Football Daily - 75 years of Sports Report

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

75 years ago, we heard Sports Report for the first time. On this podcast, Mark Chapman and Pat Murphy speak to fans, broadcasters and those who’ve been on the other side of the microphone. Jockey AP McCoy, author Lee Child and manager Tony Pulis are among those to explain why Sports Report is so special. **This is pre-recorded, so please do not message in**TOPICS: 7:00 – Author Lee Child, 12:40 - What is it like actually working as a reporter on the show? 18:50 – Manager Tony Pulis, 26:15 – Stories from our presenters, 33:20 – Jockey AP McCoy, 42:30 - The most difficult day in the history of the programme, the day of Hillsborough, 50:20 – The wrong theme tune!

Hello, I'm Mark Chapman, and for the next hour, we're going to be celebrating a broadcasting institution, the one that always starts a bit like this. Good evening, and welcome to the 984th edition of The 5 O'Clock Show. Tonight, Sports Report celebrates its 25th birthday. Launched on January 3rd, 1948, it's since become the longest-running sports programme of them all. Happy birthday to us.

Sports Report has got 50 candles on its cake today. You're listening to Sport On 2 this afternoon. This is BBC Radio 5 Live. That red second hand goes forward. It's coming up to 5 o'clock. It's 11 o'clock in the morning in Chicago, 5 o'clock in the afternoon in the UK. Now the time is 5 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon.

Time for Sports Report. Time for Sports Report. And this is Sports Report. It's the familiar sound of Out of the Blue and Sports Report. On January the 3rd, 1948, we heard this piece of music and sports report for the first time. It has been here ever since. The show is older than the National Health Service. Elizabeth II was still four years away

from becoming Queen when the programme started. And we've had more prime ministers than Sports Report presenters in that time. We'll hear from fans, broadcasters, and those who've been on the other side of the microphone during this show. So AP McCoy, the author Lee Child, manager Tony Pulis will be among those joining us

to explain why they feel that Sports Report is so special. You can get involved as well. 85058 on the text. You can also WhatsApp as a voice note. 08085 909 693. If you head over to BBC Sounds, by the way, and search for the All About Football playlist, you can listen to some classic archive footage from sports reports over the years including the time bin crosby and bob hope

both appeared on the show with us for the next hour the longest serving reporter on sports report pat murphy has been contributing to it for more than four decades and recently published a book on the programme. Congratulations on the long-serving bit, Pat, because I know how much you adore the programme. I know how much you think it's an honour to be on it. Both things I completely and utterly share with you. So to have achieved more than four decades on it is pretty special. 41 years, Mark.

I probably have got photographs of the bosses secreted away somewhere. That's why I stay on the programme. I was just thinking, actually, county cricketers used to get benefits after 10 years as a cap player, don't they? Should we old hacks not get benefits sometimes? But you mentioned prime ministers there mark i thought sometimes last year last year during the interesting events and we've had more prime ministers in 2022 than we've had sports report presenters since 1948 i find it when you hear that link at the top and

you hear the voices that have gone before you i find it a truly humbling experience. And much of this next hour, I will find quite humbling, I think. And for you to have, and we'll talk about some of the great voices who've presented this in a little while, but for you to have been part of that and worked with them, I'm guessing when you hear a lot of those voices, it brings back some special memories. It's evocative. It's also quite emotional. People like Peter Jones, who I worked alongside.

Eamon Andrews, Irish family that I grew up in, we revered Eamon, just like many Irish families subsequent years revered. Terry Wogan, we were inordinately proud of him. Apparently, I told my family when I was seven years of age I was going to work on that programme one day, which I can't believe a self-effacing cove like me couldn't possibly have said that.

But my mother, bless her heart, swore to a dying day I said that when I was seven years of age. But 75 years, Clement Attlee was prime minister. It was that long ago. And I think people sometimes, sports sometimes gets a bad rap market. People are a bit sniffy sometimes in the corridors of power. And the BBC down the years, especially in the early decades, we were slightly below stairs, weren't we? Light entertainment was much more important, variety shows, drama series, news,

but sports just cultivated a growing audience. The first programme was listened to by 5.4 million out of a population of 36 million listeners, which proves there was a market for it all along. So why was Sports Report not introduced? Why was it introduced as late as 1948?

We've been asking people to tell us what makes the show so special. Nearly everyone mentions the theme tune right from the start. 75 years ago, it wasn't going to be the theme music was it indeed not i interviewed 165 people for my book went back to them several times so you probably see i did 400 to 450 interviews every one i interviewed at some stage mentioned the sports report signature tune not everybody knew it was out of the blue by hubert bath a, a composer who wrote it in 1931, died in 1945, so never got the chance. He was only 61, never got the chance to appreciate that Out of the Blue was part of a broad canvas. But Angus Mackay, the great Angus Mackay, to whom I've dedicated the book, the most

important person in sports reports history, the producer for 24 years, the driving force, the presiding genius. Two hours to go, you know what it's like being a producer, panic starts to set in right about them. They did not have a signature tune. He had no idea, he tried things week after week after week, he only had three months to get the show up and

running. He could not get the right tune and in those days, the signature tune was so important on BBC Radio. He got a call from the Gramophone Library. Mr Mackay, I think you'd like to hear this one. Went down there. Eureka! Light bulb moment. You're on. That was it. Out of the Blue started.

It's remained there ever since apart from a year best known to the management at the time in the early 70s when they dropped it. Heresy of all heresies and that was reinstated after a palace revolution mark i talked to tim rice who knows a thing or two about tunes tim rice said to me sunderland supporter by the way big supporter of the program loves football he said if you take out of the blue out of that program it's like taking don't cry for me

argentina out of a vita i said tim that'll do for me i'm just writing that one down uh we're gonna hear from uh from people to for whom sports report means an awful lot over the course of uh of this hour i'm delighted to say the author lee child the man behind the jack regent books joins us an avid listener to sports report for decades uh live from america with us uh afternoonly i'm guessing where you are thank you so live from America with us. Afternoonly, I'm guessing, where you are. Thank you so much for being with us. Hello, Mark. It's a real pleasure.

And first of all, let me say huge congratulations to the BBC for 75 years. I mean, what a span of time that is, especially when you relate it to the changes that we've seen in that time. Sports Report is older than I am, and I'm deeply grateful to find something that is. And I started with it at the end of the 50s, beginning of the 60s with my granddad, who was the closest person to me and my family. I just loved that old guy. And like everybody at the time, he did football pools.

You know, he was a guy with a job and dreaming of that win. And he never did. And the signature tune was incredibly important because back then, 1959, 1960, people had, well, my granddad did anyway, one of those old table radios that was sort of burbling and murmuring away in the corner. And that blaring brass of the signature tune woke you up. It said, OK, here we go. And I would sit by him. I was sort of five or six years old. I would sit next to him on the chair, practicing marking the coupon. And, you know, it was always a disappointment,

but it was such a ritual with the old guy that I loved. And then that was the Eamon Andrews years, I remember. And then I came back to it much later in the 1980s when I was working in television up in Manchester on an insane schedule. So I could never get to a game. I'd been to probably 10 games in 10 years prior to that. You're a Villa fan.

You're a Villa fan, yeah? I am. I'm a Villa fan. So if I could get to Birmingham, I'd see the Villa. If they were playing away in Manchester, I would. But it was rare. But then all of a sudden, at the beginning of the 80s, our roster settled down. We finally had enough people. We were all on a predictable pattern,

which meant that I only worked daytime on a Saturday, once every five weeks. So I bought a season ticket for the Villa and I would go up and down. And I so remember the lack of information. You know, we're talking about prehistory here in terms of access to scores, facts, reports, all of that sort of stuff. There was this strange system at football grounds with letters and they would hang numbers on them to represent the scores. Remember that? Yeah. You never waited around for that at the end so i remember you know the game

would finish at sort of uh 440 445 you would leave the ground i would walk down to my car and i had installed a radio in my car because this again it's a long time ago it was back when you could buy a car that didn't come with a radio. And I went to a pub and I bought presumably a stolen radio and put it in my car simply so I could listen to sports report. And I loved that ritual to walk down from the ground to where you'd park your car, you get in, it would be cold, you turn it on, turn on the radio. And there it was, you know, you heard, you got all the scores you got the reports which you would get from nowhere else also also though the other the other thing that you will have done without

a shadow that and and i used to do this as a kid and paul in northwich has text this in he said i remember leaving main road after watching city in the 80s and 90s hearing the theme tune coming from multiple radios that people would be listening to by their ear as we walked away from the ground. And you would change the pace of your walk to catch the results that you needed to hear or the reports or the tables over someone else's shoulder. And you will have, as well as racing to your car,

you will have done that, I'm guessing. Well, I guess Main Road was probably more prosperous than Phillip Park because not too many people were carrying the transistors, except when it really, really counted. I remember the year we won the league, 81. We won the league by losing at Arsenal, but everybody had a transistor radio

because we needed to know what was happening with Ipswich. And so that was part of the ritual, but only on rare occasions when it was safe to bring your transistor radio out of your house. And Lee, six years later, when Villa got relegated, you were at a wedding in Kent, and a lot of Villa fans were there because you could tell when they got out of the cars.

Yeah, I remember that. We got to this wedding, and it was in a vineyard in Kent, and I didn't get out of the cars. Yeah, I remember that. We got to this wedding and it was in a vineyard in Kent. And I didn't get out of the car because I needed to hear the headlines. And, of course, it was terrible news. But that was the villa from five years from winning the European Cup to getting relegated. That's how it was. Lee, thank you very much for joining us this evening. It's really appreciated. Thanks for listening to the show as well. Yeah, and congratulations again.

That's a huge achievement. Thank you, Lee. Thank you, Lee. Lee Child with us, the author on Five Live. Ross in Kidderminster. Sports report means so much to me and my family. I listened every Saturday driving home from football with my dad, drummed along to the theme tune. When he died five years ago, the theme was the music as the coffin was walked into the crematorium. It gives us great memories. We're going to find out what it's like to actually work as a reporter on the show now.

Here are some of our colleagues, past and present, on what it's like to work on the show, starting with a man of our colleagues, past and present, on what it's like to work on the show, starting with a man who was there very near the start, Brian Butler. Reporters left the game as soon as they dared, say 10 minutes before the end. They had a car, always a fast one, never a slow one, waiting outside. They kept their fingers crossed and they hurtled through the traffic as best they could and the idea was to get back to Broadcasting House by 5.30. In London, usually possible. In the provinces, if you happen to be working in Manchester, you could get to the studios there.

If you had to get from somewhere like Leeds, for example, to Manchester, not quite so easy. Hair-raising tales, over the Pennines, bad weather in the middle of winter, all very exciting and dramatic. When I first started appearing on Sports Report in the 90s, you were expected to deliver a considered match report of 50 seconds. 50 seconds. If it was any longer, you would get a polite and sometimes not so polite reminder from the producer. It was expected to be creatively written and flawlessly delivered. And that was a challenge if your match ran late and was particularly eventful. And it has been known that you would have to begin your report

without actually having written the final sentence. Nowadays, it might be only 30 seconds or a conversational-style report, which is an art in itself to include all the salient details. And that dash from a match does still live on if you've covered the saturday lunchtime kickoff and it's been particularly newsworthy you're expected to be live from a studio somewhere at the beginning of sports report my most memorable sports report moment is being

called out by alan shearer last season at the top of the show i maintain that newcastle were lucky to win at leeds at the start of 2022 I said as much on air Alan not surprisingly read the game completely differently and there wasn't really much more I could do than admit that my year had started off with a bang being owned by Alan Shearer on Sports Report and people still mention that moment to me now as one they enjoyed as one that made them laugh out loud I guess that's what five o'clock on a Saturday is all about. Maz Faruqi, John Murray, and first of all, Brian Butler. And Pat, as the delivery of the reports have changed,

you will appreciate, I mean, Maz was obviously in a different place to Alan, but sometimes you are doing reports now from a tunnel whilst waiting for a manager or a player for a post-match interview. So you can be doing your report whilst the manager is waiting to be interviewed. You can be on your haunches looking at your equipment thinking, why are you not working? Why is the studio not responding to me? And you look up and there's Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola looking down at you. And you think to yourself, well, how do I get out of this now?

I think people are under the impression there's a commissioner with the white gloves who says, this way, Mr. Murphy. Do you like my pink hat cap? You're very welcome to be here again. Nonsense. It's hand-to-hand combat. Very, very stressful. You need to know about orienteering to find the best shortcuts.

Often the people who are going to help you before the game have just disappeared. So you're on your own, very much so. At five o'clock when you hear Out of the Blue, normally it follows some Anglo-Saxon language from all the reporters. You're thinking, it can't be that time already. I've taken, Mark, to trying to memorise my reports

as I'm in the milestone, the crush of humanity, people trying to get out of the ground at the same time because the games end so much later now, A, because of VAR, B, because players fall down as soon as an opponent looks at them, therefore injury time is added on, C, because there's 15 minutes now for half-times. When I started in November 1981 on Sports Report,

the games would invariably be over by quarter to fives. You had time to hone those finely sculpted phrases that Brian Butler was so brilliant about. Brian, who once described Inter Milan as the international sweets trolley of a team. That was a phrase I envied massively. So yes, times have changed remarkably, not necessarily for the better.

But if you as a presenter have the feeling of history on your shoulder when you queue up out of the blue, spare a presenter have the feeling of history on your shoulder when you queue up out of the blue, spare a thought for the hapless reporters, because normally it strikes terror into our collective breasts. The post-match interviews can be eclectic, can be chaotic.

You, on the patch that you have covered for 40 plus years have had some of the best managers giving post-match interviews from Martin O'Neill to the man he learnt under, Brian Clough. Brian Clough is responsible for the longest eight minutes of my broadcasting

career. December 1986 as a favour to me because I was going off on the Australian cricket tour under Mike Gatting. He agreed to give me an early Christmas present and come on air. He turned up looking rather well sponsored and profited me

the biggest glass of brandy you've ever seen in your life. I had to persuade him to wait until James Alexander Gordon had read the football results because not even Brian could wait until all that was over. And then on and on it went,

jousting with me. He was deliberately winding me up. Finally, at the end, after the editor kept saying, keep going, keep going, keep going, sweat pouring down my face. Finally, I summoned up enough courage to say, Brian, thanks very much indeed. It's great to have you on.

Stupidly, I said, you've not been on for five years on Sports Report. We're chuffed to bits. He looked at me with those deep hazel eyes. Took some time to respond. Several seconds on radio can be an eternity. And he said, Patrick, you come back from Australia in a couple of months' time,

a lot more talented than you are today. And I tottered out of that interview area thinking, oh my God, he's a much more of this with Cluffy. But what a man to extend you. He was a remarkable man to interview. But Ron Atkinson was great value too. I was very lucky on my patch with some really big names and big personalities.

Invariably, Mark, all of them played the game because they'd grown up with the Sports Report, as we all did, both as players and scouts and assistants. So many of them get in the car at 10 to 5. They leave early, the scouts and assistants. And they'd grown up listening to us as well. So that is a big plus. And Tony Pulis is one of those who has been interviewed by Pat many times,

interviewed by me many times on Sports Report. But also, Tony grew up with Sports Report. Am I on now? You are, yes, yeah. I've been listening to Pat. Absolutely fantastic. Fantastic. Full of stories.

What did it mean to you, Sports Report? What does it mean to you? Yeah, I was brought up in South Wales, like in Newport. I played all my football down at YMCA. It was right on the top of the docks. And in those days, you know, Saturdays, we used to kick off at two o'clock, obviously,

because wintertime would get dark and everything else. And we'd have to travel around Newport to play the games. And I used to always jump in and nick a lift off one of the senior lads or whatever. And we'd rush back to get showered and to get in one of the rooms. And we had, I think it was two or three radios down the YMCA at the time and we would sit there everybody would just sit there and you'd be absolutely with

with anticipation as soon as the music started which was absolutely wonderful you know then you get James Alexander Gordon what a name what a fabulous name that is anyway to start with you get in reading the results. And yeah, you know, you're waiting for your team. You're waiting for the team that you love. You're waiting for the result. And I think after a few years, you actually knew before he even said it, whether they won or lost.

Because he had that great way of building up the winner and letting down the loser. It was just absolutely magnificent. You always took your time to do a separate interview for sports report when when you were then managing didn't you because you can't there can be these things of radio huddles where it's all pulled together and and we take we take the clips it doesn't matter who's asked the question it might be somebody from talk or local radio or whatever and we we take a clip of that sometimes that's an easier way of doing it you always did a separate interview for us well i think two things

chap was i think over the years the quality of the presenters in the studio has been outstanding apart from yourself obviously um i did wonder whether when that was coming so i just was waiting go on you'll get there eventually but no i think I think the people who get or are not noticed as much are actually the reporters at the game who've got to find the manager after, you know, after you've lost the game or played badly or the team's not done so well or you've had a player sent off.

There's been some controversy in the game. And, you know, they have to do their job. And at times, you know, you find it difficult. But I always thought with the reporters we had around the Midlands or wherever I was, that they were really understanding. They had an understanding of your position. They had an understanding of the game.

And that was always, it was always difficult if you'd lost. But I think they were always respectful. I can't remember a time where, I don't know, Pat's there now. Pat looked after me for a long while, where I actually lost my temper or walked away from anything. It was called care in the community, Tony. I do remember you told me once, for the book it was, when you went off to Hong Kong to play football,

probably because no other English professional club would have you, but didn't you rush back all the time to your apartment in time so you could listen to the sports report? And as a consequence, get homesick. Yeah, I would have a sports report on. I would find the BBC World Service and find it and listen to the results. And that was, I can't remember, early hours of the morning. Obviously, chappers, don't tell Debbie I was just coming in at the time.

But it was what's name. It's just something I think traditionally is just, you know, it's special. The people who work on the radio, you know, I've been very, very fortunate over the past few years now to go out and work with these people, these top people who commentate at games. And, you know, the people who do the live games, Chappers, at the Grands, you know,

I've watched Denil do it more than anyone else. But the way they prepare and the way they're set up to work for those two hours, I find it extraordinary. They are real, real top people. And like I say, the way they love the game comes through all the time, and I think that's got something to do with it. I completely agree with you, Tony. The way he operates at three o'clock

is a wonder, really, to commentate and do goal updates and throw the odd stat and fact in there. And put up with me, Chappers. And put up with you. And put up with me as well, Tony. It's interesting you talk about the Hong Kong stuff. Kane in Cardiff sent us a text. Back the 90s I was in the army I took my transistor radio to the arctic to the

desert on operations and I nearly always got to tune in on long wave for sports report today when I hear those words we welcome listeners from the BBC World Service makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up sports Sports Report is an institution. Whether you're in a snow hole or a sand dune, there is nothing better than listening to Sports Report. The commentary pack at three o'clock is still on the World Service. Yes, it is. And I, having worked for the World Service many times on England cricket tours,

Mark, I value them enormously. If it's good enough for John McCarthy and Nelson Mandela in captivity, it's good enough for the likes of thee and me, isn't it? And I've never, ever turned down anything that World Service wanted because of my massive respect for the programme, for what it does for so many expats around the world. It's an absolute pleasure working for World Service. You mentioned, Tony, one of your answers. I wonder whether, and I still think this is happening now, even in a multimedia age, I still think one of the things that makes sports reports so special

is that it gets passed down from generation to generation. And that could be mother and son. It could be father and daughter. It could be mother and son. It could be father and daughter. It could be grandfather and grandson. And Ed in Kent said, listen, my dad is 81. He told me when he was a young lad, he used to have to go on a Saturday morning to get the charged accumulator battery from the shop for his granddad's radio so he could listen to Sports Report.

It has always been so important to our family. And I think that generational passing it on is one of the reasons So he could listen to Sports Report. It has always been so important to our family. And I think that generational passing it on is one of the reasons why it remains what it remains. Yeah, and I think the thing is as well, when you look at the internet and the different outlets now that people can get the results from and the updates and everything else, I still think listening to that music and listening to that music and listening

to the results come out through five live um from that sports report is is just i traditionally for us it's just very very special very special tony thank you very much for coming on i'll talk to you soon look after yourself pat thank you tony Cheers, chappers. Thanks, Tony. Take care. Tony Peel is with us. We've heard some of the voices who've presented this programme over 75 years at the start of the show. Let's hear some of their stories. Well, I think you always must have anxious moments with a show of the scope of Sports Report. It reaches out at such speed to so many places that there's bound to be a human element apart from a technical element that stretched almost to breaking point. I remember

some years ago when we did our first sports report out of the country, which was over in the States in Florida, that I had to bring a little box with me that was just invented for sports report with a piece of wire coming out of it for one ear, and I carried that all the way across the Atlantic because they didn't have that sort of box in the States, and we plugged in there and it worked. I remember very distinctly working with Angus, and he actually produced the programme sitting alongside the presenter, and he was still doing that in my time,

and he would pull your headphone off and whisper in your other ear the instructions. Well, sometimes it was novelty goop, and you wanted to say what but you couldn't on the air he and i were not a match made in heaven in fact he fired me he fired me on a saturday night and rehired me on the monday morning but i had a hell of a bad sunday i'm eleanor oldroyd and back in 1995 i became the first woman to present sports report as five o'clock and out of the blue approached,

I can remember a mix of excitement and terror and a huge amount of responsibility following in the footsteps of so many iconic male sports broadcasters, the likes of Eamon Andrews, Peter Jones and Des Lynham. I'd been a football reporter on the show for a few years alongside Charlotte Nicol, and back then there was no shortage of men keen to put us in our place. I wrote a piece for the Sports Report 50th anniversary book which quoted a letter I'd just received from a male listener telling me to get myself back to woman's hour and leave the

beautiful game to the blokes and that was one of the milder ones. So it does my heart good to listen now on a Saturday and hear so many brilliant female football reporters from grounds around the country. Mind you, I also speculated in that piece 25 years ago that it might be closer to our centenary year before we regularly heard women commentating on football. Vicky Sparks, Robin Cowan and before them, the wonderful Jackie Oatley have well and truly proven me wrong on that. And I couldn't be happier about it. Over the years we've had lots of fun, lots of excitement, moments of triumph and of frustration on the most unrehearsed programme in existence. Now sometimes we've gone on the air hardly knowing how the show would start off,

far less than how it would end. And the fact that we've achieved some measure of success in presenting a fast, newsy programme for the family is entirely due to the comradeship of the Sports Report team and its contributors. So you heard Eamon Andrews, Des Lynham and Eleanor Oldroyd there. We'll hear from some more of the presenters a little bit later on. We'll hear from John Inverdale. Mark Pugach is the longest- presenter of the programme at 16 years.

Eamon Andrews, I think Pat did it for 14 and Des presented for much of the 1970s. Yes, Eamon Andrews was such a distinctive broadcaster, wasn't he? He didn't just have that Dublin lilt, but he studied Stuart Macpherson, who was a Canadian in the late 40s, early 50s. Brilliant ice hockey commentator. Ice hockey was very good in those days. And Eamon was smart enough to think about getting a vocal USP. So he introduced a sort of North American twang just now and again to his Dublin accent.

And it really worked. Eamon Andrews was so distinctive, such a wonderful all-rounder, TV and radio. And there's a measure of his respect for Angus Mackay that he was joined at the hip for 14 years on Sports Report because Eamon could have gone anywhere. Everybody was knocking on his door. And he finally yielded to TV's entreaties. But my word, he gave us some high-class presenting for 14 years or so. But Mark, as for you as presenter,

didn't you choose Sports Report as your dissertation for your university degree? I did a, well, I was doing a postgrad diploma, yes. So I followed up my university degree with a postgrad diploma at City University and I did a whole project on Sports Report. And at the time, Ian Pay was the uh presenter of a sports report and i wrote ian a letter i'm not sure email was around then it may have been in the very early

stage of email i wrote ian pain a letter i managed to get an interview with ian so uh and ian wouldn't have been doing would have only recently taken that over because i think he starts around 94 so it's yeah so uh so ian then um agreed to do an interview and that was all part of a of one of my assignments for my dissertation in in a post-grad diploma so that was that was nearly 30 years ago well congratulations you did better than i did because when i was at university in the mid 60s i wrote to peter jones asking him how he got into broadcasting, etc. Looking for hints, looking for an entree, rather like yourself. Never got a response. The one thing on all those presenters that I would say when we heard those clips there, Eamon Andrews and this, you know, I don't want people to, you know, pass a bucket here and feel nauseous,

but Eamon Andrews talking about the success of the programme is down to the comradeship of everybody that works on it is still as true today as it was in Eamon's era. And do people know that only seven people, production team, get that programme on air? You've got the producer, the editor, two backup producers, broadcast assistant, two studio managers who do the technicalities. You chipping in now and again with suggestions that are normally completely nonsense and they put them straight in the bin. But more importantly, you've got a presenter and seven, just seven members of a production team getting a fast moving program on air. And as I found out when I researched the book and so many presenters told me often when out of the blue is reverberating around the country you still haven't got a script written

you're winging it i find that remarkable that such a fast-moving program can start without really a precise coherent framework well one of one of the former editors of the show has sent us a message, Jo saying when she first came in to watch Sports Report she was surprised to see the presenter at the time, I've no idea who that would have been, had written three versions of the match introduction, one each for a win, a draw and a defeat. She said by the time she'd finished her stint as a producer and editor it was very much more freewheeling and it certainly is to this day Derek Smith many years ago in the mid-80s I worked in the Middle East sports report was the highlight of the week we'd sit and listen to the tune flowing in and out like waves on the sea it would be well over 80 degrees but you made me think of cold

dark evenings with my dad listening to the radio by the warm fire thank you a lot of sports report is uh is on the bedrock of football but there have been plenty of huge sporting stories that have happened during the show and to this day we uh take the title very seriously it's not football report it is sports report uh many of the big sports stories away from the football that happened came at Aintree be it Bob Champion and Aldoniti, or the postponed 1997 Grand National, of course. And in 2010, there were few more popular winners than Don't Push It, ridden by AP McCoy.

The final fence, and it's Black and Belangi, together with Don't Push It. Don't Push It landed in front for Tony McCoy. McCoy had a look round. He's never, ever won this race in his glittering career, he now only has to see old Blacker Balanchi, and it looks as though he might do it, but still, this unforgiving run into gum, and he's out in front here narrowly, don't push it, from Blacker Balanchi, who is fighting like a terrier, in second place, They're now clear of Big Bell and Banks,

but it's all come good for Tony McCoy. He has at last won the Grand National on Don't Push It, and there's never been a more popular winner. It's an amazing feeling. It's an amazing feeling to win the Grand National, as everything, you know, every jump jockey wants to win the Grand National. I've won lots of all the other big races, but I hadn't won it, so at long last.

And the emotion? It's amazing for JP and Noreen. It's fantastic. They're such supporters of our game. We're so lucky. And AP joins us now. And AP, one of the beautiful things about radio, I always think, is being able to play radio commentary

back to the person involved, because it is so evocative. I mean, I think that's the first time i've been excited mark and god knows how long listening to john hunt um talking about don't push it winning the grand national but that's the most excited i've been they're retired i mean that's for sure um yeah look the grand national that was the most amazing day um you know as i said in that afterwards no i'd never won the grand national and won all the other big races you know as I said in that afterwards you know I'd never won the Grand National and won all the other big races

you know you always just I used to convince myself every year to call the other better jockeys than me and never won it like John Francom

and Peter Scudimo and John John Neal and Charlie Swan and Frank Barry loads of multiple champions never won it so I used to convince myself leaving entry

every Saturday night after I'd failed a game that you know what I'm a good company so when I finally did it was the best feeling I used to convince myself leaving entry every Saturday night after I'd failed a game that, you know what, I'm in good company. So when I finally did, it was the best feeling. And yeah, I've heard John Hunt's commentary

a few times. But sports support for me was always something long before we can all watch things, you know, obviously for a long part of my career because I was travelling every day, I always had someone driving me.

So, you know, driving me so you know you always you know now if you were doing that you would have an iPad in your car and you would be able to watch whatever you wanted or watch whatever sport

nearly on your phone or whatever but when I went to England when I came to England in 1994 you know you listen to the radio on the way home from racing and because I am

as the programme says a sports fan most you know obviously we're racing with the number one, but football and listening to James Alexander-Gordon and listening to the results and I know I'm showing my age, but it was like, you know, I actually felt at the time, Claire Burns, who was producing at the time, she actually looks after me now.

She's my PRH, my age or whatever. She literally tried to look after me then. She asked me to come and be in sports report and I thought it was like I thought it was such a I felt like I have nearly made it I'm on sports report so yeah one of the things that I find really enjoyable about it AP is is having is is getting sportsmen and women onto it and maybe then coming off the back of a different sport hearing something that's been said by somebody in that sport and then following it up themselves and being able to bring the different sports together whether that be from results or

interviews or reporters because sports can bounce off each other can learn from each other and just just because you are a jockey doesn't mean you like football just because you're a footballer doesn't mean you aren't and and plenty were in the in the 70s 80s and 90s doesn't mean that you aren't interested in horse racing no i look i'm a sports fan mark i'm i i'm obviously irish whatever and our cricket team's not too bad and obviously oren morgan's obviously like from them but and i i was very lucky I got to know Shane Warren

but I met Johnny Burstow at Cheltenham yesterday for the first time and it was like you know I felt really you know

I felt really cool to be able to meet him and chat to him about cricket and his injury and the whole lot so sport

has an amazing thing of getting people together and before I forget the one thing I used to love about sports support was the music. I used to love the tune. I used to love to hear the beat

of sports support. It was just about to come on air. I'm showing my age now, but yeah, definitely enjoyed it. AP, that perfect day, almost 2010, winning the Grand National. It wasn't quite perfect because on the way out of Aintree, you got booked for using the mobile phone, didn't you?

Ringing your mum. Oh, God, ref, my mum, she's dead. Five years of boxing day, she'll be dead. But I remember I hadn't spoken to her. I literally had spoken to lots of people. And the next thing I saw, my mum ringing. And I thought I'd better answer my phone to my mum. My mum rang me every day since I left home when I was 15.

And I hadn't spoken. And I picked up my phone. I left home when I was 15. I hadn't spoken. I picked up my phone and sure enough, this big yellow... I wouldn't mind. It wasn't even a police car. It was a big yellow police van. Anyone could have seen it. It was full of...

Not only was there two people, it was actually a full riot brigade in there. They all get out. Rightly so, I was getting... I shouldn't have been on my phone. I shouldn't have been on my phone, riot brigade in there so there wasn't they all get out anyway of course and rightly so he was you know I was getting I shouldn't have been on my phone

and I shouldn't have been on my phone but as I was as he was writing my summons whatever you like all the other policemen in the van

want the pictures of me so so so it's amazing how people pick things up there was people

obviously driving by and they could see obviously maybe just the fact I won the Grand National so they might have known who I was So it's amazing how people pick things up. There was people obviously driving by and they could see, maybe just the fact that I won the Grand National, so they might have known who it was. But there was lots of people taking pictures and I had lots of pictures sent to me not long afterwards, like within 15 minutes

from all different random people who were nowhere near entry saying that you were taking pictures of me with the police man. So yeah, it didn't end. But to be honest with you it wouldn't have mattered what had happened that evening

you know it was one of the one of the greatest days that I've had in racing and yeah I felt privileged to be on Sports Report

as a kid growing up and as a sports fan that's kind of like it's a really nice thing to be asked to go on AP thank you very much

for coming on this evening and thanks for all your contributions to it as well I'll talk to you soon thank you thank you AP, thank you very much for coming on this evening and thanks for all your contributions to it as well. I'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. AP McCoy with us on this special show. Peter

Bromley was before my time Pat as the voice of racing but then with Cornelius Lyser and John Hunt, racing has been served by amazing voices, amazing knowledge, amazing Then with Cornelius Leiser and John Hunt, racing has been served by... Stellar, stellar contributors. Amazing voices, amazing knowledge, amazing presentation and reporting skills.

Just a joy to work with. I produced Peter Bromley in my early days and he was a hard taskmaster. But my word, he was loyal. And if you've done well, I've still got letters from Peter Bromley, sadly passed away within a year of his retirement. And I treasure them because he didn't hand out praise unduly. But my word, what a professional. And his race car was a work of art.

It was quite astonishing the amount of research he did. Grand National Day is one of those days, of course, that can be hard to both produce and present because it is a day when really anything can happen. Hello, Ian Carter here. Happy birthday to Sports Report, a programme that from childhood days really was essential listening for me and pretty soon became a burning ambition, if I'm honest, simply to appear on it. But never in my wildest dreams

did I think I would ever present the programme. Yet that did come to pass as a by-product of the evacuation of the 1997 Grand National because of a terrorist threat. Ian Payne was presenting from Aintree. I was in the office to do a humble shift detailing the scores from the football leagues. But suddenly I got a call from the editor telling me to get down to the studio. Ian had been part of the evacuation. So as a total last resort, I was in the chair. I got to say those words. It's five o'clock and it's Sports Report, and what a thrill that was.

I didn't have time to be nervous. I sort of get nervous sort of looking back on it because it was obviously a massive story. The hour flew by, and it's one of those days that I'll never forget. I know for a lot of people, it's all about the music. And for me as a listener, it's probably all about the music. But I think as a presenter, it's the sentence before the music is the one that gets me. Because it sort of sounds like you're doing a dispatch to the world in the 1940s. You're listening to BBC Radio 5 Live at, invariably, just after five o'clock. And this is Sports Report.

And the names and faces of all the legends who've said that over the years spring to mind. And you think, you know, blimmin' heck, this is such a big deal. Don't mess this up. And it just gets the heart going. I remember the first time I did it, which is just humbling and exciting and, you know, mildly terrifying, but in a good way. It's about the signature tune as much as anything. The first time I said it's five o'clock and time for Sports Report and it played, I just couldn't stop grinning throughout the whole of the classified results. And just the once we didn't play that tune. And that was the day of Hillsborough, which I suspect was the occasion more than any other when the resources of Sports Report was stretched to the absolute limits. I still love and I hope I always will the moment when Out of the Blue begins because it's just so reassuring. It's your childhood, your youth, your middle age and your later years too.

And if you love sport, it always has been and hopefully always will be an integral part of your life. You heard there from Ian Carter, Steve Crossman and then John Inverdale. And John mentioned Hillsborough, that FA Cup semi-final day between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest the tragic events unfolded throughout the programme and they were marked at five o'clock by Peter Jones well I think the biggest irony is that the sun is shining now and Hillsborough's quiet and over there to the left, the green Yorkshire Hills, and who would have known that 74 people would die here in the stadium this afternoon? I don't necessarily want to reflect on Heysel,

but I was there that night broadcasting with Emmeline Hughes, and he was sitting behind me this afternoon, and after half an hour of watching stretchers going out and oxygen cylinders being brought in and ambulance sirens screaming, he touched me on the shoulder and he said, I can't take any more and Hemlyn Hughes left. And two other items I just think of sitting here now in the sunshine. Two items.

One that still reminds me of Heysel. The gymnasium here at Hillsborough is being used as a mortuary for the dead. And at this moment, stewards, just as they did at the Heysel Stadium, have got cartons and little paper bags and they're gathering up the personal belongings of the spectators some of whom died some of whom are now seriously injured in nearby hospitals and the red and white scarves of liverpool and red and white bobble hats of liverpool and red and white rosettes of liverpool and nothing else out there on the enclosure where all the deaths occurred and the sun shines now.

Pat, you were there that day as the producer alongside Peter. Alan Green, Jimmy Armfield, Peter Jones and myself. Just a technical point there to point the brilliance of that report, his emphasis on Liverpool three times. That was a very effective technique there. Peter mentioned the gym also, Alan Green and myself. We got down too quickly, really, in human terms, in technical terms, very, very quickly, satisfyingly so.

Our interview point was right beside the gym. It was in the laundry room, and we could get eyewitness accounts there very, very quickly. We saw too much, really. And eventually it was 97 who died. Peter says 74 at the time. And I found out subsequently while researching the book,

how much pressure the editor, Mike Lewis, back in the studio in London was put under. There were people coming in there telling him that the death toll, death toll was much higher than what we were saying. And he kept saying to him, no, I trust my people there. And I've never forgotten that ever since I heard about that.

He put his trust in us. And I tip my hat to him. Final observation within a year, Peter Jones had died, commentating on the 1990 boat race. And that was just a shocking, tragic postscript to a dreadful day. I didn't do another football game for the rest of 1989. I was sent on an England tour to India, thankfully.

And again, Mike Lewis, the other two, was very helpful and understanding and sympathetic to all of us. That is a minute and twelve that we just played by Peter Jones. It is an emotive piece of broadcasting. You need to play that, actually, to all aspiring broadcasters. In my opinion, Peter Jones was our greatest all-round sports broadcaster.

But he had a hinterland. He was an intelligent man, but he knew his only sport, and he could relate so well. He wrote perfectly crafted, scripted pieces, but he got it just right. Peter wouldn't be sat there thinking, oh, I've got to get this right. He was written from the heart because he was at Heysel four years earlier. And it wasn't a case of Peter Jones responding from the heart, pouring all his massive experience and broadcasting brilliance into a final dispatch that just touched the hearts of so many. Thank you for your messages this evening.

Giles in Shepherd's Bush. I was listening through an earpiece at Lourdes as the hillsborough disaster unfolded peter jones's extraordinary summary had tears running down my cheeks and still does when i hear or read it again the final line and the sun shines now came back to me in 2013 when my wife died in hammersmith hospital and a beautiful autumn sun shone through the window. Simon in Birmingham, like so many people, Sports Report was a huge part of my growing up. I used to listen on a Saturday tea time at my parents. Into the Blue was a sign for everyone to fall silent so we could listen to the results and the reports.

Thanks to all the presenters, the reporters, the producers, the editors and the engineers. Someone who nobody will ever have heard of who deserves a real mention at this point. Audrey, who compiled those results for 40 years, which takes some doing to get them all correct and in place for that five o'clock read as it was with James or Charlotte. Audrey Adams epitomises the production, understated production skills of Sports Report. Nobody outside the building or the department would know about Audrey, but she was absolutely invaluable.

Everybody relied on her. She and Charlotte were a great team together. James used to take Audrey to Le Goveroche at the end of every football season because the birthdays were 10 days apart from each other. And James always picked up the tab. He shared £52,000, you know, in the Pools win. He and the doorman at Broadcasting House between them for the results,

for the Pools win on the results that James actually read on Sports Report. But Charlotte Tottenham fan used to read the results of her dad at the kitchen table. Jimmy Greaves, her favourite player. For researching the book, she told me, Charlotte, that all the things that she's done and what a distinguished career she had as an announcer, presenter on Radio 4. This was the biggest achievement for her,

presenting, reading the results on Five Live on Sports after all that glittering career over decade after decade. And I think that tells you a lot about the prestige of Sports Report. It does. Charlotte reading the results.

Ellie talked earlier about new female voices, something you noticed when you wrote the book, Total Lack of Women on the programme, really up until the 1990s for regular female producers since the late 80s. The programme, as we've discovered actually, has evolved and some decisions will be criticised and some won't.

But it's never stayed the same. It's a good quiz question. Name the first female football reporter. The answer is Mary Raine, January 1969. Angus Mackay was on holidays. Vincent Dugganby took a chance with her. Chelsea 5, Sunderland 1. I heard the report.

Mary told me she wasn't too pleased with her performance. She went on to have a very distinguished career in the World Service. But she is the answer. Who's the first female football reporter on Sports Report? Thank you all for your messages.

Pat mentioned Mary Rain there. There is a playlist of special moments from Sports Report, part of the all-day football feed, if you want to look at that. We began the programme by talking about the theme music and how important that is for people. However, it doesn't always go right. Ten years ago, on its 65th birthday and this happened good evening from our pugach on fa cup third round weekend it's five o'clock

and this is sports report The headlines then on Sports Report. Macclesfield see off the championship leaders Cardiff and Luton knock Wolves out of the FA Cup. Ryman Leakside Hastings are beaten at Middlesbrough. Now, just in case you thought the FA Cup had gone to our heads earlier, we had a bit of a technical gremlin, as lots of you have noticed. But here is a chance to get your fix. So I promise this

is sports report here comes barnes homer from macclesfield and he scores and an fa cup upset is on our hands here Mark Pugach still gets asked about that. Yes, Nick Robinson, Nick Robinson, today's presenter, he sent a tweet out saying, surely they haven't dropped out of the blue. Mark did say, don't worry, the Ravens haven't left the tower. It was a cock-up. That's not a bad effort, is it?

In 75 years, there's one technical mishap that everybody noticed. It shows the affection and the importance of the signature tune, doesn't it? bad effort is it in 75 years that there's one technical mishap that everybody noticed it shows the affection and the importance of the signature tune doesn't it um just a final one as i say it does change and it has evolved of course but um i think uh there are two things for me that are at the heart of it and i don't think that will ever change one is the heart of the program and the people that work on it and two is the respect of everybody that works on it for those who have gone before. Absolutely.

We had a gathering on October 3rd to launch the book in London. It was great to see so many faces from yesterday and everybody talked about the mutual respect. For me, having been in the business for 52 years, it remains the greatest privilege of my alleged career, working on sports reports. All I ever wanted to do. It faces challenges now.

It's always faced challenges. It didn't become a one-hour programme until 1955, seven years on. And in those 50s, the 1950s, I never thought it got full support from the BBC mandarins. After all, it's only sport, but it stands four square now. Only six programmes on the BBC have got a longer shelf life than Out of the Blue, and it's the longest-running radio sports programme in the world. Not a bad epitaph.

Lovely to talk to you for the last hour, Pat. I will see you soon. Pleasure, Mark. Pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for this text as well. Thank you, Mark and Pat. I've been moved to tears. Others have put it better,

but just shows radio's importance and its impact. If you love sport, if you love radio, you love Sports Report. Thank you very much for that. I love Sports Report, and even now I still can't believe I get to do it. So Sports Report has turned 75. Join us every Saturday at five o'clock

as we take it into its next quarter century.