ITV’s highly-acclaimed Sports Life Stories documentary series returns to ITV4 this February for a new season of eight unique profiles of some of the biggest names in sport.
Featuring a range of iconic and popular figures, from Olympic gold medalists to Champions League and World Cup winners, the award-winning ITV Sport documentary strand, now in its third series, focuses on the lives and careers of some of the most colourful and well-known personalities within the sporting world.
Each of the eight episodes in this returning series tells the tale of a sporting legend, allowing each individual to open up about their careers and personal lives, and giving a vivid insight into how the impact of their achievements can reach into people’s lives.
The series of sporting biographies promises to give sports fans a fascinating insight into the lives of each featured sportsperson, as well as the mind set that is required to reach the very top of their game.
This third series, starting on February 17, will profile former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, 2013 Tour de France Chris Froome, world record-breaking marathon runner Paula Radcliffe, ex-Manchester United striker Andy Cole, 1992 Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie, former England and Liverpool footballer John Barnes, 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Jason Robinson and boxer Carl Froch.
Contributions from well-known friends and admirers illuminate the lives and work of the subjects and provide a close view into what drives them to succeed in their careers.
ITV launched Sports Life Stories in 2012 and the diverse range of sporting figures featured over the past two series include boxers Barry McGuigan and Chris Eubank, snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan, Olympic champions James Cracknell and Dame Kelly Holmes, footballers Didier Drogba and Jermaine Defore, Welsh rugby hero Gareth Thomas, legendary West Indies cricketer Brian Lara and darts champion Eric Bristow.
Scroll down below for full details and background on each episode in this latest series.
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| EPISODE 1 |
| PETER SHILTON Tuesday 17th February | 22:00 |
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In the first episode of this new series, England goalkeeping legend Peter Shilton talks to Matt Smith about his 30-year playing career as well as his struggles with gambling and debt.
With contributions from England team-mate Gary Lineker, Peter’s England goalkeeping predecessor Gordon Banks and extensive archive footage, the programme focuses on how he approached the challenges in front of him – from the ‘Hand of God’ to the moment he went insolvent, to getting 125 caps for his country and making his 1,000th league appearance.
After making his England debut in 1970 and playing in the now-infamous game against Poland in 1973 when England failed to qualify for the World Cup, Peter moved first to Stoke City and then to Nottingham Forest, managed by Brian Clough.
An admirer of Clough, Peter got a taste of what lay ahead when he took his advisers to discuss the move with him after an hour’s delay for the legendary manager to play squash.
Having moved to Southampton, Peter then played at the 1982 World Cup, which he describes as the turning point of his England career as he secured the number one jersey ahead of his rival Ray Clemence.
But it was at the 1986 World Cup when one of the most famous incidents in his career happened – the controversial ‘Hand of God’ by Diego Maradona, who used his hand to knock the ball past Peter into the net to score a crucial goal in the quarter-final.
In 1990, England made it to the World Cup semi-final against West Germany, which went to penalties. Peter, who said England were very confident before the match, faced four – but Germany scored them while Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle famously missed theirs, meaning England were out of the tournament.
After retiring from England duty with 125 caps, Peter took over at Plymouth Argyle as player-manager. After leaving the club he realised he had to deal with massive debts caused by a gambling addiction which had gone back to when he was a player. He took an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), which he says forced him to eat humble pie.
After playing in his 1,000th league game in 1996 for Leyton Orient, and picking up an MBE and an OBE from the Queen, Peter now lives in Essex with his partner Steph and is an after-dinner speaker.
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| EPISODE 2 |
| CHRIS FROOME Tuesday 24th February | 22:00 |
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In the second episode, British cyclist Chris Froome talks to Ned Boulting about his upbringing in Africa and his illustrious career, including his famous Tour de France victory in 2013.
With contributions from his team boss Sir Dave Brailsford, journalist David Walsh, team-mates and friends, this programme follows Chris on training rides, relaxing at home in Johannesburg, and on a visit to his old school to trace his journey from the townships and mud tracks of Nairobi to the streets of Paris, where he became only the second British winner of the Tour.
Chris speaks candidly about his parents’ divorce and how he subsequently became extremely close to his mother Jane, whose family were originally from Gloucestershire. He began cycling in his birthplace Kenya, but took it up more seriously after starting boarding school in South Africa.
He caught the eye of cycling aficionados while competing for Kenya in the Under-23 World Championships in Salzburg, Austria in 2006, where he crashed spectacularly into a race official. Before long, Chris had turned professional and joined the Barloworld team. But in 2008, his world fell apart after his mother died from cancer, while he was riding in a week-long race in Spain.
Chris rode in his first Tour De France just two weeks after his mother’s death, where he recorded a top 100 finish, a performance which led him to be signed by Team Sky. After an early struggle with the tropical blood disease bilharzia, his performances dramatically improved, most notably at the 2011 Vuelta a Espana.
Riding in support of team leader Sir Bradley Wiggins, Chris outperformed his teammate and finished second to Spaniard Juan Jose Cobo. But many, like David Walsh, felt he should have won the race, and that his team failed to back him until it was too late.
Chris also speaks candidly about an incident in the 2012 Tour De France. Having lost time on the first stage to a puncture he hoped to regain lost time on the eleventh stage as the race went through the Alps, and rode away and isolated team leader and eventual winner Sir Bradley Wiggins, before being called back on the team radio.
Having finished second in the 2012 Tour De France, speculation about who would lead the team at the next Tour continued into 2013. In May that year, Bradley Wiggins pulled out with a knee injury and Chris, the new team leader, went on to win the Tour by more than four minutes.
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| EPISODE 3 |
| PAULA RADCLIFFE Tuesday 3rd March | 22:00 |
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When Paula Radcliffe retires from top-level athletics after this year’s London Marathon, Great Britain and the sport will wave goodbye to the most successful sportswoman of her generation.
Few athletes have experienced such a contrast in emotions as Paula, whose World Record for the marathon has already stood for more than a decade and is likely to last many years more.
But her disappointment at failing to win an expected gold at the Olympics in Athens in 2004 may also be remembered by many.
This film offers rare access to Paula and her trainer and husband Gary Lough, discovering what drove her to become the greatest female marathon runner of all time.
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| EPISODE 4 |
| ANDY COLE Tuesday 10th March | 22:00 |
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In the fourth episode of this new series, former Manchester United legend Andy Cole talks to Leon Mann about being the second highest goalscorer in Premier League history, winning the Champions League in 1999, and his rows with numerous managers which led to his exit from several clubs and the curtailing of his England career.
With contributions from former managers Sir Alex Ferguson, Kevin Keegan and Denis Smith alongside former team-mates Ryan Giggs, Dwight Yorke and Sol Campbell and members of his family, Sports Life Stories traces his journey from playing school football in Nottingham to winning an historic treble with Manchester United, his short-lived rap career and his current role as a club ambassador.
A promising schoolboy footballer, Andy joined the FA school of excellence at Lilleshall in 1985, which he found difficult. Andy’s hero was Cyrille Regis, who he admired for the way he stood up to racism on the terraces – similar to what his father Lincoln had faced when he came to England from Jamaica.
Having signed for Arsenal, Andy found first-team opportunities hard to come by, and eventually fell out with George Graham, the manager. After an unsuccessful loan spell at Fulham, he ended up on loan at Bristol City, where then-boss Denis Smith decided to take a chance on him.
City eventually signed him permanently for £500,000 and he scored 20 goals in 41 games. Having proved to be a prolific scorer at the Robins, he signed for Newcastle United for £1.75 million, helping them get promoted to the Premier League in his first season and then scoring 41 goals in his second, winning the Golden Boot.
But an increasingly tense relationship with Kevin Keegan meant he was sold to Manchester United in a shock move in 1995. Having signed for United, the team lost out in the 1994/95 Premier League title race to Blackburn Rovers, drawing their final game of the season at West Ham while Kenny Dalglish’s team lifted the trophy at Anfield.
Andy says he felt to blame for it, but Ryan Giggs says the pressure of United’s expectation to win meant all the players shared the responsibility.
Cole continued his prolific goalscoring as United won the double in 95/96 and retained the title the following season. Part of the reason why he got on so well at United was his relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson.
Despite a difficult relationship with strike partner Teddy Sheringham, the pair scored 54 goals together. When Dwight Yorke arrived from Aston Villa, the pair developed an on-field relationship which Andy describes as ‘instinctive’.
Despite his success for United, Andy only won 15 caps for England and scored one international goal. Sir Alex says he can’t understand why he wasn’t picked by more England managers.
In 1999, United beat Spurs to win the Premier League title, before winning the FA Cup final against Newcastle, and then famously coming from behind to beat Bayern Munich in added time in the Champions League final – meaning Andy had won the treble.
Andy’s wife Shirley says she finds it frustrating that when top Premier League strikers are mentioned in the media, her husband’s name doesn’t come up as often as she would like. Andy says the reason he may not be more feted as a legendary striker may well be down to his relationship with the press.
Now his son Devante is a promising striker on Manchester City’s books, Andy says he doesn’t want him to be compared with his father’s illustrious career. But Devante says comparisons are inevitable.
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| EPISODE 5 |
| LINFORD CHRISTIE Tuesday 24th March | 22:00 |
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In the fifth episode of this new series, one of Britain’s fastest ever sprinters Linford Christie talks to John Rawling about his journey from growing up in Jamaica to winning gold at the Olympics in 1992.
With contributions from fellow athletes Katharine Merry and Jonathan Edwards as well as journalists Jim Rosenthal and Neil Wilson and his coach Ron Roddan, Sports Life Stories follows Linford’s career from the streets of West London to Seoul and his reprieve for testing positive for a banned substance in 1988, on to the high of winning the 100 metres in Barcelona four years later.
The programme also traces his often fractious relationship with the media, with the notorious ‘Linford’s Lunchbox’ headlines living long in the athlete’s memory.
Linford came to London when he was seven in 1967 – and faced a tough time in school because he was black. He says: “That’s most probably why I learned to run. The guys would want to gang up on you, beat you up because I think there were maybe two or three black kids in the whole school while I was there.”
At the age of 19, he joined the London Irish athletics club. This is where he met coach Ron Roddan, who attempted to tame Linford’s party-loving spirit somewhat by telling him he could be a top athlete if he focused on his training.
Linford’s breakthrough came at the 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships, where he won the 200m gold. From there he moved on to win the European Championships 100m title, then the World Championships title in Rome in 1987, and believed he was unstoppable.
At his first Olympics in Seoul, South Korea in 1988, he took on 1984 gold medallist Carl Lewis and challenger Ben Johnson, from Canada. After Johnson raced to gold, with Linford lying in third, he tested positive for anabolic steroids. Linford was called out of bed to give interviews to the British media about it – despite the fact he was preparing for the 200m final.
Later in the same games, Linford tested positive for the banned stimulant pseudo-ephedrine. The hearing panel gave him ‘the benefit of the doubt’, and no sanction was applied but suspicion still hung over him.
At Barcelona in 1992, Carl Lewis failed to qualify for the USA, so Linford faced up to Leroy Burrell in the final and led the field home to a glorious gold medal. However, he says the expected feeling of elation at winning didn’t occur for him.
While at the peak of his career, headlines about ‘Linford’s Lunchbox’ began to sour his relationship with the press. At the World Championships in Stuttgart in 1993, Linford faced up to Carl Lewis again, determined to prove he was number one despite his rival’s claims to the opposite. He romped home to gold in the 100m final.
At this point, Linford was the first man to hold all four major sprinting titles – the European and World Championships, Commonwealth and Olympic golds – and the Queen presented him with his OBE.
His difficult relationship with the media came to a head when he appeared to quit on a late night TV show. But he made it to the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, where he was disqualified from the 100m final after two false starts.
Linford became a coach to athletes including Katharine Merry, Christian Malcolm and Darren Campbell, and was encouraged by his charges to enter a one-off sprint race in Dortmund two years after his international retirement.
There, he failed a drug test for nandrolone, and speaks of his shock when he got the call from an official at UK Athletics. The lifetime Olympic ban that ensued – and a spat with organiser Sebastian Coe – meant that Linford played virtually no part in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Linford, meanwhile, is back at West London Stadium where he started, coaching youngsters with his mentor Ron Roddan, and the venue now bears his name.
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| EPISODE 6 |
| JOHN BARNES Tuesday 31st March | 22:10 |
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In the sixth episode of this new series, former Liverpool and England football legend John Barnes talks to Gabriel Clarke about his journey from being spotted by a taxi driver as a youngster, to becoming a pioneering black player and winning league titles with Liverpool.
With contributions from fellow footballers Steve McManaman and Ian Wright as well as his former managers Kenny Dalglish and Graham Taylor, Sports Life Stories follows the left winger’s career from growing up as a young boy in Jamaica to signing for Watford for the price of some new kits, and on to glory in the famous Liverpool team of the late 1980s.
It also traces the story of a pioneering footballer who faced racist taunts from the terraces and overcame them to become one of the game’s top players.
John explains that as the son of a colonel in the Jamaican army, he was excited about his family’s move to England when his father was sent there for work – mainly because he would get the opportunity to play football with other players.
After moving to England, his talent was spotted by a passing taxi driver when John was playing a game in North West London – and the message reached Watford manager Graham Taylor.
As John progressed through the ranks at Watford, his star began to rise after a televised game against Norwich in 1981 in which the tricky winger completely outplayed his opposite number, Scottish international Willie Donachie.
John made his England debut aged 19, in 1983. A year later, he scored probably his most well-known goal, dancing through the Brazilian defence at the Maracana to give England a famous 1-0 victory.
In 1987, John was sold to Liverpool, joining a team which also featured John Aldridge, Peter Beardsley and Ray Houghton that season as part of a formidable forward line, but the settled life John had in London came under threat at Liverpool because people were racist to him, though he says he didn’t let it affect him.
Yet the team he walked into was, according to Steve McManaman, amongst the finest Anfield had seen – with John the main attacking force. Despite winning two league championships with the team, John still blames himself for Michael Thomas’s late goal in 1989 which gave Arsenal the title at Anfield.
He lost the ball to Kevin Richardson at the other end of the pitch, the ball was punted upfield, eventually landing at the feet of Thomas. The rest is history – but Kenny Dalglish maintains it wasn’t his fault.
That match came just a month after the tragic events at the FA Cup semi-final, and John attended funerals and met the families of victims like other players following the disaster.
While his club career hit its peak at Anfield, John’s England career never reached the heights he hoped it might have done – despite his rapping contribution to the 1990 World Cup song, World In Motion.
Despite then-manager Sir Bobby Robson saying he didn’t play as well for England as for Liverpool, John puts it down to the fact the team’s style never suited him.
John ruptured his achilles tendon just before Euro ‘92 and was never the same player again, because he had to adapt his style of play. In the meantime, Liverpool’s two-decade long legacy of trophy-winning success had dried up.
After leaving Liverpool in 1997 and retiring from playing, John had an unsuccessful spell as manager of Celtic, before short periods in charge of the Jamaican national side and Tranmere Rovers. Now he says he is struggling to get another job as a manager, and dismisses the idea that the Celtic was too much, too soon.
John is philosophical about his legacy as a top footballer of the 1980s and 1990s. He says: “I never saw myself as one of the best players in the world. I look at other players and think they are fantastic, but if you ask me about the way I see myself, I see myself as a good player but I suppose I can’t see myself as the superstar.”
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| EPISODE 7 |
| JASON ROBINSON Tuesday 7th April | 22:00 |
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In the seventh episode of this new series, Rugby World Cup winner and dual-code legend Jason Robinson speaks to Mark Durden-Smith about his journey from Hunslet Boys’ Club to glory with club and country in league and union.
With contributions from his World-Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward and Wigan colleague Andy Farrell, Sports Life Stories traces Jason’s career from his tough upbringing in Leeds to scoring a try in the final in Sydney where he lifted the Webb Ellis Cup, via 15 major trophies in eight years at Wigan.
The programme also traces the highs and lows of Jason’s personal life – from not meeting his father until he was 34, to contemplating suicide after his arrest for affray, assault and criminal damage to finding God through his friend, legendary Samoan player Va’aiga Tuigamala.
Returning to his childhood home and the working men’s club where his family used to drink, Jason says he saw a lot of violence as a youngster. He tried boxing at Hunslet, but it soon became apparent that his running speed meant he would be better suited to sprinting or rugby, earning him the nickname Billy Whizz.
Jason signed a professional rugby league contract with Wigan at 16, joining the club during their glory years and fighting for his place in the team. While he was winning trophies with the team on the pitch, off it he had taken to drinking heavily.
But after Jason was arrested for violent offences, he says he considered committing suicide. Wigan colleague Tuigamala, who had recently signed, was concerned about him, and helped him to turn his life around by embracing Christianity.
Despite playing in the Rugby League World Cup final for England in 1995 against Australia, and appearing for the Great Britain side, in 2000 he switched codes and signed for union side Sale Sharks. He did so after discussing the move with England coach Sir Clive Woodward, who outlined his vision of winning the World Cup.
He made his England debut in the 2001 Six Nations and that summer was selected for the British Lions tour of Australia. England won the Grand Slam in 2003 then beat Australia and New Zealand before heading Down Under for the Rugby World Cup as favourites.
Having struggled in the earlier rounds, England beat Wales and France to reach the final against the hosts. In a hard-fought game, Jason scored arguably his most famous try – and celebrated by punching the ball skyward.
As the game went into extra-time, Wilkinson kicked a drop-goal with just 20 seconds left on the clock – meaning England had won the World Cup for the first time.
Jason went on to captain England in 2005, and appeared at the World Cup four years after winning it. Having retired from Sale, this was his last international tournament. He played in the team that lost the final against South Africa, despite tweaking his hamstring just before the match.
After a year in charge at Sale as head coach in 2009, he’s now looking forward to this year’s Rugby World Cup, and even jokingly suggests he’d like to strap his boots back on and get back out on the pitch.
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