World of Sport – The 90s
Monday, 21.00, ITV4
“The Princess of York”, Ned? A bit more interesting stuff last week including a host of demented variations on stock car racing, involving caravans and double decker buses, amusing all held in Ipswich, plus darts from the most eighties venue imaginable, the Fulcrum Centre, Slough. We’re still not convinced of the Rock’N’Roll Years-esque approach, though, and from now on ITV Sport gets all boringly professional and this’ll be mostly football, boxing and Formula One.
The Fulcrum Centre, Slough – venue closed many years back, and I saw four gigs there (the first three as a terrified young man dragged there by parents) – Peters and Lee, The Three Degrees, Roger Whitaker…and The Boomtown Rats!
When did ITV Sport officially go bad? I would say the mid eighties when World of Sport, the ITV 7 and wrestling went. Out went the humour and the we know we’re not very good but we don’t mind attitude in favour of an attempt to take sport seriously that saw dear old Dickie ditched in favour of bores like Elton Welsby and Jim Rosenthal. However, the new serious approach won few fans as this was married to old school ITV poor camerawork, charmless presenters and meanness in production values that could never match the BBC or the newly emerging Sky.