The life and career of sports promoter Barry Hearn, one of the most colourful and powerful characters in the business, is to be the subject of a new BBC Two documentary.
Barry Hearn: The People’s Promoter presents an insight into the self-made millionaire who worked his way up from humble beginnings to manage some of the biggest stars in sport, as well as elevate pastimes such as darts and snooker into unlikely sporting success stories.
Actor Sir David Jason narrates this revealing and intimate documentary, which will be shown on BBC Two before the beginning of the second session of the World Snooker Championship final on May 6.
Always opinionated, often controversial and never dull, Barry Hearn is one of the most powerful and respected individuals in British sport.
His feisty personality, health troubles, financial problems, and his route to success are revealed throughout the 50-minute documentary.
This intimate portrait follows him from the snooker club in Romford where it all began to the millionaire’s playground of Monte Carlo where he makes his big deals.
Along the way he has managed the careers of Steve Davis, Jimmy White, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn, and is widely credited for turning snooker, darts, fishing, poker and tenpin bowling into popular and marketable televised sports through his company Matchroom Sport.
Having built his empire through snooker in the 1970s, Hearn was one of the beneficiaries of the boom in the sport’s popularity in the 1980s, and even had a top 10 hit as the brains behind Chas and Dave’s Snooker Loopy.
He also bought his local football club Leyton Orient in 1995 in order to save them from extinction.
There’s also a look at Barry’s life away from the public glare, fishing in his private lake for carp named after his closest friends and family. He’s provocative, opinionated and controversial but there’s also another side to Barry, as son and daughter Eddie and Katie reveal, both of whom have forged their own path towards key positions within the family business.
Snooker greats Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and Stephen Hendry, 15-times world darts champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, broadcasting executive Greg Dyke, and rival promoter Frank Maloney offer their insight into working with Hearn throughout the decades.
Having survived a heart attack and near bankruptcy, Hearn went on to become one of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs and emerge as one of the most unlikeliest sporting heroes of his age.
The programme looks at how Barry achieved his success and his philosophy of sport, business and life.
Barry Hearn: The People’s Promoter Sunday 6th May – BBC Two – 6.10pm-7pm Produced by PDI Media for BBC Sport
.
