Hooray, my computer’s fixed! Bah, it’s no longer remotely timely writing about the FA Cup. Let’s get to the end of the 1960s anyway, after which I’ll come back to this series when it’s a bit more relevant, tentatively adding in one update for each round of next season’s FA Cup. But at least in this update I get to start keeping a count of how often the FA Cup Final airs on the same day as an episode of Doctor Who, which I’m sure will see the SEO scores for the blog rise sharply. Anyway, time to hop in a sports car driven by Simon Dee, we’re off to…
ERA FIVE The BBC-1 Years
2 May 1964: West Ham United 3 Preston North End 2
BBC1
11:30 to 17:15 Grandstand
A five goal thriller ends with Bobby Moore being handed the trophy by the Earl of Harewood, but before then Grandstand viewers are treated to diversions of golf from Wentworth, Boxing from a non-specific location in ‘America’ and Ice Hockey from Brighton.
Anyone tuning into BBC-1 an hour before the start of Grandstand can find themselves treated to The Fabric of the Atom at 10.35 (“An introduction to Quantum Mechanics”), where Professor Philip Morrison looks at matter waves. The Radio Times pleasingly points out that the programme featured “special equipment loaned by Professor Harry Meiners Troy, USA”. We’re a long way from Saturday Superstore, aren’t we? That was followed at 11.05 by Parliamo Italiano, where “Giulia takes over the packing for their holiday”, and Public Service Announcements at 11.25.
Some killer content follows the football, Grandstand being followed at 5.15 by The Telegoons (“Lurgi Strikes Britain”), and at 5.30 it’s Dr Who, a programme still new enough for the Daily Mirror TV guide to append it with “(science fiction series)”. Tonight’s episode: The Snows of Terror.
CUP FINAL DAY DR WHO COUNT: One.
ABC
13:24 to 17:15 Big Afternoon Out
Over on ITV, we’re still some time away from a World of Sport, so enjoy another Big Afternoon Out at the very specific time of 1.24pm, with Professional Wrestling from Wembley Town Hall offering a grapplin’ support act for the big match.
There’s nothing more exciting than a 1.15pm News Bulletin before the sporting action, but there’s a good line-up after it. Robert Shaw stars in The Buccaneers at 5.15 (episode: “The Decoy”), but that’s followed by Thank Your Lucky Stars at 5.50, with The Shadows and Roy Orbison. If you’re sticking around until 8.25pm, you can look forward to some Sid ‘n’ Dick era Morecambe and Wise.
1 May 1965: Liverpool 2 Leeds United 1
BBC1
11:30 to 17:25 Grandstand
An all-Northern cup final for 1965, with Bill Shankley’s reds taking the title. Before that, alongside golf from Sandwich, racing from Ascot Heath, swimming from Portsmouth and rugby union from Twickers, there’s a screening of Sir Stanley Matthews’ testimonial match from Stoke, highlights of which are on YouTube. Appropriately enough, given Matthews’ own XI (featuring names such as Stan Mortenson, Nat Lofthouse, Tom Finney, Danny Blanchflower and Jimmy Hill) was taking on a World XI (including Lev Yashin, Aldredo di Stefano, Frerenc Puskas, Eusebio), the match was beamed around Europe via Eurovision, and on radio around the world.
Before Grandstand, it was time for BBC Educational Broadcasts to shine in a time before the Open University, erm, opened. The Changing World (“an introduction to geology”) started things off at 10.15am, followed by Komm Mit!, the twenty-seventh of thirty lessons in German for beginners at 10.45am.
Following the presentation of the cup (by The Queen, no less) it was time for Juke Box Jury at 5.25pm, with panellists including Dave Clark and Dora Bryan. That was followed by a new adventure in space and time at 5.50pm, with Dr Who in The Dimensions of Time.
CUP FINAL DAY DR WHO COUNT: Two.
ABC
12:50 to 17:15 World of Sport
Over on the light channel, the Big Afternoon Out had been replaced by World of Sport, but little else had changed. Indeed, that coverage of the sporting world only stretched from Wembley Stadium to Wembley Town Hall for live wrestling.
Anyone not feeling in the mood for geology or German on BBC-1 would have to make do with walking the dog if they were looking for alternative entertainment before World of Sport, with only a News update preceding the action at 12.45. The sporting action was followed at 5.15pm by The Forest Rangers (episode: The Dog) and more Thank Your Lucky Stars at 5.50pm, where Cilla Black, The Merseybeats, Sounds Incorporated and Julie Grant topped the bill.
14 May 1966: Everton 3 Sheffield Wednesday 2
BBC1
11:15 to 17:25 Grandstand
A big year for domestic football, as a British team wearing red go on to lift the Jules Rimet trophy later in the summer. Sadly though, it’s not Wales. But that’s many weeks away. A low-scoring defensive cup final looks to be on the menu, as Everton reach the final without having conceded a goal en route to Wembley, and buoyed by the presence of a certain J Lennon and P McCartney amongst the 100,000 spectators, their name is surely on the cup.
Except! It’s Wednesday the roar into a two-goal lead, only for Everton to roar back to take the cup in a thrilling 3-2 win. In the Radio Times, Kenneth Wolstenholme writes about the Cup now coming with a passport to Europe, with a place in the Cup Winners’ Cup, where “each home gate can mean another £20,000 in the bank”.
For the audience at home, the build-up to the big kick-off is supported by the MCC taking on the West Indies at Lord’s and racing from Ayr.
Viewers tuning early for a feast of football can enjoy some brain soup for starters, with the splendidly-titled Laws of Disorder (“An introduction to chemical change and thermodynamics by Professor George Porter FRS”) at 10.15 and Master Builders (“Ten lectures on evolution and change in architectural ideas. 4: The Villa”) at 10.45. Anyone sticking around after the cup presentation by Princess Margaret can look forward to Juke Box Jury at 5.20, with David Jacobs in the big chair and Helen Shapiro, Jimmy Witherspoon, Janice Whiteman and Frank de Vol on jury duty. Then, after the News at 5.45, it’s time for Dr Who at 5.55, today’s story being Donald Cotton’s Johnny Ringo (“The most dreaded killer in all the West, Johnny Ringo, rides into town”).
CUP FINAL DAY DR WHO COUNT: Three
ABC
13:00 to 17:15 Word of Sport
Over on the ABC, there’s the usual serving of Professional Wrestling and some Racing Results to supplement the soccer in World of Sport, but at least there’s also some big brain knowledge to grapple with beforehand, with Say it in Russian at 11.50am, Les Trois Coups at 12.15 and The Anatomy of First Aid at 12.35. On the other side of the world (of Sport), there are some more Adventures of Robin Hood at 5.15. Elsewhere in the country, viewers in the Midlands and North instead get to enjoy a bonanza of Bob Monkhouse with Mad Movies, while viewers in Wales and Anglia get to see The Flintstones instead.
20 May 1967: Tottenham Hotspur 2 Chelsea 1
BBC1
11:25 to 17:25 Grandstand
We’re just six weeks away from colour television hitting the UK, meaning this inaugural all-London FA Cup Final is the last to be screened exclusively in monochrome. Jimmy Robertson and Frank Saul put Spurs into a two-goal lead that Chelsea fail to match, meaning the trophy is taken back to Tottenham for the fifth time.
The big match on Grandstand sees David Coleman presenting the now-standard tasters of The Wembley Scene, How They Got There and Meet the Teams, but for footballphobes there’s also the MCC versus India at Lord’s (or Glamorgan vs Gloucestershire for viewers in Wales) and Great Britain versus the USA in golf’s Walker Cup.
Back to the football though, and the Radio Times have brought in the big guns to provide a preview of the match, with the write-up on Tottenham provided by novelist, playwright, creator of Dixon of Dock Green and socialist firebrand Lord Ted Willis (“Spurs: a team which has given me more thrills and pleasure over the years than almost anything else in my life”). For Chelsea, the summary was penned by actor, director and maniac who brought those dinosaurs back to life, Richard Attenborough (“In the spring of 1942 I first took a girlfriend to a spot called Stamford Bridge. My intentions proved absolutely honourable: without hesitation I married both the girl and Chelsea and no divorces have ever been contemplated”). Lovely stuff.
Before the match, you’ve got a nice mix of content, with In Your Own Words at 10am, which vows to help you become more confident in your speech (“1. The Language of Social Occasions”), Management Techniques at 10.30 (“2. Control by Budgeting”) and Gardening Club at 11am, with Percy Thrower live at the Gardening Club Garden in Edgbaston. Suddenly the Mitchell and Webb joke about each programme on the BBC having it’s own garden feels a little more real.
Following the match, 5.25pm has a Juke Box Jury line-up for the ages: Kenny Everett and Leslie Crowther joined by Julie Felix and (replacing Shirley Anne Field, as billed in the Radio Times) Kiki Dee. Then, on the other side of 5.50pm The News, at 6pm it’s Dr Who (Patrick Troughton, that’s Who) tackling the first part of The Evil of the Daleks.
CUP FINAL DAY DR WHO COUNT: Four
ABC
12:30 to 17:15 World of Sport
A helping of horse racing to accompany the wrestling alongside the cup final over on Your Weekend ITV (if you lived in London, of course). The action was preceded by En Route at 11.25, First Steps in Physics at 11.45 and The Food You Eat at 12.05. Elsewhere, viewers in both Midlands and the South-West of England opened the day with The ABC of Do-It-Yourself, which offers the delicious irony that the ABC region didn’t do that.
Following the final whistle, viewers in London got a repeat episode of Adventures of Robin Hood at 5.15, with most other regions getting aquatic action from Adventures of the Seaspray instead.
ERA SIX The Early Colour Years
18 May 1968: West Bromwich Albion 1 Everton 0
BBC1
11:15 to 17:25 Grandstand
Here we go, a whole new landmark in football broadcasting. Not that you’d appreciate that if you were watching on BBC1, with the full colour spectrum on TV being the sole preserve of (a) poshos with brand new colour sets and (b) BBC2. If it’s any consolation, they’d need to be watching the bulk of the build-up in black and white, with The Wembley Scene, People at the Match and Meet the Teams all part of the regular Cup Final Grandstand line-up. And if you’d like a break from all that, you’ve got The MCC versus ‘The Australians’ (as the RT listing had it) from Lord’s for a full two hours near the start of this edition, along with boxing from Manchester.
If you wanted to warm your brain up a bit beforehand, tune in at 9.30am for Komm Mit!, stick around at 10am for Bonjour Francoise and at 10.30am for Teaching Adults. Or stick around at the end of Grandstand to leap straight into Dr Who at 5.25pm, with part four of The Wheel of Space (*The Cybermen step up their attack and the Doctor and Jamie are in deadly peril”). That’s followed by 5.50pm News, at 6pm by Genome content warning favourite The Dick van Dyke Show and – providing we’re truly in the imperial phase of 60s television – Dee Time at 6.25pm.
CUP FINAL DAY DR WHO COUNT: Five
BBC2
14:30 to 17:00 1968 FA Cup Final
With colourvision not arriving on the main channels for another 18 months, it was up to BBC2 to broadcast that first ever colour coverage in glorious 625-line RGB.
ABC
12:30 to 17:15 World of Sport
The final chance for the ABC London weekend franchise to broadcast a Cup Final, and (happily for me) the first time there’s a detailed itinerary in the newspaper TV listings. It’s pretty much a facsimile of the Grandstand feature set, of course, with “How the Teams Got There” the WoS counter to Grandstand’s “How They Got There”, “Meet the Players” the alternative to “Meet the Teams”. Still, not long before we get the Light Entertainment infantry deployed on the light channel’s cup final coverage.
Tune in early for 11.15 Face of the Earth, 11.40 Accueil and at noon for Working Weather. Stick around after the trophy lift for Sword of Freedom at 5.15 and Time for Blackburn at 5.45.
26 April 1969: Manchester City 1 Leicester City 0
Hoo, boy. Things are about to get a bit fisty. And not in the way you might expect. The players were perfectly well behaved during the match, as were the managers (aside from Man City manager Joe Mercer complaining that the Wembley pitch “used to be a bowling green, now it’s a cabbage patch”). The fans were well behaved, too. In the days following the final, the supporters of both teams were praised in the Commons for their good conduct during the final.
So, then. What was the big deal? TO PAGE 163 OF JIMMY HILL’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY!
This relates to Hill’s time working for a shiny new LWT franchise, ready to make a big name for themselves. The final was on their patch, and this was one of their first chances to really show the BBC they had some serious competition in the capital. Over to you, Jimmy:
“Notwithstanding domestic confrontations at LWT, occasionally war broke out in full with the supposed real enemy, the BBC. I say supposed because at times, in endeavouring and often failing to reach an agreed competitive policy, we could be excused for believing we had more in common with the BBC than with other ITV companies. However, there was a distinct lack of any loving feeling at Wembley for the 1969 Cup final between Manchester City and Leicester City. The final was covered by both channels. The players behaved well but, claiming they had an exclusive contract for interviews, BBC staff attempted to break up an ITV interview with Mike Summerbee. An ITV outside broadcast manager, David Yallop, lost a tooth in the sudden switch from football to the noble art of lack of self-defence, and was obviously so disorientated by the whole experience he moved on to become a highly successful author.
Fortunately for us the war subsided, but not the competition and since that incident the Wembley authorities have made sure that agreed lines of rights and demarcations are upheld.”
(The Jimmy Hill Story, by Jimmy Hill)
Oof, eh? For more details on this broadcasting brouhaha, and the subsequent carpeting by the FA, read this excellent Sports Journalists Association article from 2019.
BBC1
11:25 to 17:15 Cup Final Grandstand
After that, a bit of a comedown, but anyway. The last Cup Final of the decade, and where we’ll draw a line under proceedings for the time being. Another point of note here: the first official use of “Cup Final Grandstand” as the programme title in the Radio Times. That aside, the set menu for the day’s coverage on Grandstand was the same as previous years, with The Wembley Scene, People at the Match, How They Got There and Meet the Teams all present and correct. As was a supporting bill of Cricket (“The Duke of Norfolk’s XI vs The West Indies”) and Boxing (“Johnnie Famechon vs Giovanni Girgenti”).
Before the final, you had an opportunity to watch Spanish language tutorial Vamos A Ver! (9.30am), Italian language tutorial Si Dice Cosi (10am) and French language tutorial Suivez La Piste (10.30am), before the antics of disappointing superhero (sub please check) The Weather Man at 11am and Deputy Dawg at 11.05am.
Following the final whistle (and scrap over post-match interviewees) it was time for Dr Who at 5.15pm (The War Games: Part Two, by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, “the trio are caught up in the turmoil of war”), the News at 5.40pm followed by Here’s Lucy at 5.50pm. But do stick around for The Dave Allen Show at 7.30pm, with guests Matt Monro, Ray Barrett and The George Mitchell Singers.
CUP FINAL DAY DR WHO COUNT: Six
BBC2
14:30 to 17:00 FA Cup Final (in colour!)
Of course, while all the fighting between BBC1 and ITV was going on, the team working for BBC2 all stood aside, looking aloof, smoking French cigarettes and wondering if they should bring back Jazz 625. One can only assume.
London Weekend
12:00 to 17:15 World of Sport
Over on ITV, a not-yet-rebranded as ‘Dickie’ Richard Davies presented a World of Sport line-up that took in Football Highlights of the Sixties, Footballer of the Year and The Way to Wembley. There was also Racing from Sandown and (predictably) Wrestling.
Before everything, erm, kicked off, you could enjoy your weekend Weetabix in front of RAC Road Report (10.10am), Discovering London (10.15), Deux Mondes (10.40), All About Riding (11am) and Joe 90 (11.30). The action was followed by Land of the Giants at 5.15pm, but up against Dave Allen at 7.30pm there’s Galton and Simpson Comedy episode Friends in High Places, starring Bob Monkhouse and Patricia Hayes.
And that’s why the video recorders needed to be invented.
Right, that’ll do for now. Back with something else – probably not about football – soon.
BrokenTV 