With the FA Cup Final set to kick off soon (this year, Man City v Chelsea, or “The Neutrals’ Nightmare”), it’s time for bloggers, posters and podcasters to begin the annual pissing contest of How Early Cup Final Coverage Used To Begin. It started as early as 10am! No, 9am! Well, of course, I remember it starting at 8am!
But did it? Did it really? Did it? Really?
And is anyone bloody-minded enough to check? Are they really? If it ever really started, when did it start? Sadly, it’s very nearly a full 90 years since regular scheduled television began in the UK, so it’s not as if anyone’s about to check.
Yeah, hello.
Predictably, I’ve just done that thing. So: join me now as we scamper back through time to the sepia-soaked past and explore The Complete Coverage Of FA Cup Final Day on British Television, seeing how that particular journey panned out.
Starting with:
ERA ONE The Pre-War TV Era
30 April 1938: Preston North End 1 Huddersfield Town 0
BBC-tv Billing: “2.25pm Cup Final”
Preceded by: The Three Bears
Followed by: Closedown
While the BBC Television Service began in November 1936, by the time the first FA Cup Final of the television era came around – on 1 May, with Sunderland beating Preston 3-1 – the technology wasn’t quite up to beaming it all onto television screens. And so, as radio listeners settled down to “description by George F Allison and Ivan Sharpe” at 2.45pm, those early tele-adopters were treated to “Summer Gardening by C H Middleton”.
That changed in 1938, with live coverage of the final beamed into the homes to viewers in the UK (well, some bits of the UK) for the first time. The Radio Times listings for the big day had coverage set to begin at the very specific time of 2.27pm, with the action coming direct from Wembley, followed by short ballet film The Three Bears. However, newspapers from the day itself reverse that order, with The Three Bears sitting down to their porridge at 2.10pm, with the cup final coverage starting at 2.25pm. That late switch was a canny move – the viewing hundreds sat through a goalless 90-minutes, leading to half an hour of extra time, the match ultimately settled by Preston inside-right George Mutch slotting home a 119th minute penalty.
Even the Radio Times listing for the event had been uncertain about the whole affair: “By kind permission of the Football Association and Wembley Stadium, the Cup Final match between Preston North End and Huddersfield Town will be televised (conditions permitting) direct from Wembley.” Can’t imagine Matt Lorenzo excitedly proclaiming that on ITV, can you?
23 April 1939: Portsmouth 4 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1
BBC-tv Billing: “2.45pm F.A. Cup Final”
Preceded by: Nothing
Followed by: Closedown
Here we go. A veritable bagful of goals? Check. A much less uncertain Radio Times billing? Check. A warning that no enterprising publican is to broadcast the match to their customers? Check and don’t even bloody think about getting your J. E. Jenkinson’s Steam-Powered Firestick out.
It even made the cover of the RT, with a map of the pitch to aid radio listeners and a pointer to where the TV cameras would be.
The inside pages provided more detail, with the journal’s pseudonymous columnist The Scanner reporting how the trio of cameras – two just above the Royal Box and a third one on ground level – “should easily suffice to keep the whole of the game well in the picture”.
In short: great. All up and running. The FA Cup Final is going to be a staple of TV sports coverage for every year from now on, and nothing is going to change that. Now to take a big drink of water and check what happened in the 1940 Cup Final.
ERA TWO The Early Post-War Years
26 April 1947: Charlton 1 Burnley 0
BBC-tv Billing: “4.05pm The Cup Final”
Preceded by: Nothing
Followed by: “4.45pm Interlude”
With television not quite ready to return in time for the 1946 final (27 April, Derby County 4 Charlton Athletic 1), it would be the following year before the final reappeared on TV screens. The reduced circumstances of the Television Service meant that full coverage couldn’t be provided for that year’s Charlton vs Burnley match, with just “the last part of the match” being screened from 4.05pm, along with the presentation of the cup to the winners, just in time for a twenty-minute interlude and the transmitters going to sleep until 8.30pm (Victorian operetta The Two Bouquets, if you were wondering).
24 April 1948: Manchester United 4 Blackpool 2
BBC-tv Billing: “2.30pm The Cup Final”
Preceded by: Nothing
Followed by: “4.50pm Closedown”
Here we, in a very real sense, go. Back to full-match coverage and for the first time, a proper itinerary.
2.30 Community singing and interviews with members of the crowd
2.55 Presentation of the teams to His Majesty the King
3.0 The kick-off
3.45 Half-time
3.55 The second half
4.40 The final whistle
4.45-4.50 Their Majesties the King and Queen present the F.A. Cup and medals to the two teams
That’s what we want.
30 April 1949: Leicester City 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 3
BBC-tv Billing: “2.30pm The Cup Final”
Preceded by: “2.15pm In Our Garden”
Followed by: “4.50pm Closedown”
The same again, another full itemised breakdown of events in the Radio Times and a return to a lead-in programme before the big match. In Our Garden allowed horticulturalists a chance to enjoy “F. Streeter [giving] more practical hints” before Abide With Me.
29 April 1950: Arsenal 2 Liverpool 0
BBC-tv Billing: “2.30pm The Cup Final”
Preceded by: “2pm In Our Garden”
Followed by: “4.50pm Closedown”
A repeat of the previous year’s coverage in 1950, this time with In Our Garden extended to a half-hour slot (“Frances Perry discusses the problem of chrysanthemum-stopping”). We could get used to this. Let’s hope nothing happens to (etc).
28 April 1951: Newcastle United 2 Blackpool 0
BBC-tv Billing: “3.45pm The Cup Final”
Preceded by: Nothing
Followed by: “5pm Whirligig”
Oh dear. “This afternoon sees the climax of the Association Football season and you are invited to join the hundred thousand spectators during the second half of the match.” The Football Association, wary of the growing popularity of television, decide to restrict television coverage to just the second half, lest there be in impact on ticket sales – a fuzzy eight-inch monochrome screen being deemed a distinct rival to being at Wembley. Or, indeed, any of the Football League matches taking place that afternoon.
3 May 1952: Newcastle United 1 Arsenal 0
BBC-tv Billing: “3pm Cricket: Worcestershire v. India”
Wait, what? September 1951 saw the FA Council proclaim that the Cup Final would not be televised until further notice. As such, televisually equipped fans of both teams were instead treated to cricket on their screens come kick-off time. That wasn’t the only grinchery being meted out by the Football Association – that year, only the second half of the match was broadcast on The Light Programme. Again, a total of eighteen Football League matches being played on the same day were to blame.
Hopes had been high prior to the FA Council’s meeting that the whole sorry saga could have been avoided, with reports that the final could be moved back a week to 10 May, thus avoiding a programme of league matches on the third. But: it was not to be.
2 May 1953: Blackpool 4 Bolton Wanderers 3
BBC-tv Billing: “2.30pm The Cup Final”
Preceded by: Nothing
Followed by: “5pm The S.S. Saturday Special”
With football missing from TV screens the previous May, the FA relented just a couple of months later, announcing in July 1952 that the final would return to TV screens, one unnamed delegate reporting to the press that it would do little harm to “show its goods in the shop window once a year”. That turned out to be splendid timing, meaning the television audience – boosted by a upswing in receiver sales in the run up to the Coronation – wouldn’t miss one of the most heralded cup finals in the competition’s history. Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortenson, Blackpool coming back from 3-1 down to win 4-3, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria etc.
As a cherry on that particular pudding, match coverage was followed by “The S.S. Saturday Special” with “Skipper Peter Butterworth and Porterhouse”, thereby making this an early holder of the record for Best Day Of Telly So Far.
1 May 1954: West Bromwich Albion 3 Preston North End 2
BBC-tv Billing: “2.30pm The Cup Final”
Preceded by: Nothing
Followed by: “5pm Whirligig”
Another goalfest, with Kenneth Wolstenholme on the lip-mic and the Queen Mum presenting the trophy to the victorious Baggies at the end.
7 May 1955: Newcastle United 3 Manchester City 1
BBC-tv Billing: “2.30pm The Cup Final”
Preceded by: Nothing
Followed by: “5pm Jigsaw”
The final year of the BBC’s uninterrupted monopoly of the big day, with the first Independent Television franchises gearing up for their big launch in September. The match was a memorable one, with Jackie Milburn slamming one home within the first minute as Newcastle roared to a 3-1 victory.
Any viewers served by the Kirk o’ Shotts, Glencairn and Redmoss transmitters would have welcome an alternative viewing option, given they were served up live coverage of the cricket match between Poloc Cricket Club v. West Scotland. Still, any Newcastle fans finding themselves north of the border that day would only need to wait another 70 years to see their team lift a trophy at Wembley.
We’ll leave it there for now, but look forward to the next few decades next time. ITV! Grandstand! And presumably the fabled Cup Final Coverage Starting At 9am!
BrokenTV 