I actually researched all this once before when I wrote the Charlton Miscellany back in 2012. So the definitive list of matches on The Big Match filmed at The Valley between 1968 and 1983 (and it is far more than I recall) is:
4 Jan 1969 Charlton 0 Palace 0 (FAC3) 18 Jan 1969 Charlton 2 Derby 0 25 Sep 1971 Charlton 2 Burnley 0 15 Mar 1975 Charlton 2 Southend 1 15 Nov 1975 Charlton 1 Sunderland 2 24 Jan 1976 Charlton 1 Portsmouth 1 (FAC4) 9 Oct 1976 Charlton 3 Hull 1 3 Dec 1977 Charlton 3 Sunderland 2 25 Nov 1978 Charlton 0 Fulham 0 21 Apr 1979 Charlton 0 West Ham 0 11 Oct 1980 Charlton 2 Sheff U 0 10 Jan 1981 Charlton 3 Hull 2 4 Apr 1981 Charlton 1 Huddersfield 2 1 May 1982 Charlton 1 Watford 1 4 Dec 1982 Charlton 2 Newcastle 0 8 Jan 1983 Charlton 2 Ipswich 3 (FAC3)
It's in the Miscellany pages 114 to 116 if you're interested.
I can post all the times we were on The Big Match and other Sunday shows as the away team during this period as well as Match of The Day if anyone's interested!
I was on the telly at half time in the 1976 Hull match. We used to stand East terrace half way line and the camera panned down and I turned around and you couldn’t mistake me at the time. National Healths, blond hair, green parka and massive red and white scarf my mum had knitted. I was 10 and loving life.
I was on the telly 15 Mar 1975 Charlton 2 Southend 1. On the pitch when we scored our second and at full time. Its what us 11 year olds did back then.
I have a theory that our attendances were adversely affected if we were going to be on the telly after a Saturday home game. My theory is because if we were going to be on it was common knowledge. So sometimes people wouldn’t mind missing a game. This was at a time when the featured matches were supposed to be a secret. Other stadia usually had a permanent in built kind of gantry usually hidden, but we had to have a great big scaffolding structure constructed on the East Terrace, complete with wooden ladders and whatnot. Anyway it was impossible to keep that construction a secret, anybody able to have eyeballs into the Valley could see it. Maybe that’s a reason we weren’t on that much, but I leave that notion to the Illuminati.
I tended to know when we were going to be on, and in fact knew what London club would feature on the day before the match each Saturday. This is because I worked on the 24th floor at Kings Reach Tower, just a hundred yards or so from the LWT building in Kent House (a little farther along the Thames). Each Friday, around lunchtime, workman would put up the satellite dishes/radio antenna on the roof of Kent House and they would point in the general direction of where the game was going to be beamed back to LWT at Kent House from. Most weeks, if the equipment were placed on the north side of the building, then it was either Spurs or Arsenal (depending who was at home, as they rarely clashed...), and similarly you could tell the subtle difference between Chelsea or Fulham and QPR pointing west, us and Millwall/Palace (south), and Orient or West Ham (east). Brentford and Wimbledon did not feature much at all, if ever! You could even tell if Watford were going to be on as they were north-west across the river... Nobody else really featured.
I always got a buzz when I knew we would be on, even if that didn't happen very often. Surely it was more than five times though - Sunderland at home (76, when Killer was sent off), Hull (Phil Walker scored), Blackpool (Mickey Walsh scored for them I think though maybe that was MoTD?), Hull (Killer hat-trick inc goal of the season), and there must have been others?
A little before my time at Kings Reach tower, but was there for 3 years from 1979, so you must have worked for IPC magazines Pedro 45? I worked on the 19th floor If I remember , shared an office floor with Sounds Advertising, I worked for IPC for several years, on various magazines, I was and art editor on "3' magazine that nobody remembers, till it closed, then worked on several magazines as a freelancer.
Did it go something like Thunderbirds, University Challenge, Police Five, The Big Match?
Ish - varied over time - you can also factor in Weekend World and deffo Out of Town and Uni Challenge. For a while there was a cartoon on just before TBM - often Woody Woodpecker or Road Runner!! Then of course you have the adverts - Milk Tray (All Because The Lady Loves) Hamlet (The Mild Cigar from Benson and Hedges) and many more. I cover all this in the book.
Yes that is La Soirée by David Ordini (a collaborative pseudonym for two German composers Bader and Wolf). It was preceded by the awful Cheeky Bird (Don Harper) and the superb The Young Scene by the brilliant Keith Mansfield.
Did it go something like Thunderbirds, University Challenge, Police Five, The Big Match?
Thunderbirds i think was on a Saturday early evening but University Challenge, Out Of Town [Jack Hargreaves] & Police Five i can remember preceding The Big Match on Sunday Afternoon.
And wasn’t there a horse programme afterwards? The Adventures of Black Beauty? Seem to recall that.
Did it go something like Thunderbirds, University Challenge, Police Five, The Big Match?
Thunderbirds i think was on a Saturday early evening but University Challenge, Out Of Town [Jack Hargreaves] & Police Five i can remember preceding The Big Match on Sunday Afternoon.
I can remember watching Thunderbirds on a Sunday lunchtime in the 70’s.
I have a theory that our attendances were adversely affected if we were going to be on the telly after a Saturday home game. My theory is because if we were going to be on it was common knowledge. So sometimes people wouldn’t mind missing a game. This was at a time when the featured matches were supposed to be a secret. Other stadia usually had a permanent in built kind of gantry usually hidden, but we had to have a great big scaffolding structure constructed on the East Terrace, complete with wooden ladders and whatnot. Anyway it was impossible to keep that construction a secret, anybody able to have eyeballs into the Valley could see it. Maybe that’s a reason we weren’t on that much, but I leave that notion to the Illuminati.
I tended to know when we were going to be on, and in fact knew what London club would feature on the day before the match each Saturday. This is because I worked on the 24th floor at Kings Reach Tower, just a hundred yards or so from the LWT building in Kent House (a little farther along the Thames). Each Friday, around lunchtime, workman would put up the satellite dishes/radio antenna on the roof of Kent House and they would point in the general direction of where the game was going to be beamed back to LWT at Kent House from. Most weeks, if the equipment were placed on the north side of the building, then it was either Spurs or Arsenal (depending who was at home, as they rarely clashed...), and similarly you could tell the subtle difference between Chelsea or Fulham and QPR pointing west, us and Millwall/Palace (south), and Orient or West Ham (east). Brentford and Wimbledon did not feature much at all, if ever! You could even tell if Watford were going to be on as they were north-west across the river... Nobody else really featured.
I always got a buzz when I knew we would be on, even if that didn't happen very often. Surely it was more than five times though - Sunderland at home (76, when Killer was sent off), Hull (Phil Walker scored), Blackpool (Mickey Walsh scored for them I think though maybe that was MoTD?), Hull (Killer hat-trick inc goal of the season), and there must have been others?
A little before my time at Kings Reach tower, but was there for 3 years from 1979, so you must have worked for IPC magazines Pedro 45? I worked on the 19th floor If I remember , shared an office floor with Sounds Advertising, I worked for IPC for several years, on various magazines, I was and art editor on "3' magazine that nobody remembers, till it closed, then worked on several magazines as a freelancer.
I worked in the print underneath the IPC tower in about 84/85 cutting up A4 pads for Ryman. Loved them days.
Did it go something like Thunderbirds, University Challenge, Police Five, The Big Match?
Thunderbirds i think was on a Saturday early evening but University Challenge, Out Of Town [Jack Hargreaves] & Police Five i can remember preceding The Big Match on Sunday Afternoon.
And wasn’t there a horse programme afterwards? The Adventures of Black Beauty? Seem to recall that.
Yes that was on as was The Golden Shot and The Persuaders and, for a while, The Protectors with the brilliant Avenues and Alleyways theme tune.
Amazing that the third shot of those titles is a player with what looks at first sight like a nasty eye injury!
Funny to think that all this was the work of Jimmy Hill - he ran the sports department when LWT started, revolutionised World of Sport when they took it over (brought in a chap called Richard Davies and advised him to change his name to Dickie) and completely changed the way ITV did sport in just a few years. I think their World Cup coverage of 1970 beat the BBC in the ratings.
Did it go something like Thunderbirds, University Challenge, Police Five, The Big Match?
Thunderbirds i think was on a Saturday early evening but University Challenge, Out Of Town [Jack Hargreaves] & Police Five i can remember preceding The Big Match on Sunday Afternoon.
I can remember watching Thunderbirds on a Sunday lunchtime in the 70’s.
Fairly sure Thunderbirds were on a Saturday and Casey Jones was on the Beeb at the same time?
The big match used to be followed by programmes such as the Saint and Randal & Hopkirk deceased.
I was fortunate to know Brian well, and can only endorse what others have said, in that he was one of the nicest people I have ever met. Looking forward to reading this book.
I would have loved to have met him. For me, he was the voice of London football and his enthusiasm for the game just shone through. No cliches, no silly attempts with "clever" humour.....just talked about the football and got genuinely excited by what he saw.
Watching any of those games, you could say Brian Moore had a soft-spot for every London club and I think he really did. The feeling was mutual....he was the best.
I was fortunate to know Brian well, and can only endorse what others have said, in that he was one of the nicest people I have ever met. Looking forward to reading this book.
I would have loved to have met him. For me, he was the voice of London football and his enthusiasm for the game just shone through. No cliches, no silly attempts with "clever" humour.....just talked about the football and got genuinely excited by what he saw.
Watching any of those games, you could say Brian Moore had a soft-spot for every London club and I think he really did. The feeling was mutual....he was the best.
I will pass that on to this sons, Chris and Simon.
Did it go something like Thunderbirds, University Challenge, Police Five, The Big Match?
Thunderbirds i think was on a Saturday early evening but University Challenge, Out Of Town [Jack Hargreaves] & Police Five i can remember preceding The Big Match on Sunday Afternoon.
I can remember watching Thunderbirds on a Sunday lunchtime in the 70’s.
Fairly sure Thunderbirds were on a Saturday and Casey Jones was on the Beeb at the same time?
The big match used to be followed by programmes such as the Saint and Randal & Hopkirk deceased.
Thunderbirds was definitely on Sundays in the LWT region for a while circa 76/77 at about 12.30. I'll look it up. Back then I found programmes like Weekend World with its Nantucket Sleighride (Mountain) theme tune and Out of Town unwatchable but now, almost half a century on I would be all over them.
I actually researched all this once before when I wrote the Charlton Miscellany back in 2012. So the definitive list of matches on The Big Match filmed at The Valley between 1968 and 1983 (and it is far more than I recall) is:
4 Jan 1969 Charlton 0 Palace 0 (FAC3) 18 Jan 1969 Charlton 2 Derby 0 25 Sep 1971 Charlton 2 Burnley 0 15 Mar 1975 Charlton 2 Southend 1 15 Nov 1975 Charlton 1 Sunderland 2 24 Jan 1976 Charlton 1 Portsmouth 1 (FAC4) 9 Oct 1976 Charlton 3 Hull 1 3 Dec 1977 Charlton 3 Sunderland 2 25 Nov 1978 Charlton 0 Fulham 0 21 Apr 1979 Charlton 0 West Ham 0 11 Oct 1980 Charlton 2 Sheff U 0 10 Jan 1981 Charlton 3 Hull 2 4 Apr 1981 Charlton 1 Huddersfield 2 1 May 1982 Charlton 1 Watford 1 4 Dec 1982 Charlton 2 Newcastle 0 8 Jan 1983 Charlton 2 Ipswich 3 (FAC3)
It's in the Miscellany pages 114 to 116 if you're interested.
I can post all the times we were on The Big Match and other Sunday shows as the away team during this period as well as Match of The Day if anyone's interested!
I was on the telly at half time in the 1976 Hull match. We used to stand East terrace half way line and the camera panned down and I turned around and you couldn’t mistake me at the time. National Healths, blond hair, green parka and massive red and white scarf my mum had knitted. I was 10 and loving life.
I was on the telly 15 Mar 1975 Charlton 2 Southend 1. On the pitch when we scored our second and at full time. Its what us 11 year olds did back then.
Brilliant. My brother (like Robert Lee) was a turnstile operator at The Valley and used to go along with a group of mates from St Joseph's Academy in Blackheath. Before that Southend match Mark Penfold did one of his specialist long throws to raise money for Arthur Horsfield's charity at the time which was for a Charlton fan needing kidney dialysis. After Penfold's throw a lad from St Jo's and a friend of ours, Paul Vallely, was shown on The Big Match racing after the ball with a measuring stick to gauge the distance. He was the talk of the school playground the next day.
What was great about Brian Moore was his charitable view of footballers. He would never say anything like ‘what a stupid, terrible, useless pass’ he would say something like ‘Smith not quite managing to reach Jones with that pass’.
Did Brian Moore commentate on the Big Match’s predecessor on ATV London ‘Star Soccer’? They covered my first Charlton match September 1966 v Palace. I’d love to see any footage if it’s still out there.
Did Brian Moore commentate on the Big Match’s predecessor on ATV London ‘Star Soccer’? They covered my first Charlton match September 1966 v Palace. I’d love to see any footage if it’s still out there.
I don't think so Yorkshire Addick. I'm pretty certain early London ATV games were done by Hugh Johns who obviously became a legend in the Midlands when the Star Soccer brand was moved after the big 1968 shake-up.
Did it go something like Thunderbirds, University Challenge, Police Five, The Big Match?
Thunderbirds i think was on a Saturday early evening but University Challenge, Out Of Town [Jack Hargreaves] & Police Five i can remember preceding The Big Match on Sunday Afternoon.
I can remember watching Thunderbirds on a Sunday lunchtime in the 70’s.
Fairly sure Thunderbirds were on a Saturday and Casey Jones was on the Beeb at the same time?
The big match used to be followed by programmes such as the Saint and Randal & Hopkirk deceased.
Thunderbirds was definitely on Sundays in the LWT region for a while circa 76/77 at about 12.30. I'll look it up. Back then I found programmes like Weekend World with its Nantucket Sleighride (Mountain) theme tune and Out of Town unwatchable but now, almost half a century on I would be all over them.
Ah, I was talking about the decade before, late 60´s early 70´s. Jan 77 was when we moved oop north so it could well have been shown on a Sunday by then.
As an aside, Thunderbirds was the first TV programme I ever remember seeing in colour. I was dragged to Woolwich shopping with my mum one Saturday and there it was, in glorious colour in the shop window of Cuffs! Funny how little things stick in your memory!
Did Brian Moore commentate on the Big Match’s predecessor on ATV London ‘Star Soccer’? They covered my first Charlton match September 1966 v Palace. I’d love to see any footage if it’s still out there.
I think those were the days of Peter Lorenzo and Billy Wright
Pretty sure Brian Moore worked for the BBC in the sixties - I had a soccer annual I picked up years later and there was a picture of him with hair!
Star Soccer was a bit before my time, I know Hugh Johns did the ITV commentary on the '66 World Cup Final, unfortunately for him Kenneth Wolstenhome is the one who's remembered from that afternoon.
Did Brian Moore commentate on the Big Match’s predecessor on ATV London ‘Star Soccer’? They covered my first Charlton match September 1966 v Palace. I’d love to see any footage if it’s still out there.
Did Brian Moore commentate on the Big Match’s predecessor on ATV London ‘Star Soccer’? They covered my first Charlton match September 1966 v Palace. I’d love to see any footage if it’s still out there.
Peter lorenzo
Yes Peter Lorenzo - the father of Matt Lorenzo - was indeed the ATV London Star Soccer commentator although you'll hear Hugh Johns voice doing a few games from London just before the 1968 shake up and the launch of LWT. Big William said:
Pretty sure Brian Moore worked for the BBC in the sixties - I had a soccer annual I picked up years later and there was a picture of him with hair!
Star Soccer was a bit before my time, I know Hugh Johns did the ITV commentary on the '66 World Cup Final, unfortunately for him Kenneth Wolstenhome is the one who's remembered from that afte
Did Brian Moore commentate on the Big Match’s predecessor on ATV London ‘Star Soccer’? They covered my first Charlton match September 1966 v Palace. I’d love to see any footage if it’s still out there.
That was the day I was born. My brother got me the programme for Xmas this year.
Here is another picture I used in the book (among dozens of exclusive photos I was given by the families of many commentators of old like Brian Moore, Hugh Johns and Gerald Sinstadt). If you can name more than two people in this shot, I will be very impressed.
Here is another picture I used in the book (among dozens of exclusive photos I was given by the families of many commentators of old like Brian Moore, Hugh Johns and Gerald Sinstadt). If you can name more than two people in this shot, I will be very impressed.
Comments
Yes, 1980 was quite change, with the new music and modern looking titles!
Funny to think that all this was the work of Jimmy Hill - he ran the sports department when LWT started, revolutionised World of Sport when they took it over (brought in a chap called Richard Davies and advised him to change his name to Dickie) and completely changed the way ITV did sport in just a few years. I think their World Cup coverage of 1970 beat the BBC in the ratings.
The big match used to be followed by programmes such as the Saint and Randal & Hopkirk deceased.
Watching any of those games, you could say Brian Moore had a soft-spot for every London club and I think he really did. The feeling was mutual....he was the best.
He would never say anything like ‘what a stupid, terrible, useless pass’ he would say something like ‘Smith not quite managing to reach Jones with that pass’.
http://carousel.royalwebhosting.net/itv/ITVfootball68-83.html
As an aside, Thunderbirds was the first TV programme I ever remember seeing in colour. I was dragged to Woolwich shopping with my mum one Saturday and there it was, in glorious colour in the shop window of Cuffs! Funny how little things stick in your memory!
Star Soccer was a bit before my time, I know Hugh Johns did the ITV commentary on the '66 World Cup Final, unfortunately for him Kenneth Wolstenhome is the one who's remembered from that afternoon.
Yes Peter Lorenzo - the father of Matt Lorenzo - was indeed the ATV London Star Soccer commentator although you'll hear Hugh Johns voice doing a few games from London just before the 1968 shake up and the launch of LWT. Big William said: