World of Sport (British TV programme)
World of Sport | |
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Presented by | |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 1067 |
Production | |
Production locations |
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Running time | Up to 5 hours |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 2 January 1965 28 September 1985 | –
World of Sport is a
From the programme's launch until the lifting of restrictions on broadcasting hours in 1972, sports coverage was one of the few programming areas which was exempt from the restrictions. Originally sporting coverage and outside broadcasts were provided with a separate quota of broadcasting hours per year. By the start of World of Sport this amounted to 350 hours per year. This meant World of Sport was a key part of ITV's Saturday schedules, as the time the programme was on the air did not count to the overall 50 hours a week restriction on normal broadcasting hours.
Early years
Eamonn Andrews was the first host and the programme itself was "compiled for Independent Television" by ABC Weekend TV from its Teddington Studios, with the other ITV stations contributing footage of events in their regions. Before World of Sport, sports events had been shown across the ITV network on Saturdays as separate programmes. From the summer of 1968, after ABC lost its franchise, it was produced by London Weekend Television (LWT) under the ITV Sport banner and hosted by Dickie Davies, who would remain the face of the show until it ended in 1985. Other World of Sport presenters were Fred Dinenage, Steve Rider and Jim Rosenthal. Bob Colston read the classified results and he and John Tyrrel, who read the horse racing results, were the regular results announcers throughout the duration of World of Sport, although from 1983, Elton Welsby began alternating with Colston.
Because LWT held a weekend-only broadcast franchise, Thames Television produced bank holiday (i.e. Monday) editions, which went out as Bank Holiday Sport and later Bank Holiday Sports Special. They were also generally presented by Davies, with Steve Rider occasionally presenting a bank holiday edition.
The 500th edition was transmitted on 7 September 1974, while the 1000th edition was transmitted on 16 June 1984.
Features
Most of the show was focussed around three popular segments -
Two sports in particular, ten-pin bowling and kart racing, benefited from television exposure to a British public hitherto unaware of them. Whilst the majority of ten-pin bowling shown from 1965 onwards focused on regional league competitions in the UK, a surge in popularity in the sport in the UK in the mid-1970s led to footage from the biennial WTBA World Championship, and telecasts from the US Professional Bowlers Tour, being included increasingly in later years (Mark Roth becoming the first bowler to convert a 7 - 10 split on television on 5 January 1980 at the ARC Alameda Open in Alameda, California, was possibly the best-remembered of the US telecasts shown on the programme). British stock car drivers such as Barry Lee also greatly benefited from the show's exposure.
The programme did occasionally acquire the rights to major sporting events, such as the
A typical edition would be broadcast between 12:15 and 17:10 and would take on the following format.[2]
- 12:20 Ian St. John and Jimmy Greaves.
- 13:00 Sports Special 1 - A wide array of sports, often including clips from US show and others would also feature. Sometimes Boxing would also be shown in this slot.
- 13:15 ITN News
- 13:20 ITV Racing.
- 15:00 Sports Special 2 - see Sports Special 1.
- 15:45 Half-Time Scores - the half-time scores from that day's football, plus racing results from races that had taken place in the previous hour.
- 16:00 Wrestling - a mainstay of the World of Sport schedule from 1965 until it ended. Many of the wrestlers featured became household names in the UK and the greatest rivalry was between Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks
- 16:45 Results Service - all the full-time football scores, match reports and league tables plus the last of the day's horse racing results.
Demise
By the mid-1980s, ITV Sport felt that it should be focussing on live sporting action of a specific sporting event rather than a mix of highlights and horse racing so after a 20-year run, the programme ended on 28 September 1985.
Theme tune and opening
World of Sport had a theme tune and opening credits which featured the ITV Sport logo and the programme name as trailing banners from white
The advent of computer-generated imagery saw a new opening title sequence appear in 1983 together with a more contemporary theme tune composed by Jeff Wayne, this lasted until the series ended in 1985.
Wayne also composed a new theme tune for the opening and closing credits to the Results Service during its period as a standalone programme between 1985 and 1992. Previously a simple, ten-second musical and visual sting had been used to introduce the Results Service during the World of Sport programme itself.
Incidents
- On 11 May 1985, World of Sport switched its coverage to Valley Parade stadium as match commentator John Helm, who had been covering the game for Yorkshire Television, described the events of the Bradford City stadium fire as it unfolded.
- The comedian Eric Morecambe appeared as a guest on the Christmas Eve edition of World of Sport in 1977 causing mayhem by entertaining and trying to disrupt his friend Dickie Davies' presentation links.
- The show featured rows of typists sitting behind the main presenter, mainly preparing items for the show. This was parodied by French and Saunders in the sketch Sports Report and featured their recurring "Extras" characters attempting to get their faces on television.
Legacy
Sport continued to be a major part of ITV's Saturday afternoon for the next few years with football coverage topping and tailing Saturday afternoon output until 1992.
After the lunchtime
Wrestling with
Between 1992 and 1995, several ITV regions screened rival US promotion
Two non-sporting programmes would then be aired so as not to clash with horse racing, which by now had been moved to Channel 4.
Next would be the two-hour live broadcast with coverage of sports such as athletics, darts, ice skating and snooker being shown. with a single event being shown for two hours. However, this gradually diminished after a few years and eventually disappeared from the schedules.
Saturday afternoon sport on ITV would conclude with the Results Service. Lasting for 15 minutes, it was presented by Elton Welsby with Jim Rosenthal hosting in Welsby's absence. As with Saint & Greavsie, the programme ended at the end of the 1991/92 season. The football results continued to feature on ITV for the next few seasons as part of the Saturday ITN Early Evening News bulletin. David Bobin or Graham Miller presented and did so until both presenters defected to Sky Sports at the end of the 1995/96 season.
ITV paid tribute to World of Sport as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations in September 2005. Various tie-in publications including World of Sport Annuals and a companion book were published throughout its run.
Revival of wrestling
On 17 October 2016,
In April 2018 ITV announced World of Sport Wrestling would air a ten-part series later in the year on Saturday afternoons. The shows were taped in Norwich from 10–12 May.[7] Jim Ross was not involved, and neither was Impact Wrestling. World of Sport Wrestling aired from 28 July 2018 at 17:00 on ITV until 29 September 2018. A six-date live tour of the show took place during January/February 2019.
See also
References
- ^ "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search".
- ^ World of Sport schedule TVTimes 1985
- ISBN 978-0743477819.
- ^ "World of Sport Wrestling". ITV Press Centre. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ^ "Iconic 'WOS' British Wrestling to Return to ITV - Impact Wrestling". Archived from the original on 26 March 2017.
- ^ "World of Sport wrestling event at Preston Guild Hall postponed indefinitely". www.lep.co.uk. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ "World of Sport Wrestling to return to British TV screens". BBC News. 25 April 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2021.