Desmond Michael Lynam, (born 17 September 1942) is an Irish-born television and radio presenter. In a broadcasting career spanning more than forty years, he has hosted television coverage of many of the world's major sporting events, presenting ''
Grandstand'', ''
Match of the Day
''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary L ...
'',
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, the
Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap ...
, ''
Sportsnight
''Sportsnight'' was a midweek BBC television sports programme that ran from 1968 until 1997.
Sportsview
''Sportsnight'' was a successor to ''Sportsview'' which started on 8 April 1954. ''Sportsview'' was devised by Paul Fox, later Controller ...
'', the
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
and
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
, as well as presenting non-sporting programmes such as ''
Holiday
A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...
'', ''
How Do They Do That?
''How Do They Do That?'' is a British television show, produced by Telepictures and Reg Grundy Productions in and broadcast on BBC1 from 25 January 1994 to 23 April 1997. Originally presented by Jenny Hull and Des Lynam, the show explored feat ...
'' and ''
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
''.
Early years
Lynam was born in
Ennis
Ennis () is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 25,27 ...
,
County Clare
County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...
, Ireland,
and moved with his family to
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, England, at the age of six.
He recalled having a strong Irish accent at that time, but eventually lost it. He passed the
eleven-plus
The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic ...
in 1954, to attend
Varndean Grammar School. After sitting his
A-levels
The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...
, he went into the insurance business.
Broadcasting career
1968–1999
Lynam started his career in broadcasting as a
freelance
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...
radio journalist on
BBC Radio Brighton
BBC Radio Sussex is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of East and West Sussex.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Queens Road in Brighton.
Programming
Local programming airs from the BB ...
(1968–1969). He quickly joined national BBC radio in London, and went on to anchor ''Sport on Two'' and ''
Sports Report'' (1969–1978) on
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...
. From 1974 to 1976, he co-presented ''
the Today programme
''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is a long-running British morning news and current-affairs radio programme on BBC Radio 4. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am, it is produced by BBC News and is the ...
'' on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
on three mornings each week.
He was also the radio boxing commentator for 20 years.
Lynam moved to television in 1977 starting off with ''Sportswide'' as part of ''
Nationwide'' continuing until the series ended in 1983, and then presented ''
Grandstand'' (1979–1991, occasionally until 1999), ''
Sportsnight
''Sportsnight'' was a midweek BBC television sports programme that ran from 1968 until 1997.
Sportsview
''Sportsnight'' was a successor to ''Sportsview'' which started on 8 April 1954. ''Sportsview'' was devised by Paul Fox, later Controller ...
'' (1991–1997) and ''
Match of the Day
''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary L ...
'' (1988–1999) on the BBC for many years, and also fronted BBC coverage of
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
(highlights 1983 to 1989 with
Gerald Williams, main presenter 1991–1997 and 1999), the
Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap ...
(1985–1999), the
Football World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...
(1982–1998) and the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
(1980–1996).
In 1988 and 1989, Lynam presented the BBC series ''
Holiday
A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...
''.
In April 1989, Lynam was present at the
Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...
whilst covering the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
semi-final match between
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
and
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...
for ''Match of the Day''.
Between 1988 and the end of the
1991–1992 season, the BBC had lost the rights for top flight league matches to ITV, although the BBC retained rights for the FA Cup. Lynam presented ''Match of the Day'' on FA Cup weekends for four years until the end of the 1991–1992 season. In August 1992, at the start of the new formation of the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
, the BBC regained highlights of top flight league matches. Lynam presented ''Match of the Day'' highlights of Premier League matches on the BBC until 1999.
Throughout his time on the BBC, Lynam was praised for his witty and down-to-earth style. In 1998, Lynam made a brief return to BBC Radio 2, presenting the 5–7pm Drivetime show on Fridays only. During this period,
Johnnie Walker
Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended Sc ...
presented the show from Monday to Thursday.
ITV: 1999–2004
Lynam moved from the BBC to
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
in August 1999, to present ITV's live
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
coverage, including coverage of the midweek
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
. Lynam said at the time: "Leaving the BBC after 30 years was not an easy decision to make, but it was time for a new challenge – and it's no secret that live football is what I love best." A month earlier, Lynam had complained in a newspaper interview about BBC1's late scheduling on a Saturday evening of ''Match of the Day'', which had sometimes been shown with a late start time of 10.50pm. Lynam said: "The moment you put it past 10.30 I start fuming."
ITV later gained a deal to air
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
highlights. In 2001, Lynam presented ''
The Premiership'', which was first aired on ITV at 7pm on 18 August 2001. After disappointing viewing figures in the first couple of months for ''The Premiership'' on ITV, a decision was made to shift the programme from its original 7pm slot to a permanent later time of 10:30pm, from 17 November 2001. The programme ran until May 2004.
Lynam continued to present football coverage for ITV until 2004. He decided to retire from presenting live sport after the
Euro 2004
The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...
football championships. Soon afterwards the BBC announced that Lynam would present a new weekly radio programme, ''Des Meets...'', on
BBC Radio Five Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcas ...
from August 2004.
2005–2013
In May 2005, Lynam presented the
BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
programme ''We'll Meet Again'', marking the 60th anniversary of
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...
. During the show
Tara McDonald
Tara Jane McDonald (born September 9, 1986) is an English singer-songwriter. She is signed to Play Two/Warner Records.
McDonald achieved success working and co-writing with Armand van Helden and Axwell on the chart hits " My My My" and " Feel ...
performed the song "
We'll Meet Again
"We'll Meet Again" is a 1939 song by English singer Vera Lynn with music and lyrics composed and written by English songwriters Ross Parker and Hughie Charles. The song is one of the most famous of the Second World War era, and resonated with ...
" live. The following month, he presented an episode of ''
Have I Got News For You'' on BBC1, the third time he had presented the show, having twice hosted the show the previous year.
In June and July 2005, Lynam co-presented (with
Sir David Frost
Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was a British television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme ' ...
) the series ''The World's Greatest Sporting Legend'' on
Sky One
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...
. In the summer of 2005, Lynam also covered the Wimbledon Championships for BBC Radio Five Live.
In October 2005, Lynam published his autobiography ''I Should Have Been at Work''.
The title of the book is a reference to when Lynam said "Good afternoon. Shouldn't you be at work?" when introducing coverage of an England match at 2pm on a Monday afternoon during the
1998 Football World Cup finals.
In 2005, Lynam said that he regretted his decision to move to ITV from the BBC in 1999. Lynam said: "If it was a decision I had to make now I probably wouldn't do it. Some people said I went from being a great broadcaster, or at least a very acceptably good one, to being a somewhat inadequate one overnight".
Also that year, Lynam replaced
Richard Whiteley
John Richard Whiteley (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English presenter, and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show ''Countdown''. ''Countdown'' was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:4 ...
as the host of
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's ''
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
'', with his first episode airing on 31 October 2005, following Whiteley's death. Although his contract was to last until December 2007, Lynam left ''Countdown'' after less than 18 months at the end of 2006, because he regularly needed to travel to
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
where ''Countdown'' was recorded, while his home was in
Worthing
Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...
,
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...
about 250 miles away. He was replaced by
Des O'Connor
Desmond Bernard O'Connor (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter.
He was a long-time TV chat-show host, beginning with ''The Des O'Connor Show'' in 1963, which ran for ten years. He a ...
. Lynam did, however, return for Countdown's 5000th episode, broadcast on 26 March 2010, as the Dictionary Corner guest.
After leaving ''Countdown'', Lynam hosted ''Sport Mastermind'' and appeared in
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...
' commercials for its coverage of the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
.
In April 2009, Lynam spoke about his recollection of the Hillsborough disaster for a ''
Football Focus
''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974 covering football, normally broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. From the 2009–10 season to the 2020–21 season Football Focus ...
'' special programme marking the 20th anniversary of the disaster.
From 2011 to 2013, Lynam co-hosted, with Christopher Matthew, three series of ''Touchline Tales'' on BBC Radio 4, a humorous look at sport.
In an interview, Lynam stated that "I liked the radio boxing commentaries very much, especially following Muhammad Ali around the world. That was a great period of my life."
Personal life
Lynam married Susan Skinner on 2 October 1965
[Des Lynam - The Biography - Steve Purcell] and they had one son, Patrick (born 1970); however, by 1973 the marriage began to break down owing to Lynam's career commitments, and they divorced in 1974. Lynam married his long-term partner, Rosemary Diamond, in 2011.
Lynam is a supporter of
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. In the 1990s he declined an invitation to join the board of directors at Brighton.
Lynam was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(OBE) in the
2008 New Year Honours.
In 2013, Lynam endorsed the
United Kingdom Independence Party
The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member ...
, revealing that he voted for the party in local elections that year.
Bibliography
*
References
External links
*
BBC News Coverage of Lynam and Countdown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynam, Des
1942 births
Living people
Association football commentators
British autobiographers
British radio presenters
BBC Radio 2 presenters
BBC Radio 5 Live presenters
BBC sports presenters and reporters
British game show hosts
British television presenters
GMTV presenters and reporters
Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom
ITV people
Mixed martial arts broadcasters
Olympic Games broadcasters
Tennis commentators
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Brighton
People from Ennis
Sportspeople from County Clare
UK Independence Party people