Sit Down and Cheer by Martin Kelner

Author:Martin Kelner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

13

Come On Everybody, Big Smile!

ITV’s World of Sport marked out its territory from the start, somewhat to the left of Grandstand. Before going on air in January 1965, its first major signing, hired to sprinkle some fairy dust on the horse-racing coverage, was actress Eunice Grayson, rather better known for playing ‘seductive’ Sylvia Trench in the film of From Russia With Love than for any knowledge of the turf, and often referred to in those unenlightened times as a ‘glamour girl’.

According to the Daily Express the day before the programme launched: ‘Television’s big battle for Saturday sports viewers broke into a row last night over actress Eunice Grayson, helping to pick winners at Catterick races.’ David Coleman is quoted in the piece: ‘Having a glamour girl pick winners with a hatpin is an insult to women viewers,’ he said. ‘Women are interested in serious sport. Women are quite happy to watch me – I don’t find them running away from me on or off screen.’

‘I don’t use a pin,’ Eunice responded. ‘It depends more on the sound of the horse’s name.’ She only lasted a few weeks, but was symptomatic of ITV’s problems in sport. Showbiz was at the core of commercial TV’s appeal in Britain, and a mere ten years after its launch, the men who controlled the ITV channels eyed sport suspiciously.

There was certainly no great enthusiasm for World of Sport around the network, and in 1966, with the programme just eighteen months old, ATV, who were in charge of London broadcasts at the weekend, allied themselves with most of the regional stations to try to get the programme curtailed at 3pm and replaced with Danger Man. It was only the intervention of Lord Hill, chairman of the Independent Television Authority, that ensured the continuation of World of Sport through Saturday afternoon, although ATV did get permission to opt out of the wrestling at 4pm for The Rifleman, and an Italian puppet mouse called Topo Gigio.

A lesser man might have wilted under the indignity of being usurped by an Italian mouse, but not John Bromley, the executive producer of World of Sport. ‘Bromley was magnificent. He never lost his enthusiasm for the show whatever was thrown at him,’ says Dickie Davies, full-time host of the show from 1968 and a summer stand-in from the very early days, ‘We knew we were up against it with the BBC having all the rights, but Brommers never lost faith in our capacity to rattle the opposition.’

‘Ten seconds to go now, come on everybody, big smile,’ Dickie told me, was the habitual last-minute instruction Bromley gave him as he went out to battle David Coleman on a Saturday afternoon. Not that World of Sport, which launched on ITV on 2 January 1965 and ran until September 1985 was ever really much of a rival to Grandstand. ‘It was a completely different audience,’ says Davies, ‘It became particularly noticeable on FA Cup Final day when we went head-to-head against the BBC, and we would come on at about 11.

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