Rugby Special

Last updated

Rugby Special was the main rugby union programme on the BBC in the UK. The show ran from 1966 and past presenters included David Vine, Keith Macklin, Cliff Morgan, Chris Rea, Nigel Starmer-Smith, Bill Beaumont and John Inverdale. The main commentators were Bill McLaren, Cliff Morgan, Nigel Starmer-Smith, David Parry-Jones, Martyn Williams, Lynn Davies, Jim Neilly and Eddie Butler.

Contents

From the start of the 1994/95 season, the programme was contracted out to an independent production company Chrysalis after 28 years as an in-house BBC production. John Inverdale replaced Chris Rea as host at this time.

The programme ended its original run in 1997 after losing the rights to cover English domestic games, then known as the Allied Dunbar Premiership, to Channel 5, who showed highlights on a programme titled Rugby Express. After one season, the rights to the English Premiership again moved to Channel 4 who showed highlights on Saturday mornings in a programme titled Inside Rugby.

The programme returned on late Thursday nights in 2002 but was discontinued in 2005, when it was a highlights programme of Autumn internationals and Six Nations with studio guests and an audience of fans from the Six Nations. But when the Premiership highlights rights were regained from the 2001–02 season highlights were shown on Sunday Grandstand.

Rugby Special returned to the BBC on 7 February 2016, covering the highlights of Six Nations. The programme returned in 2023 again covering highlights of the Six Nations. [1]

Theme music

In the early seventies, the theme tune was "Spinball" by Paddy Kingsland but this was later replaced by "Holy Mackerel" by The Shadows' drummer, Brian Bennett which was replaced for one season 1988–89 by the Kenny G version of "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" from the 1986 Duotones album replaced from 1989–90 to 1993–94 by a specially commissioned theme.

Scheduling

1966–1976 Saturday Nights
1976–1980 Sunday Afternoons
1980–1981 Saturday Nights
1981–1984 Sunday Afternoons
1984–1985 Saturday Nights
1985–1988 Sunday Afternoons
1988–1997 Sunday Early Evenings
2002–2005 Thursday Late Nights

Regional opt out versions

From the 1986–87 season, BBC2 Wales, BBC2 Scotland and BBC Two Northern Ireland started their own regional versions. These programmes went out at the same time as the main version broadcast in England from London. The BBC2 England version would still show one or two club games from Wales and Scotland as a second or third match.

Previously, Wales Rugby Union highlights had been broadcast on BBC1 Wales on Sunday Afternoons under the Sports Line-Up title, and later as Weekend Rugby Union with David Parry-Jones as presenter and commentator. He would carry on as presenter when Martyn Williams took over the commentator role with Phil Bennett as co-commentator. When the Rugby Union highlights moved to BBC2 Wales, it became known as Rugby Special Wales with David Parry-Jones and Martyn Williams continuing in the roles in the first season. For 1987/88, Alan Wilkins became the presenter though he would also deputise as a commentator when Martyn Williams wasn't available with Martyn Williams as the main commentator and Phil Bennett in the commentary box until the end of the 1988–89 season. Lynn Davies took over as commentator from the 1989–90 season and carried on until 1995, again with Phil Bennett as co-commentator when it would become Scrum V where he would continue as commentator until 1998 when Huw Llywelyn Davies would take over the English Language commentator role for a short time before returning to his Welsh Language commentator role on S4C.

The Scottish programme went out as Rugby Special from Scotland with Bill Johnstone presenting in the late 1980s until the mid-1990s, when the programme was now aired under the Sportscene banner as Sportscene Rugby Special and at this point the presenters was Mark Souster until he was replaced by Jill Douglas in the late 1990s and in the programme's final year, former rugby player John Beattie took over hosting duties with Gary Parker co-hosting with John around the early 2000s. The commentator for all live matches and highlights was Bill McLaren.

The Northern Ireland version mostly covered matches involving Ulster Rugby and was a co-production with RTE due to the fact that Rugby Union in Ireland is governed on a United Ireland basis under the Irish Rugby Football Union banner. The commentators were Jim Neilly and Fergus Slattery.

Related Research Articles

<i>Grandstand</i> (TV programme) British television sports programme (1958–2007)

Grandstand was the former flagship sports programme of the British Broadcasting Corporation which was broadcast on Saturday afternoons on BBC1 between 1958 and 2007, and from 1981 on Sunday afternoons as Sunday Grandstand on BBC2, although until 1998 the Sunday edition aired only during the summer.

The Championship is a British football television programme featuring highlights from the Coca-Cola Football League. It was almost always shown on Sunday mornings on ITV, presented by Matt Smith. Despite its name, it also covered Football League One and Football League Two matches, albeit to a lesser extent than Championship matches.

<i>Scotsport</i> Scottish sports television programme

Scotsport is a Scottish sports television programme, broadcast on STV in northern and central Scotland between 1957 and 2008, as well as on ITV Border in southern Scotland.

The Continuous Call Team is an Australian radio sports program, covering the news and live games of the National Rugby League. It is produced and broadcast by 2GB Sydney, and is relayed to stations in New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and Papua New Guinea. The team have exclusive commercial radio rights to the National Rugby League until the end of the games are broadcast on Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays, with a talkback/humour programme broadcast on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Radio Wales</span> Welsh national radio station

BBC Radio Wales is a Welsh national radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the Welsh opt-out service of BBC Radio 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Inverdale</span> British broadcaster

John Inverdale is an English broadcaster who works for both the BBC and ITV.

ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.

<i>Sportscene</i> British sports television programmes

Sportscene is the name of a range of Scottish sports television programmes produced by BBC Scotland.

The Big Match was a British football television programme, screened on ITV between 1968 and 1992.

Final Score is a BBC Television football news and results programme produced by BBC Sport. The programme is broadcast on late Saturday afternoons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually on BBC One. BBC Northern Ireland opts away during the last ten minutes to cover local results in Final Score from Northern Ireland, normally just after the Premier League scores are read out. BBC Scotland runs a different programme altogether – Sportscene Results. Final Score is also broadcast on Boxing Day and New Year's Day and sometimes on either Good Friday or Easter Monday. A special Sunday edition is broadcast on the final day of the Premier League season.

S4C Chwaraeon(English: S4C Sport) is a Welsh-language sports television channel, and brand extension of the S4C Welsh-language general interest channel.

Football on 5 is the principal football programme on Channel 5 in the UK. The show first ran from May 1997 until July 2012. The show returned in August 2015 under the name Football League Tonight. For the 2016–17 Football League season the Football on 5 name was revived with the highlights show now called Football on 5: The Championship and Football on 5: Goal Rush being broadcast from 9pm-10.30pm on a Saturday with a repeat on Sunday morning. The show itself was initially sponsored by Wilkinson Sword, and would eventually be sponsored by Soccernet.com, Peugeot and SEAT, among others.

<i>Clwb Rygbi</i> Welsh TV series or programme

Clwb Rygbi is a rugby union Welsh-language television programme shown on S4C. Produced by BBC Cymru Wales, the show is amongst the most popular programmes shown on S4C. The show was known as Y Clwb Rygbi until the beginning of the 2014–15 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Mohammad</span> Radio and television presenter

Jason Mohammad is a Welsh radio and television presenter currently working for the BBC. He is the current host of Final Score on BBC One on Saturday afternoons.

5 Live Sport is the banner of live sports coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live. The regular presenters are Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates (Tuesday), Steve Crossman and Darren Fletcher (Friday). The programme is on air from Monday to Wednesday 7pm to 10:30pm, as well as Thursday and Friday 7pm to 10pm. It is also broadcast at weekends from 12pm until the early evening, depending on the events being covered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RTÉ Sport</span> Department of Irish public broadcaster RTÉ

RTÉ Sport is a department of Irish public broadcaster RTÉ. The department provides sporting coverage through a number of platforms including RTÉ Radio, RTÉ Television, RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Player Sport and RTÉ Mobile. RTÉ holds the television and radio broadcasting rights in the Republic of Ireland to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flagship analysis programmes such as The Sunday Game, Thank GAA It's Friday, Soccer Republic and RTÉ Racing on RTÉ Television, and Game On, Saturday Sport, and Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio.

STV Rugby was a Scottish regional television programme featuring highlights of Pro12 rugby union matches involving Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors. The programme, produced by the STV News department in Glasgow, was first broadcast in the 2009-10 season after a deal with the Celtic League Association, Scottish Rugby and STV was reached, following the closure of Setanta Sports in the UK.

A vidiprinter is a sports scores and results ticker service provided to media organisations. It is shown on BBC One and Sky Sports News to provide a live on-air feed of football scores when significant games are in progress.

This is a timeline of the history of BBC Sport.

This is a timeline of the history of rugby union on television in the UK.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.