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The broadcast journey to Total Football

2018-06-13T16:30:20+00:00

Kenneth Wolstenholme presenting coverage of West Ham United v Sheffield United in 1966

More than 20 million UK viewers tuned in to watch the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. In stark contrast there is barely a trace of the early World Cups in �� Genome's television and radio listings.

The first football World Cup was held in 1930. It was a humble affair, which didn’t get an outing on radio or TV in the UK. Scotland and England were invited but did not accept; a Radio Times article previewing the 1954 tournament suggested this was because they did not believe the opposition sides were good enough. After follow-up tournaments in 1934 and 1938, the contest was abandoned during World War Two.

The 1950 World Cup was held in Brazil and England participated for the first time. It was still a fairly amateur operation. Italy travelled to the tournament by boat, but the two-week voyage wasn’t particularly conducive to maintaining athletic fitness. Out of condition, they immediately lost their first game to Sweden and were effectively out of the tournament.

Coverage was very limited and the front page of Radio Times that week focused on tennis, with no mention of the tournament. Sporadic five-minute reports from games was all that was available on radio. Competing in their first World Cup, England had the nickname “Kings of Football” and were one of the favourites, having beaten Portugal 10–0 in Lisbon two weeks before the tournament. However, they were knocked out in the first round group stage, thanks to a 1-0 loss against a semi-professional US side, in one of the biggest shocks in the tournament's history.

Kenneth Wolstenholme's Radio Times article ahead of the 1962 World Cup

Held in Switzerland, the 1954 tournament saw live World Cup television coverage on the �� for the first time via the recently installed Eurovision network, which allowed television signals to be relayed across Europe. This only worked for tournaments held in Europe, however, and ahead of the 1962 tournament �� reporter Kenneth Wolstenholme wrote a Radio Times article about the difficulties of broadcasting matches from Chile and the aspiration to get them to air within 48 hours of the match concluding.

Four years later, Wolstenholme and fellow commentator Brian Moore wrote a seven-page preview of the major sides before the 1966 tournament hosted in England. Later on in the edition, an article previewing the comprehensive �� reporting of the upcoming tournament stated: “A feast of soccer on television is offered to ��-1 viewers during the World Cup,” and promised more than 50 hours of coverage. England went on to win the tournament, with Wolstenholme providing one of the most famous moments in the history of sports broadcasting with his commentary on the final England goal.

England’s World Cup win earlier in the day dominated the news report that evening but it was a good day to bury bad news with the script showing that the second story on the �� Service 6.00pm bulletin that evening was a report about the government freezing wages.

Although many people were still watching in black and white, the 1970 World Cup was the first to be broadcast on colour television and you can watch Carlos Alberto’s famous goal as Brazil beat Italy in the final here. It was also the last World Cup to feature Pele, celebrated as one of the greatest players of all time. The Brazilian features in numerous �� Genome listings and his “extraordinary life” was the subject of a �� Two programme in 2002.

Scotland have played in eight World Cups and, although they have never progressed beyond the first round, one of their greatest World Cup moments was captured on �� television in 1978 when they beat Holland with a superb goal from Archie Gemmill, described by commentator David Coleman here.

Coverage of the World Cup is on the government mandated "protected" list, meaning it must be shown on free-to-air terrestrial television. Throughout most of the competition’s history, �� and ITV have jointly covered the tournament on UK television but the unpredictable nature of the competition means the allocation of matches happens at short notice. This can be a problem for Radio Times, which has to print the broadcasters’ alternative TV schedules for match days.

The �� didn’t show England’s 1998 second-round match against Argentina, so instead broadcast their back-up schedule including Celebrity Ready, Steady, Cook and One Foot in the Grave. The football fans were more likely than Victor Meldrew to be exclaiming disbelief that night. A red card for David Beckham and a missed penalty from David Batty saw England get knocked out and a certain eight-year-old boy cry himself to sleep.

World Cup coverage in the 21st Century has seen more technological breakthroughs, with the 2006 tournament shown in high-definition for the first time, a decision Ofcom credited with giving a significant boost to the sales of HD-ready TV sets. There has also been an increase in the coverage of women’s football on television; in 2007 the �� broadcast the Women’s World Cup with Gabby Logan presenting all England games live.

Gabby Logan presented �� coverage of the 2007 Women's World Cup

Coverage continues to evolve. The 2018 tournament sees fans able to watch in Ultra HD and virtual reality for the first time, through the �� Sport's VR 2018 World Cup app - an even more interactive way for viewers to enjoy the euphoria or heartbreak of a penalty shoot-out. There's a lot to look forward to over the next month.

News flashback 1958: The Munich air disaster

2018-02-05T11:42:27+00:00

Tuesday 6 February 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, when a plane carrying Manchester United players crashed while attempting to take off from Munich-Riem airport in Germany.

There were 23 fatalities in the crash and team manager Matt Busby was severely injured. Busby spent months in hospital and was so badly hurt that he was read his last rites by a Catholic priest, but he recovered and attended that year's FA Cup final.

The final proved to be one step too far for a depleted Manchester United side, two goals from Nat Lofthouse saw Bolton win.

The tragedy occurred at 3.04pm and the script (pictured below) for that night's News bulletin broadcast on the �� Light Programme showed that 23 passengers initially survived. Co-pilot Ken Rayment and star player Duncan Edwards later died in hospital.

The �� has made a number of programmes about the crash in the past 60 years, including Surviving Disaster, a drama documentary retelling the story in 2006.

In 2008, to mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster, One Life on �� One followed survivor and former Manchester United player Harry Gregg as he returned to the scene of the crash for the first time. The former goalkeeper met the son of a pregnant woman whom he had pulled from the wreckage to safety in 1958.

Despite serious injuries Matt Busby returned to manage Manchester United the following season and built a new team around the Munich survivors. Busby died in 1994 aged 84.

Broadcasting darts: How TV and radio hit the bullseye

2018-01-12T12:00:42+00:00

Jasmine Bligh and Leslie Mitchell at rehearsal for the Indoor Games test transmission in 1936

Darts was first broadcast on radio before becoming a regular in the television schedules, enjoying its heyday in the 1980s. Here are some of the 180 reasons for the success of darts programming.

Traditionally seen as a working-class pub sport, darts has at times appealed to the upper echelons - King George VI and Queen Elizabeth enjoyed a darts demonstration in 1937. The sport was occasionally covered on radio - this listing from 1937 shows a tournament from Belfast was the first darts match to be broadcast in Northern Ireland, while a match involving Joe Hitchcock was covered on The Light Programme in 1946. Darts was even used for a 1936 test television transmission of a match between Jasmine Bligh and Leslie Mitchell, who would both go on to be prominent presenters in the early days of �� Television. Listings weren’t printed for those early television test transmissions, but televised darts did make it into the billings for a 1938 match-up featuring a team of �� employees.

J. T. Sutthery provided the commentary for this 1937 match

One of the driving forces in darts was Sid Waddell. The son of a Northumberland miner, Waddell had an intellect that saw him read modern history at St John’s College Cambridge, before going on to become a television producer for ITV local news. Following the success of the News of the World Darts Championship on television, Waddell launched ITV's The Indoor League in 1972, which featured various pub games including darts and was presented by ex-cricketer Fred Trueman. Fiery Fred had been described by Leslie Kettley as “a blunt Yorkshireman who speaks his mind” in a 1964 Radio Times article. He reinvented himself as a television presenter following his retirement from cricket and memorably fronted the programme while holding a pint of bitter.

Waddell later moved to the �� and was chosen to commentate on the first World Professional Darts Championships in 1978. Alongside Tony Green, Waddell was the ��’s main darts commentator for the next 16 years. He was famed for his colourful and creative one-liners. After Eric Bristow won one of his numerous world titles Waddell exclaimed, “When Alexander of Macedonia was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer... Bristow's only 27.”

Radio Times put darts on their front cover ahead of the 1980 World Championship

It wasn’t just Waddell’s rich and vibrant commentary that helped darts explode in popularity and turn players like Jocky Wilson, Cliff Lazarenko and John Lowe into household names. For the first World Championships �� producer Nick Hunter introduced split-screen technology to the sport. This allowed the viewer to watch the drama of where the darts landed as well as the tension or ecstasy on the players face as they reacted to their throw. Two players who were able to capitalise most on this were Bobby George and Eric Bristow. The two showmen clashed in the 1980 World Championship final in front of an atmospheric audience at Jollees nightclub in Stoke, broadcast on �� Two. Bristow won the tournament and controlled the event for the next few years. Bristow was so dominant that when he lost the 1983 final to then unknown Keith Deller it was seen as one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport and became the inspiration for a Martin Amis novel. Always outspoken and opinionated, following his retirement from the playing the sport Bristow went into punditry but lost his role with Sky Sports in 2016 after heavily criticised posts on Twitter about football abuse victims.

With darts now in the mainstream, there were plenty of opportunities for top players with big personalities. No-one exemplified this more than losing 1980 finalist, the charismatic Bobby George. George was one of the first to combine darting prowess with entertainment. To get the crowd on-side he dressed up to walk on stage and played bedecked in jewellery. He continued to be one of the biggest personalities in darts long after he retired and, wearing a necklace made of wedding rings, he was a crucial part of �� commentary throughout the 00s.

Bobby George returned to the stage to partake in Let's Play Darts For Sport Relief in 2016

At the start of the 90s the �� scaled back its own coverage and was only showing one tournament a year. It was this lack of coverage that eventually led to the sport splitting in two but before that there was a crossroads match in the 1990 final as Phil Taylor beat his mentor Eric Bristow. Taylor went on to dominate the sport for the next two decades with that year’s tournament also notable for Paul Lim becoming the first player to hit a perfect 9-dart finish during the World Darts Championship. You can watch the iconic moment here.

With the �� only covering one tournament a year the lack of television coverage led to less prize money and decreased exposure for players. The players blamed the British Darts Organisation (BDO) for this and a breakaway group of 16 formed what is now known as the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), whose tournaments were broadcast on Sky Sports. The breakaway group of players included all former world champions, bar one.

The �� continued to show the BDO version of the World Championships and in 2005 viewers were able to see every dart thrown live at the BDO World Championship for the first time. This was the first year that the �� introduced interactive coverage on its red button service. Prior to this, coverage had to fit within the schedules and when matches overran viewers waited for the nightly highlights programme to see the winning arrow. In January 2016 the BDO World Championships was shown on the �� for the final time with Channel 4 and BT Sport taking over the rights for subsequent tournaments.

Deta Hedman is a three time runner-up in the Women's World Championship

Women's darts has made the occasional appearance in the listings over the years. You can view these late 1930s listings, in which Nellie Foxwell represented darts in a radio special about female sport a year after the Ladies Individual Darts Championship was broadcast. Maureen Flowers was the leading player of her generation and appears in six listings from the 70s and 80s. Female darts has received greatly increasing coverage in recent times with Anastasia Dobromyslova and 10x world champion Trina Gulliver appearing in the listings. Deta Hedman also appeared in pro-celebrity charity darts programme Let’s Play Darts for Sport Relief partnering Richard Osman in the first series and Jon Richardson in the second.

In recent years the �� has shown the PDC’s Champions League of Darts, broadcast on the channel since the summer of 2016. The sport is thriving and still enjoyed by a broad range of people. Stephen Fry is known to be a fan and the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips was spotted attending a tournament in 2012. Darts also made a return to the radio a couple of years ago with �� 5 Live broadcasting the PDC World Darts Championship final on New Year’s Day 2014.

Howzat! A brief history of cricket on the ��

2017-11-22T11:09:57+00:00

Jonathan Agnew and Phil Tufnell commentating on Test Match Special, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this summer

As the Ashes series begins in Brisbane, we look at some of the people who have brought cricket to �� TV and radio.

From instructional radio programming and short match reports in the early years of the ��, to live coverage throughout the day on both television and radio, the �� listings show how much coverage of cricket has changed over the decades.

A quintessentially British sport, cricket traces its origins back hundreds of years. The sport was once banned for interfering with archery practice, according to a 1933 Radio Times article. But cricket has won in the long term - there are only 204 references to archery in �� Genome, while cricket listings number thousands. The schedules are more interested in boundaries than in bullseyes...

Left: A 1933 Radio Times article about Edward IV making cricket illegal. Right: In 1937 Radio Times printed a guide to fielding positions to help listeners follow the commentary

John Arlott was one of the original voices of cricket on �� radio. He spent a number of years as a policeman in his native Hampshire before moving into broadcasting: a radio address to King George VI he made on behalf of the police on VE Day 1945 helped him make the transition.

Arlott's broadcasting career straddled his passions of poetry and cricket, which he often allowed to overlap. Cricket was the inspiration for this 1945 listing of poetry and prose, while his cricket commentaries were known for being articulate and rhythmical, but he wasn’t unnecessarily florid with his language. Writing in The Nightwatchman magazine, journalist Simon Barnes described “reticence and understatement as aspects of Arlott’s talents”.

Test Match Special was given a strip across two pages of the Radio Times for its first broadcast

Arlott was one of the commentators on Test Match Special when it launched in 1957 on the Third Programme, and remained on the team until the centenary Ashes Test match of 1980. His retirement led to a number of tribute programmes, and in a 2003 edition of Desert Island Discs, long-time colleague Henry Blofeld recalled his experiences working with Arlott.

Blofeld’s first listing on Test Match Special was in 1972, and apart from a couple of years spent at Sky, he was a crucial part of Test Match Special until the end of summer 2017. When "Blowers" started on TMS it was broadcast on Radio 3, but it has had a number of homes in its 60-year history. In the mid-90s the programme moved to Radio 4 long wave, and since 2002 it has been broadcast uninterrupted on digital station �� 5 Live Sports Extra. Having reached "60 not out", it feels the responsible cricketing thing to do is to go for the century.

�� Sport takes a look at some of Henry Blofeld's best broadcasting moments

Cricketer Rachael Heyhoe Flint - a contemporary of Blofeld's - was a champion for greater coverage of women’s cricket in the second half of the 20th Century. She organised the first women’s World Cup in 1973 (two years before the first men's equivalent) which received some coverage on Radio 2. In 1983 Just After Four looked at her "one-woman campaign to put women's cricket on the map" and alongside Brian Johnston she discussed cricket on Woman’s Hour in 1993.

Heyhoe Flint was preceded by Marjorie Pollard, a hockey player who was an advocate for women's cricket in the early years of the ��. A consummate sportswoman, she is believed to be the first person to play two different sports at The Oval in one year. In 1937 Pollard provided commentary for the first women's Test Match ever to be played in this country, two years after a special edition of Sports Talk in which she made the case for women’s cricket.

Coverage of Women’s cricket is now much more of a fixture on the �� with Test Match Special covering every ball of the 2017 Women’s Ashes. A �� Radio 5 live programme in October 2017 debated whether 2017 had been women's cricket's greatest year. On-air, Ebony Rainford-Brent and Alison Mitchell are regularly heard in the �� commentary box.

Marjorie Pollard (right), seen here broadcasting at a women's hockey match in 1938, was also a regular commentator for women's cricket

It is nearly 80 years since Test match cricket was first broadcast on �� television, although an early listing gave little fanfare with just these few lines in Radio Times. It was an important time for sport on television, as Wimbledon also made its TV debut in 1937. Coverage was far removed from what we are now used to, there could be no highlight packages or replays interwoven into the analysis. In the post-war years live cricket became a regular feature on television with future radio stalwart Brian Johnston presenting a look back at 200 years of cricket before a test against India in 1946. Johnston, known affectionately as Johnners, became the ��’s first cricket correspondent in 1963. Test cricket was first shown in colour in 1968.

Brian Johnston spent much of his career as a television commentator before moving to Test Match Special.

Cricket gave the �� television lots of schedule-filling content and home Test matches remained exclusively on the �� until 1999, when Channel 4 won the rights. Channel 4 continued to show live cricket until the end of the 2005 Ashes victory over Australia. But after cricket was removed from the list of "crown jewels" sporting events reserved for terrestrial TV, Sky acquired the rights in 2006, from which point live test cricket has not been available on terrestrial TV. In the intervening years, the �� has shown highlights from some World Cups and an away Ashes series in 2006/07.

As I approach stumps at the end of this blog, the story of cricket on the �� is far from over. In recent seasons the �� Sport website has broadcast live commentary of every match in county cricket. Since 2016 the �� have shown match clips and highlights online, and live cricket will also return to �� TV from 2020.

A History of Snooker on TV: How the baize got on the box

2017-04-27T13:01:30+00:00

Dennis Taylor became the World Snooker Champion, beating Steve Davis in the now famous marathon "Black Ball Final" of 1985

The World Snooker Championship comes to a conclusion this weekend at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. So it seems a fitting moment to take a look at the history of how snooker has been covered on television.

Snooker was covered a handful of times in the early days of �� radio, and later gained a foothold in black and white TV in the 1950s and 60s. But it wasn't until the late-1960s that snooker got its big break. Then-controller of �� Two, Sir David Attenborough, was eager to find a format to showcase the ground-breaking invention of colour TV. After calling a meeting of �� executives, they decided on snooker, and broadcaster “whispering” Ted Lowe came up with an idea for a new show - Pot Black.

Pot Black's format changed over time (it ran annually from 1969 till 1986 with sporadic tournaments thereafter) but the original series consisted of eight players, playing in a one-frame knockout tournament. The debut episode was broadcast on 23 July 1969, a couple of days after Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. One small step for man and a giant leap in the history of snooker.

Alongside commentator Clive Everton, Ted Lowe went on to become the voice of the sport. However, it was Jack Karnehm who, in 1983, produced the most famous moment in snooker commentary history, by uttering the immortal line “good luck mate” as Canada's Cliff “The Grinder” Thorburn lined up the final black before sinking to his knees, having completed the first maximum 147 at the World Championship.

Ken Dodd uses a cue instead of a tickling stick to play six-time World Champion Ray Reardon

Nicknames have longed played a big role in the marketing of snooker. Winner of the first Pot Black final, Ray Reardon (he went on to win six world titles), was known affectionately as “Dracula” due to his sharp-toothed grin. While many nicknames reflected a player’s style of play (Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White and Ronnie “The Rocket” O'Sullivan are famed for their fast approach to the sport) Steve Davis acquired the ironic title of “interesting”. Davis dominated snooker for much of the 80s, playing in a methodical style that many considered boring in comparison to the risk-taking Alex “The Hurricane” Higgins. In later years Davis reclaimed the nickname “interesting” (it is the title of his autobiography), showing he was a man of many parts with his move from sport to broadcasting - even DJ-ing at Glastonbury Festival in 2016.

While Davis was undeniably the champion player of the 80s, the people’s champion was Alex Higgins. A complex character with a volatile personality, Higgins was a key player in the snooker revolution, as it moved from smoke-filled rooms at the back of pubs to prime-time �� television. When Higgins won the World title for the first time in 1972 it wasn’t televised and the prize money for winning was reportedly just £400. Ten years later when he won his second title, the winner’s cheque had rocketed to £25,000.

In 1982 Higgins won his second world title, his clearance when trailing 15 frames to 14 in a first to 16 frame semi-final match against Jimmy White is widely regarded as one of the finest in history. Higgins beat Ray Reardon in the final. With tears of joy rolling down his face he beckoned his wife and baby daughter from the crowd to celebrate with him. Although now ubiquitous across all sports, Higgins was the first sportsman to do such a thing – another indication of his unconventional style. It was the last time that the popular but troubled snooker-player won a World Title.

It was Dennis Taylor who was involved in quite possibly the greatest World Snooker Championship moment, in the 1985 black ball final. The schedule from 28 April 1985 shows that a dramatisation of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House should have gone out at 22:10 that night, but it wasn’t to be. The snooker continued until 12:30am (18.5 million viewers watched - still a record audience for �� Two and for any UK programme broadcast after midnight), and the genial Taylor with his upside-down glasses eventually potted the final black to beat Steve Davis and bring the marathon to a close.

The precocious Stephen Hendry became the sport's youngest World Champion in 1990 at 21

The following year Taylor, Davis and a number of other players converted success on the table to success in the charts, and although the likes of Willie Thorne and Terry Griffiths seemed unlikely pop stars (more associated with break building than break dancing), such was snooker’s appeal at the time that for a few weeks in May 1986 (including an appearance on Top of the Pops). The Matchroom Mob (Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, Willie Thorne, Terry Griffiths and Tony Meo) provided backing vocals to Chaz and Dave’s hit Snooker Loopy (hitting a chart high of six, and coming above Marvin Gaye with I heard it through the Grapevine and The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry in the charts). Perhaps the players involved were right to stick to their day jobs, but they were probably better at singing than the average 1980s pop-star was at long-potting...

Stephen Hendry, who won seven world titles in 10 years, including four consecutively, dominated snooker in the 1990s. Hendry’s ruthless dedication to winning often saw him come up against Jimmy White in finals. White is a six-time world champion finalist and widely considered to be the best player never to win the tournament. Four of White’s world final losses were at the hands of Hendry with the closest and final one coming in 1994 when Hendry won a final frame decider. Immediately after the match when David Vine handed White the microphone a few feet from the trophy that had eluded him once more “The Whirlwind” uttered possibly the biggest understatement in the history of snooker on television “He’s beginning to annoy me”. White has never reached another final but did beat Hendry in the first round of the 1998 tournament.

David Vine presented �� snooker coverage for over 20 years

A change of century saw a new generation of players rising to the top of the sport. John Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan have both enjoyed considerable success, with O’Sullivan taking over the crowd-favourite tag from Alex Higgins and Jimmy White before him. In recent years the game has grown massively in China and across Asia.

In China, 250 million people watched the 2016 final featuring Ding Junhui (making the 18.5 million staying up to watch Denis Taylor’s 1985 win look insignificant in comparison). Who knows what Ted Lowe would have to whisper about that?

Covering the Olympics

2016-08-23T08:30:00+00:00

The greatest show on Earth has come to an end, with glory for Team GB and thousands of hours of �� coverage in the bag.

But there weren't always wall-to-wall, multi-channel broadcasts of the Olympic Games. In the early days of radio, there were only scant references to the event. In 1928, there was no live coverage and a sense that Great Britain was only going to compete after "doubts and difficulties" in a talk from a former sportsman.

In 1936, the opening ceremony of the Berlin games was given star billing for a "description of the scene". But it wasn't until the first post-war Olympics in London that coverage of the games really came into its own.

The �� was the host broadcaster and the event was televised for the first time. The Radio Times reflected this great occasion by creating its first Olympic front cover (above).

The home advantage was short-lived, however. For the Helsinki and Melbourne Olympics in the 1950s, television was in its infancy in the host nations, so it was back to quite limited radio coverage. An Australian games with its vast time difference and distance meant that UK listeners made do with recordings.

But the lull would not last long...

The Rome Olympics in 1960 saw coverage on �� radio and TV reach a new level, with a striking cover for the Radio Times and a magazine packed with side panels and schedules to guide viewers. With another distant games from Tokyo four years later, recorded Olympic action was flown over the Pole by jet in an era when satellite technology wasn't yet the norm.

The 1968 Olympics from Mexico City was another watershed for the ��. It coincided with the advent of colour (initially on ��2) and the Radio Times cover mirrored this. The magazine even changed its regular title font for the occasion. This was a growing era of satellite broadcasts and schedules which dealt with a time difference similar to Rio 2016.

From the 1970s onwards, blanket coverage of the Olympic Games emerged. Radio Times covers switched from striking design to the sports personality, with the likes of Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim and homegrown superstars like Daley Thompson, Sir Steve Redgrave and Sally Gunnell (pictured).

A notable absence from the line-up of Olympics covers is Moscow in 1980, which was beset by a boycott led by the US. Great Britain attended but stayed away from the opening ceremony, while the Olympic flag was raised for gold medal winners.

So Tokyo 2020 beckons. How will the games be covered? More wall-to-wall coverage or a dedicated Olympics channel? Let us know your thoughts on games past and future.

On This Day, 1948: the opening of the first televised Olympics

2015-07-29T08:59:09+00:00

Images of the �� coverage of the 1948 Olympics

The broadcasting and televising of the London 1948 Olympiad, which started on July 29 with the transmission of the Opening Ceremony, was described by Radio Times as "the biggest operation of its kind that the �� has ever undertaken." Viewers were able to watch the main events at Wembley live - which included the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the athletics, the boxing, the swimming, the diving, the football, the hockey and the riding, while Television Newsreel cameras captured highlights of other sports.

EMI mobile television control room, first used for televising the events at the Empire Pool

Outside Broadcast Manager Ian Orr-Ewing described the difficulty of selecting commentators for the TV broadcast: "Regular viewers will understand that television commentary demands a technique different from that which has been established for sound broadcasting; a television commentator is not merely describing what he can, see but is explaining the picture in the light of his expert knowledge of the subject."

You can watch this clip of the Olympic Newsreel which reports on the �� operation at Wembley Stadium:

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