The BBC is to broadcast a special documentary looking back at half a century of sports programming on BBC Two to mark the channel’s 50th anniversary.
Presented by Sue Barker, ’50 Golden Years Of Sport on BBC Two’ will air on Sunday, April 20 at 8.00pm and forms part of the corporation’s range of programming that will mark 50 years of the UK’s third television station.
The documentary promises to reveal what makes sport on BBC Two feel so special with contributions from those who watched and helped to shape some its most popular sports programmes.
Some of famous and familiar faces who will be contributing to the programme include comedian Alan Davies, Paralympic legend Tanni Grey-Thompson and Olympic silver medalist and BBC athletics commentator Steve Cram.
The likes of Peter Alliss, Des Lynam, Murray Walker, John Inverdale, Clare Balding and Sue Barker herself will also pay their tributes to the channel that played a significant part in making all of them become household names.
Credited as the birthplace of iconic sports shows such as Match Of The Day, Ski Sunday, Pot Black and Sunday Grandstand, BBC Two has broadcast many thousands of hours of sport across five decades.
This hour-long film will explore the history of sport on BBC Two and reveal the central role the channel played in developing a variety of sports, including the emergence of snooker, motorsport and darts as major televised sporting spectacles in the late 1970s and 1980s, plus the first television coverage of the Paralympic Games.
It will also relive many of the channel’s greatest sporting moments, including the 1985 World Snooker Championship final, which was watched by a record-breaking 18.5 million viewers beyond midnight, Botham’s Ashes in 1981, Usain Bolt’s 100m world record in 2009 and many highlights from the Winter Olympics.
There will be a chance to listen again to some family favourite TV sporting theme tunes, such as Ski Sunday, Grandstand, Pot Black and many more.
The channel has also broadened the appeal of a wide variety of other lower-profile sports by bringing them to a mass television audience.
Alongside coverage of singular sports, BBC Two played a central part in cementing the corporation as the undisputed home of televised sport by creating some of the country’s most innovative and best loved sports shows.
Perhaps the most famous of all is Match of the Day, now the BBC’s longest-running current sports show having been on air since August 22, 1964, just a few months after the launch of BBC Two itself.
The first edition of MOTD (video above) was presented by the great Kenneth Wolstenholme and showed highlights of a game between Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield.
MOTD was initially not universally welcomed by the football world, with several clubs fearing of a drop in match attendances, but the show would eventually become the must-see show for football fans every Saturday night.
Following the success of BBC TV’s Grandstand, a Sunday edition, simply named Sunday Grandstand, launched in 1981 to accompany the Saturday edition and ran on BBC Two until the programme’s demise in 2007.
Until 1997, the Sunday edition was only broadcast during the summer months but from February 1998 Sunday Grandstand aired all year round, incorporating other popular BBC sports shows like Ski Sunday and Rugby Special.
Other notable BBC Two sporting moments include the channel being first TV station in Europe to broadcast in colour, with the service launch featuring live coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships.
’50 Golden Years of Sport on BBC Two’ will be broadcast in April to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the station. An exact transmission date will be confirmed shortly.
The documentary forms part of wide range of factual, comedy, music entertainment programming that will celebrate the contribution of BBC Two to British broadcasting.
The last few years have seen the channel continue to enjoy an incredibly strong position ahead of its main competitors in peak-times and with audience appreciation as high as ever.
Commenting on BBC Two’s 50th anniversary schedules, Adam Barker, the channel’s Acting Controller, says: “BBC Two has a long and proud history of growing and supporting new comedy talent and I’m delighted to be announcing a range of brilliantly funny new content that celebrates 50 wonderful years of wit on the channel.
“As well as making us laugh, the channel has had an incredible cultural impact on the music we’ve listened to and the sport we’ve watched.
“From being the first to broadcast snooker in colour to our recent ground-breaking Glastonbury coverage, two new documentaries celebrate how BBC Two has led the way in mind-expanding entertainment.
“This is just the start of our celebrations and we’ll be announcing more content in the weeks to come.”
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Sunday 20th April
50 Golden Years of Sport on BBC Two
8.00pm-9.00pm BBC Two
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