The Secret Killing of Grandstand

Last updated at 15:07pm on 26.01.07

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Here was a time when it would have required someone pushing the nuclear button to remove Grandstand from British television.

Now, nothing more scary than the red button on a bog standard remote control has done the job.

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The interactive options available to a 21st century television audience — and changing viewing preferences — have turned BBC Sport's former flagship into an irrelevant anachronism, according to its bosses.

Grandstand disappears from our screens this weekend after 48 years of continuous, largely distinguished, broadcasting service. It departs with barely a whimper, never mind a bang, as nothing more grand than a BBC2 Sunday afternoon alternative menu to the FA Cup game between Chelsea and Nottingham Forest.

A starter of ice skating, a main course of rugby union (highlights) and, for dessert, a world bowls final.

Grandstand began life as an innovator, matured in the pursuit of excellence but sadly has died as a result of neglect, neither sustained by competitive tendering for to-pclass sport nor cherished as the institution it had become.

"Grandstand no longer punches through in this multi-channel world," said Mark Thompson, the BBC's director general, last April when the decision to axe was first announced. Icons deserve greater respect.

It was to be gradually phased out by 2009. In the event, it has not even survived a year, outlasted by Blue Peter which also began in 1958 and seems destined to celebrate a dignified 50th anniversary.

No doubt with something prepared earlier.

If anything has been readied to mark the end of the Grandstand era, it will be shown without fanfare. No funeral announcement has been made, no memorial service heralded.

It is almost as if BBC bosses are ashamed of what they are about to do. As late as yesterday the Grandstand section of the BBC website still listed, "what to expect for the show in the next few weeks".

Make that days. Beneath the programme details for this Saturday and Sunday were the words "more information will appear shortly".

With the Six Nations Championship dominating the schedules from next weekend into March, it appears the BBC hoped Grandstand would be forgotten about.

Not by those who remember with excitement the original opening titles in which a camera swung round and showed four sports quartered in its four telescopic lenses; not by those who came to regard the big four presenters — David Coleman, Frank Bough, Des Lynam and Steve Rider — as members of the family.

Coleman, the first at the helm, is now 80 and nursing a broken hand as well as a dodgy knee. Coincidentally he lunched with co-creator Sir Peter Dimmock only this week.

"I am disappointed because Grandstand was just allowed to drift," he told Sportsmail. "We used to be very competitive. [Bryan] 'Ginger' Cowgill, who went on to be controller of BBC, used to say that ITV could have one night provided the BBC had the other six.

"The news department has taken over yet they do not seem to do news. Peter and I mentioned Grandstand only in passing when we had lunch. They have been running it down for years. But it is a very powerful brand name. They should keep the title."

The BBC website still quotes Steve Rider as saying last year: "It was always felt to be a fundamental gesture about commitment to sport if Grandstand were to be abolished."

He told Sportsmail: "I had 20 years on the show and the great thing about it was that it was an endorsement of the BBC's place in sports broadcasting. It was a framework in which some outstanding production staff could develop their skills over a whole range of events.

"The sports will still exist but it would be a shame if all that the Grandstand name embodied disappeared.

"One great memory from the programme comes from 1991. We came on-air before dawn at Kiawah Island with news of the shenanigans over the captain's pick at the Ryder Cup.

"Then we crossed to the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona where Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna battled for the lead, returning back to the Ryder Cup singles without breaking stride.

"The programme finished with Langer's missed putt — resulting in the Cup returning to America after a six-year absence. Such compelling sporting action said everything there was to say about Grandstand."

Lynam was happy enough to look back, even more eager to look forward. "Grandstand became a bit of a dinosaur. Its time has come and gone. People won't sit for five hours now unless there's something specific to watch.

"The modern audience is more selective. I think people should enjoy remembering fondly what was part of their television lives, then move on."

Grandstand first appeared on October 11, 1958 — a Saturday afternoon of course — with the remit "to feature sports and events as they happen, where they happen".

Previously, the sports fan wanting to see action had either to attend the event itself or listen to the radio. The new programme joined pictures to the words of legends in the making.

Peter O'Sullevan described horse racing from Ascot that first day, a vanguard for the emergence of an extraordinary body of talent, every one a consummate professional, each with their own idiosyncrasies.

Bill McLaren, Dan Maskell, Harry Carpenter, Richie Benaud, Peter Alliss, Eddie Waring and Murray Walker all became household names. Later, former footballers Gary Lineker and Bob Wilson were recruited for their insightful contributions.

Sports commentators never get better than the ones you grow up with. Back in Lime Grove studios, the pioneers made it up as they went along, climbing up step ladders to chalk up racing results (no odds because of strict gambling laws), slotting football results on cardboard strips into fixtures hand-painted on to large magnetic wooden boards and filming captions placed on musical stands.

John Tidy was a teenager on the first programme and, now aged 66, remains a consultant to Grandstand.

He said: "A man at the front would shout 2-0, for example, and put two fingers through the hole where I had to slot in the correct score, 0-2 from where I was standing. It had to go in backwards. We tried to catch the fingers of the guy."

Coleman, meanwhile, dressed in a suit with specially made extra large pockets to hide all the microphones, would do links from halfway up a ladder.

He recalled: "It was the first programme of its kind, anywhere in the world. Television producers from all over the world would pop in to see what we were doing, so that they could copy us.

"We used to do a lot of odd things. We did some very early space shots. We did the Harrods bombing, I recall. And the Beatles, of course. The reason was that we all had a background in news. The news people trusted us."

The Beatles, returning from their triumphant tour of the United States in 1964, arrived at London Airport at seven o'clock in the morning. Seeing Coleman, Paul McCartney remarked: "We must have arrived." He wasn't referring to getting off a plane.

"Everything was live, so everything could go wrong," said Coleman. "I remember runners being kept 10 minutes on the blocks because a horse had broken loose before a big race and delayed the start.

"Whatever happened we just took it in and broadcast it."

Tony Gubba, who presented the programme many times, recalls once losing the link to their horse racing commentator. "We asked if anyone could step into the breach. A sub-editor called John McCririck said he would have a go. He did a terrific job until they flashed past the winning line — and he called the result in the wrong order."

One day a fight broke out among the sub-editors working in the backdrop. Des Lynam was up front, apparently oblivious to the mayhem behind his back.

"It was an April Fool," remembered Lynam. "We staged the whole thing and told viewers the truth later on. But we received loads of complaints, even after the explanation.

"People demanded that they be sacked. Since then it has often been wrongly reported that it was a real fight."

It was more of a fight than the BBC sometimes managed over broadcasting rights to major sporting events.

Gaping holes in the schedules did not help Grandstand. Ironically, as the old flagship sails not so much into the sunset as the breaker's yard, there appears to be a renewed commitment to sport for the so-called digital age.

So farewell, Grandstand. One can't help thinking that Final Score could never come up with the romance of East Fife 4 Forfar 5.

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