the 'Extra Time' page is Terry Venables' guest appearance on the LWT chat show Russell Harty Plus broadcast in the London area on Saturday 16th March 1974, this was memorable for Venables' full-blown rendition of "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes At Me For?" with several of his QPR team-mates sitting among the audience - There's a brief clip, as repeated in 2006 on The Jonathan Ross Show with an embarrassed Venables watching himself back, on youtube here .... Also added a list of games and guests on Bobby Charlton's Football Scrapbook series to the 'Extra Time' page, the list may possibly be missing one or two editions (Thanks to Rik Anstee for those!!!)....... An interesting page on BBC Radio's Sports Report and Sport on Two is here including several available audio downloads (Thanks Robin!!!)...... Another good blog for fans of 70s/80s football is "For Those Watching in Black & White" which you can find here (Thanks Keith!!!)..... The Westward TV football commentator circa 1969 was Don Arnold who had also presented the station's twice weekly sports desk, Don probably voiced all of the matches Westward covered from 1968/69 until Gary Newbon took over for 1970/71,  he died of a heart attack in 1978..... And finally the first episode of the BBC's excellent 1995 history of football series Kicking and Screaming is on youtube here, though the audio is somewhat overloaded so set your volume low before playing.

1st February 2013:- A missing football documentary programme from our 'Extra Time' list is Robson's Choice which was produced by Tyne Tees in 1981 and broadcast in various regional slots around March/April 1982 <possibly earlier on Tyne Tees itself>, the programme followed the fortunes of schoolboys on trial at Ipswich Town under the scrutiny of manager Bobby Robson (Thanks Brian!!!!)...... A list of 1970s/80s BBC radio commentaries that were mostly NOT announced in advance, and some of them crucial title deciders, can be found here (Thanks Robin!!!)..... And I've finally identified the original Granada region Football theme tune (1968-1975) as being Herb Alpert's version of "Magic Trumpet" from his 1966 album "What Now My Love", you can listen to the full length version here. The tune had originally been recorded by its' composer Bert Kaempfert who released it as a single under a different title "Happy Trumpeter" in 1962, listen to that version here.

1st January 2013:- The Bobby Charlton episode of This is Your Life broadcast on 26th November 1969 <show 2 following its' Thames Television revival>  has been uploaded to youtube here (Thanks Danny!!!). We now have a page on the regional LIVE games broadcast 1992/93-1996/97 as well as those shown live on ITV during the 2001/02 season here (Thanks to David Carswell, Robin Carmody, Mark Bunn and Andrew Boyd for their help in putting it all together!!!) Also added lots of commentators to the 1988-1992 The Match period (Thanks again to Andrew Boyd!!!) and further match notes and host/studio guest details to the 1990 World Cup section (Thanks to David Browne!!!). Any further significant updates to the 1990's sections will now be listed towards the top of the 92-97 page, though I should add that I want to avoid listing highlights for that period as it would be a bit of a nightmare trying to distinguish proper highlights from goal clips included on home video's, local news, matches shown abroad etc. so we'll just stick with LIVE British broadcasts from 1988/89 onwards. Currently missing are the live midweek games shown on ITV from 1992-1997 but we'll get around to listing those eventually. Finally, the Tyne Tees match for 29/Dec/1979 was LWT coverage of Crystal Palace v Middlesbrough with Roger Tames commentating - see this video at the 1:38 mark, footage of Newcastle v Charlton on the same date apparently exists but must be newsreel.

1st December 2012:- The missing fixture on the last edition of The Big Match on 07/May/1988, following Chelsea's decision to refuse to allow cameras into the ground, was Crystal Palace v Manchester City and you can view it here. Another regional broadcast missing from our post '83 lists is 13/Dec/1986 Plymouth 1 Derby 1 which was shown on TSW at 10:30-11:00pm with Pete Barraclough commentating (you can view an edit here and lots more Derby footage via that same youtube channel). The listed 20/Oct/1984 Aston Villa v Norwich footage was almost certainly just a report and not proper highlights (Thanks to Mark Bunn for those!!!).....  Another correction to the post 1983 section is that Central TV continued to broadcast  a limited amount of FTA live games for a further season after SKY had won the right to show lower league matches from 1996/97, some of the Central games were also shown by other regions - for full details of Central's coverage that season see here (Thanks to David Carswell!!!!)..... The 2nd volume of Tottenham Hotspur: The Big Match DVD is now available, the matches included are: Spurs 1-0 Arsenal 2 May 1970,  Spurs 2-0 Man City 29 September 1970, Spurs 1-0 Liverpool 10 October 1970, Man City 0-1 Spurs 1 May 1971,  Spurs 3-0 Crystal Palace 18 September 1971,  Spurs 3-0 Everton 6 November 1971, Spurs 2-0 Stoke 19 February 1972, Spurs 2-1 Crystal Palace 9 September 1972,  Spurs 2-0 Sheff Utd 23 December 1972, Spurs 1-0 Derby 29 September 1973, Stoke 1-2 Spurs 21 February 1976, Spurs 1-0 Leeds 11 September 1976, Brighton 0-2 Spurs 31 January 1981, Spurs 2-0 Aston Villa 21 March 1981, Middlesbrough 1-3 Spurs 29 August 1981, Southampton 1-2 Spurs 31 October 1981 and Spurs 2-1 West Ham 20 November 1982 (Thanks to Gordon Hargreaves!!!)

1st November 2012:-  The theme tune for ITV's coverage of Europa 80 was a piece by Nigel Hess - not Ode to Joy as previously suggested - and was probably specially commissioned, you can have a listen to it by right-clicking/save as here (Thanks to Robert Howell for digging out his VHS off-air of the Italy v England game!!!)....... For the 1982 European Cup final between Villa and Bayern Munich, Ron Atkinson and Jimmy Greaves were the studio panellists. For the 1983 ECWC final between Aberdeen and Real Madrid, Denis Law was the sole panellist sat alongside Dickie Davies - and Davies handed over to Jock Brown and Billy McNeil for those in the Scottish regions and Brian Moore and Ian St John elsewhere. Highlights of 17/Oct/1984 Spain 3 Wales 0 were shown on ITV's Midweek Sports Special as well as the already listed live coverage on S4C, Bob Symonds was on-site to provide commentary for around 25 minutes worth of action (Thanks again to Robert Howell!!!)...... A football themed edition of Granada Television's children's pop music/variety show Get it Together broadcast on 18th March 1978 is now up on youtube here (Thanks Darren!!!)

2nd October 2012:- A new book "Except for Viewers in Scotland... The Story of Scottish Football on Television" by Ronnie McDevitt has just been released for Kindle by Apex Publishing, see Amazon link here (Thanks Ronnie!!!).......
"Except for viewers in Scotland who have their own regional programmes" was a phrase heard only too often throughut the 1960s and '70s and usually meant those watching north of the border were missing out on football action from the south. But the televising of Scottish football has its own tale to tell, from TVs earliest days in the 1950s when there was opposition to broadcasting of even the most important matches to the present day when the very survival of some clubs is said to depend on income from Satellite televsion.Following extensive research on the subject Except For Viewers in Scotland takes us through those times highlighting the struggle the TV companies had to get Scotlands national game on the air, the effect the ever present threat of industrial action had on their coverage and the reaction of the viewing public over the years. The book also looks closely at the arrival of television itself in Scotland in 1952 and key moments in broadcasting history such as the birth of STV, the colour revolution of the early Seventies and the coming of Satellite television. Who were the unlikely club that pioneered the first broadcast of a football match in Scotland? Which players scored Scotlands' first `colour' goal and which was the last international to be shown in black and white? How did Sportsreel manage to lose the winner in an Old Firm match, who scored the first goal on Sportscene and why did Arthur Montford introduce Scotsport on Channel 4 on a Wednesday morning in the mid 1980s? The answers to all of these questions and so much more can be found in Except For Viewers in Scotland."

7th September 2012: A bundle of terrific screen-shots have been added this month, these include 1971 Home International captions/studio panel shot, images from the 1974 UEFA Cup final 2nd leg, the 1974 Yugoslavia v England friendly and the 1976 USA Bicentinial tournament. Note that Hugh Johns commentated on Yugoslavia v England in 1974 whilst Brian Moore merely presented from the studio in London (Thanks to Geoff for grabbing all those images!!!)..... Added details of Yorkshire Television's 1982 3 part series of Past Gloriesto the Extra Time page (Thanks Robin!!!)..... 1978/79 and 1982/83 season repeats of The Big Match Revisted continue to be screened on ITV4 in very early Saturday morning (78/79) and very late Saturday night AND Sunday morning (82/83) weekend slots, details of the games to be shown can be found on myDigiGuide's ITV4 listings pages here (Thanks to Mark Bunn!!!)...... Andrew Boyd has sent in another list of co-commentator/studio panel updates here (Thanks Andrew!!!)...... And finally "Tottenham Hotpsur Big Match 2" from ILC media is due out on DVD on 19/Nov/2012, see the Amazon link, there's also a box set which is presumably volumes 1 and 2 together, see here (Thanks to Simon Bayliss for spotting those!!!)

6th August 2012:- A complete edition of The Big Match from 14/Mar/1970 is on youtube here (Thanks Stuart!!!)...... Almost the full 90 minutes of the BBC's coverage of the 1972 UEFA Cup final 1st leg between Wolves and Spurs at Molineux was released on DVD earlier this year, the disc also includes 5 minutes of ITV highlights of the 2nd leg, see Amazon link here (Thanks to Jeff Lewis!!!)...... Ulster TV showed 06/Jun/1979 Denmark v Northern Ireland LIVE, this must have been a late change as it's not listed in The Irish Times but is included in The Guardian's regional listings (Thanks to Richard Rees for spotting that one!!!)..... and finally a rare off-air recording of Star Soccer from 02/Apr/1983 has turned up here, Burnley v Wolves is followed by some chat between Gary Newbon and Jimmy Greaves plus a look at the table.

20th June 2012:- Today is a rest day in the Euro 2012 schedule, so we have time for some updates..... We've belatedly added a list of the "Brian Moore Meets" programmes broadcast between 1979 and 1982 to the 'Extra Time' page, the subject of the first edition was Kevin Keegan but he would be the only footballer interviewed for the series (Thanks Brian!!!)...... Strike action by directors at Scottish Television apparently blanked out scheduled coverage of the 22/May/1979 Home International between Scotland and Northern Ireland, this would be the likely reason why ITV sent Martin Tyler out to Switzerland to cover the FIFA 75th celebration friendly between Argentina and the Netherlands (Thanks to Stephen Boyle!!!)...... ITV's 1988 Euro's theme was 'Aztec Gold' as also used for the 1986 World Cup, Saint & Greavsie and other live football broadcasts around that time, you can view the Euro '88 title sequence here (Thanks to Rob!!!)...... A documentary of Brian Clough's early years up to 1974 "The Greatest Manager England Never Had?" is on youtube here (Thanks to Robert Pedley!!!)...... Another collection of Big Match club DVD's are due to be released later this year with introductions by Rodney Marsh, but the actual match content would appear to be identical to the discs issued by ilc media in 2009 (Thanks to Phillip Cooper for spotting those!!!)..... And finally a Crystal Palace fan's home Cine film shot from outside Selhurst Park and from behind the goal v Notts County on 28/Apr/1979 is here, this was the featured game on The Big Match that weekend.

2nd May 2012:- The 22/Mar/1970 Sports Arena interview with Brian Clough has been uploaded here (Thanks Brian!!!)..... A 1989 BBC Wales Week In Week Out  documentary on Newport County is available to view here which includes footage from Newport County v Southampton from 30/Jan/1968, confirming that the game was shown on TV (Thanks to David Barron!!!)..... A 15 minute edit of ITV's coverage of the 1970 FA Cup final - match action only - is here...... Keith Macklin commentated on ITV's 1971 and 1973 FA Cup SF games for at least the Yorkshire region (Thanks Albert!!!).....  John Motson's book MOTD The Complete Record listed one match for 08/Feb/1969, Cardiff  City v Oxford United, and so we had presumed the cameras turning up at the last minute to cover Watford v Rotherham United must have been from LWT, this being one of only four matches that survived the weather that day, but in actual fact BBC1 had a "Grandstand" special on the Saturday night intending to show two FA Cup 5th Round ties plus some skating and they ended up showing both the Watford v Rotherham and Cardiff v Oxford games with David Coleman commentating at Watford and Maurice Edelston at Cardiff, so LWT must have either shown Southern's match between Portsmouth and Hull, or cancelled the programme altogether - LWT's own documentation would suggest the latter as there is no entry for that date whilst some other region's are listed as showing Southern's match. The BBC's Saturday night show still exists and you can watch part of it here (Thanks to Jeff Lewis!!!)

1st April 2012:- An article on ATV from a 07/Oct/1978 Birmingham City matchday programme is available here and a piece by Southern commentator David Bobin for the 25/Oct/1980 edition of the Brighton & Hove Albion matchday programme is here (Thanks to Kieran for scanning those!!!) A long list of missing commentator updates is here (Thanks to Andrew Boyd!!!) Gerald Sinstadt commentated on the 15/Apr/1972 FA Trophy Final between Stafford Rangers and Barnet, see here,  so he could not have done the FA Cup Semi-final between Stoke City and Arsenal for Granada viewers on the same day (Thanks to Andrew Berry!!!) Big Match Revisited repeats are available to view on-line on ITV player for up to 30 days after being screened on ITV4 on Saturday mornings here.

8th March 2012:- On Monday 19th May 1980 the Granada region showed "Mossley Goes to Wembley" which was a documentary on Mossley AFC's trip to the FA Trophy Final v Dagenham two days earlier - You can view the full programme on youtube here (Thanks to Stuart Vallantine!!!) 11/Dec/1971 Stoke City v Manchester United highlights, as broadcast as the 2nd match in the Granada region with Sinstadt's intro plus the closing titles is here, and the reverse fixture on 29/Apr/1972 - Manchester United v Stoke City - as re-broadcast on MUTV is here (Thanks to Philip Cooper!!!) The 27/Feb/1985 Spain v Scotland World Cup Qualifier was shown LIVE on BBC1 in Scotland (Thanks James!!!) Lots of missing commentators for Northern Ireland qualifiers and other details have been added to the 1986 World Cup page (Thanks to David Browne!!!) Missing commentators billed in the TVTimes for mid-1980's domestic matches also added (Thanks Robin!!!) The 25/May/1992 Play Off Final between Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City  was shown LIVE, but only in the Granada and Central regions (Thanks to Alex Tapp!!!) The 1982/83 Big Match Revisited repeats continue to be shown on ITV4 on Saturday mornings, but in ever earlier time slots.

16th February 2012:- A 53 minute documentary from RTE Frank O'Farrell: The Shadow of Busby is available to view here (Thanks Brian!!!). Some more Wales match commentators have been added for mid-80s internationals - note that 14/Nov/1984 Wales v Iceland was shown on HTV Wales as an opt out and the commentator on  01/Apr/1987 Wales v Finland was Gerry Harrison!, also 25/Oct/1978 Wales v Malta is confirmed as Bob Symonds and 17/Oct/1979 BBC West Germany v Wales was Idwal Robling (Thanks David!!!).... ATV's originally intended match for 22/Feb/1969 was the PP'd match between Coventry City and QPR (they went to Charlton v Villa instead), we know this because it's listed in an Australian newspaper - Star Soccer was shown on their Channel 9 stations from 1967/68 until 1972/73, then from 1973/74 it was on the Seven Network stations until 1978/79,  which coincides with the end of known ITC export reels. You can have a look through Australian newspapers online for free - The Sydney Morning Herald is here and "The Age" here (Thanks Kieran!!!). 06/Mar/1985 Norwich v Ipswich [LC SF L2] with a bit of the MWSS opening titles is on youtube here (Thanks Steve!!!) The 22/May/1979 FIFA 75th friendly between Argentina v Netherlands mentioned here last month was definitely on ITV, Martin Tyler is commentating and it's just been uploaded to youtube here, it was probably shown on the Home International highlights programme that night, if not then the Thursday night UEFA Cup final show. And thanks to Dan for clearing up exactly what happened with ITV on the night of 23/Oct/1991. The Big Match Revisited 1982/83 series is being repeated on ITV4 from Saturday 18th February at 9am (or 10am on ITV4+1).