BBC’s Grandstand was nice however Dickie Davies and ITV managed to shine a light on the dark and theatrical underbelly of British sport
- Dickie Davies’ demise at 94 was introduced on Sunday by Jim Rosenthal
- BBC’s Grandstand competed with Davies and ITV’S World of Sport
- BBC offered the extra apparent crown jewels of sporting protection
- ITV provided home windows into different worlds, trawling for the unique and weird
In the days earlier than distant controls made channel-surfing potential, Saturday afternoon TV in the late Nineteen Sixties and early Seventies got here all the way down to a straight alternative: Frank Bough and the polish and gravitas of BBC’s Grandstand on the one hand, or the quirkiness of Dickie Davies and ITV’s World of Sport on the different.
Both have been glorious, but when the BBC offered the extra apparent crown jewels of sporting protection, then ITV provided home windows into different worlds.Â
Log-rolling and barrel-jumping have been straight out of North American pioneer mythology, cliff-diving had been one thing Elvis Presley pretended to do in Fun in Acapulco and drag-racing featured futuristic vehicles with little parachutes borrowed from the Apollo area mission splashdowns.
Dickie Davies handed away aged 94 on Sunday and was a pioneer for ITV’s sport protection
The wrestling was everybody’s favorite. We would roar with laughter at Les Kellett’s antics, entertain one another by grunting like Mick McManus and yell encouragement at whoever was ‘trying’ to take away Kendo Nagasaki’s masks.Â
Grandstand was nice, however World of Sport’s weak spot — an inferior finances — pressured it to trawl the fringes for the unique and weird, and to shine a light on the dark, theatrical underbelly of British sport. This was its secret weapon, and Dickie Davies wielded it consummately.
Davies helped to shine a light on the dark, theatrical underbelly of British sport