World of Sport (UK TV series)

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World of Sport

Dickie Davies in the World of Sport studio.
Genre Sport
Presenter(s) 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 and competition to 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. In 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. 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. It featured bizarre sports like the World Barrel Jumping Championships and Ice Speedway 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.

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 Wrestling Channel 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 Tyrel was the regular reader of the racing results.

[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. Early 2006 World of Sport wrestling legend Jackie Pallo died of cancer.

[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.[1]]

[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. [2]
  • 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 "c**k sucker" [3]

[edit] Trivia

  • Fred Dinenage was the regular relief presenter for the show, occasionally standing in for Davies.

[edit] External links

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