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''World of Sport'' is a

British television Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection ...

sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...

programme which ran on

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 ...

between 2 January 1965 and 28 September 1985 in competition with the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

's ''

Grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

''. Like ''Grandstand'', the programme ran for several hours every Saturday afternoon.

Early years

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ A ...

was the first host and the programme itself was "compiled for Independent Television" by

ABC Weekend TV ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one ...

from its

Teddington Studios Teddington Studios was a large British television studio in Teddington, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, providing studio facilities for programmes airing on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky1 and others. The complex also provide ...

, with the other ITV stations contributing footage of events in their regions. Before ''World of Sport'', sports events had been shown across the ITV network on Saturdays as separate programmes. From the summer of 1968 (after ABC lost its franchise) it was produced by

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...

, under the ITV Sport banner, hosted by

Dickie Davies Richard John Davies (born 30 April 1933) is a retired British television sports presenter, who anchored '' World of Sport'' from 1968 until 1985. Early life Davies attended Oldershaw Grammar School after passing his eleven-plus; he then did ...

who would remain the face of the show until it ended in 1985.

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

took over LWT's responsibilities for

Bank Holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...

editions which went out as ''Bank Holiday Sport'' and later ''Bank Holiday Sports Special'', but still presented by Dickie Davies. Other ''World of Sport'' presenters were

Fred Dinenage Frederick Edgar Dinenage MBE (born 8 June 1942) is an English author and retired broadcaster and television presenter. His television career spanned nearly 60 years, including the long-running children's programme '' How'' and ITV's regional p ...

, Steve Rider and

Jim Rosenthal Jim Rosenthal (born 6 November 1947) is an English sports presenter and commentator. In a long broadcasting career, Rosenthal has presented coverage of many sports including football, rugby, automotive racing, boxing and athletics. He has covere ...

. STV and

Grampian Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...

occasionally opted out and showed their own version, billed as ''

Scotsport ''Scotsport'' is a Scotland, Scottish sports television programme, broadcast on STV (TV channel), STV in northern and central Scotland between 1957 and 2008, as well as on ITV Border in southern Scotland. It was first broadcast in 1957 as ''S ...

Special'', presented by

Arthur Montford Arthur Montford (25 May 1929 – 26 November 2014) was a Scottish Television sports journalist, best known for his 32-year tenure as the presenter of Scottish Television's '' Scotsport''. Although he was most associated with football, he covered ...

. The programme's title was originally ''Wide World of Sports'' (much like the US programme); this was changed after about six weeks because all the initial programmes featured sports from within the UK and early programme editor John Bromley felt that "Wide" World of Sports would have looked rather silly. The 500th edition was transmitted on the 7th September 1974 while the 1000th edition was transmitted on the 16th June 1984

Features

The show included popular segments such as '' On the Ball'' (a preview of the day's football action),

the ITV Seven ''ITV Racing'' is a programme produced by ITV Sport for races shown on ITV or ITV4 in the United Kingdom. The programme is referred to as ''Racing on STV'' in Northern and Central Scotland on STV. In its previous incarnation, the show was an ...

(horse racing), and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

with commentator

Kent Walton Kent Walton (22 August 1917 – 24 August 2003), born Kenneth Walton Beckett, was a British television sports commentator, presenter and actor. He is best remembered as the predominant commentator on ITV's coverage of British professional wrest ...

. It also showed sports not seen elsewhere, such as women's

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffic ...

and

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

or sports that were not popular with the British mainstream, such as

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

and

ice speedway Ice speedway is a developed form of motorcycle speedway racing, featuring racing on frozen surfaces. The sport uses bikes enhanced for the terrain. Participants can compete at international level. Outline The bikes race counterclockwise aro ...

. It featured bizarre sports like the World Barrel Jumping Championships, and even death-defying stunts. It often showed

show jumping Show jumping is a part of a group of English riding equestrianism, equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, Show hunter, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes are commonly seen at horse shows throughout the world, including th ...

and other

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

events, especially in its earlier years, and towards the end of its life it showed

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

extensively. 'Minority' sports were a feature throughout its run. The

...
had purchased the rights to as many established events as it could. A joke of the period was that the BBC were going through the list of sports in alphabetical order and had run out of cash before it reached wrestling which is how ITV got it. Two sports in particular,

ten-pin bowling Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...

and

kart racing Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on kart circuit, scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are als ...

, benefited from television exposure to a British public hitherto unaware of them. Whilst the majority of ten-pin bowling shown from 1965 onwards focused on regional league competitions in the UK, a surge in popularity in the sport in the UK in the mid-1970s led to footage from the biennial WTBA World Championship, and telecasts from the US

Professional Bowlers Tour The Professional Bowlers Tour, also known as Pro Bowlers Tour, is a broadcast of the Professional Bowlers Association that aired on ABC from 1962 to 1997. In the telecasts, sportscaster Chris Schenkel and the graphics displayed during the show ...

, being included increasingly in later years (

Mark Roth Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fi ...

becoming the first bowler to convert a 7 - 10 split on television on 5 January 1980 at the ARC Alameda Open in Alameda, California, was possibly the best-remembered of the US telecasts shown on the programme). British stock car drivers such as

Barry Lee Barry John Lee (born 17 August 1944 in Wisbech), nicknamed "Leapy" or "No 351", is a British racing driver who has been successful in many areas of motor sport. He started as a jockey, and then a speedway rider for Hackney and then moved into au ...

also greatly benefited from the show's exposure. The programme also occasionally acquired the rights to genuinely major sporting events, such as the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

and the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

. Admittedly this was in 1977 when the United States v

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

match was regarded as something of a mismatch before Europe became the opposition. During the football season, the programme would normally finish with the ''Results Service'', which began when the full-time whistles started to go in the day's football matches. Bob Colston read the classified results and he and John Tyrrel who read the horse racing results were the only regular results announcers throughout the duration of ''World of Sport'' (although between 1983 and 1985 Elton Welsby began alternating with Colston). A typical edition would be broadcast between 12:15 and 17:10 and would take on the following format. :12:20 On The Ball - football preview with Brian Moore and in later years

Ian St. John John "Ian" St John (; 7 June 1938 – 1 March 2021) was a Scottish professional association football, football player, coach and broadcaster. St John played as a Forward (association football), forward for Liverpool F.C., Liverpool throughout mo ...

and

Jimmy Greaves James Peter Greaves (20 February 1940 – 19 September 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Greaves is regarded as one of England’s best ever players. He is England's fifth-highest international goalscorer ...

. :13:00 Sports Special 1 - A wide array of sports, often including clips from US show '' Wide World of Sports''. Less prominent sports such as

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

rallying Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...

and others would also feature. Sometimes Boxing would also be shown in this slot. :13:15

ITN News Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, ...

:13:20

ITV Racing ''ITV Racing'' is a programme produced by ITV Sport for races shown on ITV or ITV4 in the United Kingdom. The programme is referred to as ''Racing on STV'' in Northern and Central Scotland on STV. In its previous incarnation, the show was an ...

. :15:00 Sports Special 2 - see Sports Special 1. :15:45 Half-Time Scores - the half-time scores from that day's football, plus racing results from races that had taken place in the previous hour. :16:00 Wrestling - a mainstay of the ''World of Sport'' schedule from 1965 until it ended. Many of the wrestlers featured became household names in the UK and the greatest rivalry was between Big Daddy and

Giant Haystacks Martin Austin Ruane (10 October 1946 – 29 November 1998) was an English professional wrestler of Irish parentage, best known by the ring name Giant Haystacks. He was one of the best-known wrestlers on the British wrestling scene in the 1970s ...

:16:45 Results Service - all the full-time football scores, match reports and league tables plus the last of the day's horse racing results. The

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

also featured on ''World of Sport'' - with BBC and ITV often competing for viewers by broadcasting unusual features with early starts to their broadcasts to entice viewers to watch their coverage. The Cup Final was generally the only football match that was shown live on ''World of Sport''. The only other football match that would be shown live on ''World of Sport'' would be the England v Scotland match in the

Home International Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...

which from 1971 to 1982 was shared with the BBC and the 1984 match which was the final match in the last ever

was live only on ITV as part of ''World of Sport'' and Schoolboy England Internationals from Wembley were shown on an exclusive basis and whenever ITV showed a World Cup or a European Championship finals tournament match live and the kick off time fell within ''World of Sport''s timeslot the programme would be extended examples of this was West Germany v England in the Quarter Final 2nd Leg of

UEFA Euro 1972 The 1972 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Belgium. This was the fourth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 14 and 18 June 1972. Only four ...

, Bulgaria v Sweden, Poland v Argentina, Scotland v Yugoslavia and the 3rd place play off in the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

and Poland v Cameroon in the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

From the programme's launch until the lifting of restrictions on broadcasting hours in 1972, sports coverage was one of the few programming areas which was exempt from the restrictions. Originally sporting coverage and outside broadcasts were provided with a separate quota of broadcasting hours per year. By the start of ''World of Sport'' this amounted to 350 hours per year. This meant ''World of Sport'' was a key part of ITV's Saturday schedules, as the five or so hours the programme was on the air did not count to the overall 50 hours a week restriction on normal broadcasting hours.

Demise

After a 20-year run, the programme ended on 28 September 1985 because of a change in emphasis at ITV Sport - racing coverage had switched to Channel 4. Wrestling as a programme continued but it was transmitted on lunchtimes at 12.30 rather than teatimes, which proved terminal for the programme which had a primarily working class audience. Work traditionally finished at half-day on a Saturday in the UK which deeply affected its audience as they were now still at work during the broadcast. Greg Dyke, in charge of the scheduling felt that sports such as wrestling and darts were "too working class". Football coverage also continued with previous On the Ball hosts

Saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

and Greavsie and a results service also aired during the football season.

Theme tune and opening

''World of Sport'' had a theme tune and opening credits which featured the ITV Sport logo and the programme name as trailing banners from white

Piper Super Cub The Piper PA-18 Super Cub is a two-seat, single-engine monoplane. Introduced in 1949 by Piper Aircraft, it was developed from the PA-11 Cub Special, and traces its lineage back through the J-3 Cub to the Taylor E-2 Cub of the 1930s. In close ...

light aircraft. Before this there was another intro with a Clay Pigeon Shooter which shot a clay pigeon with the then ITV Sport S logo which when hit would zoom in ITV Presents The long running theme "World of Sport March", used between 1968 and 1983, was composed by

Don Harper Don Harper (192130 May 1999) was an Australian composer. Born in Melbourne in 1921, Don Harper showed an interest in music from an early age, learning to play the violin as a child. His formal study began at the New South Wales Conservatorium ...

; a re-recorded version of the tune was introduced in the early 1980s accompanied by a new title sequence opening with a view of the Earth eclipsing the Sun. The advent of

computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...

saw a new opening title sequence appear in 1983 together with a more contemporary theme tune composed by

Jeff Wayne Jeffry Wayne (born 1 July 1943) is an American-British composer, musician and lyricist. In 1978, he released ''Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds'', his musical adaptation of H. G. Wells' science-fiction novel ''The War of ...

, this lasted until the series ended in 1985. Wayne also composed a new theme tune for the opening and closing credits to the ''Results Service'' during its period as a standalone programme between 1985 and 1992. Previously a simple, 10-second musical and visual sting had been used to introduce the ''Results Service'' during the ''World of Sport'' programme itself.

Incidents

*On 11 May 1985, ''World of Sport'' switched its coverage to

Valley Parade Valley Parade, known as the University of Bradford Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is an all-seater football stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Built in 1886, it was the home of Manningham Rugby Football Club until 1903, when they c ...

stadium as match commentator John Helm, who had been covering the game for

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

, described the events of the

Bradford City stadium fire The Bradford City stadium fire occurred during a Football League Third Division match on Saturday, 11 May 1985 at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, killing 56 spectators and injuring at least 265. The stadium was k ...

as it unfolded. *The comedian

Eric Morecambe John Eric Bartholomew, (14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984), known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's de ...

appeared as a guest on the Christmas Eve edition of ''World of Sport'' in 1977 causing mayhem by entertaining and trying to disrupt his friend Dickie Davies' presentation links. *The show featured rows of typists sitting behind the main presenter, mainly preparing items for the show. This was parodied by

French and Saunders ''French and Saunders'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is a ...

in the sketch ''Sports Report'' and featured their recurring 'Extras' characters attempting to get their faces on television.

Legacy

A spin-off programme ''

Saint and Greavsie ''Saint and Greavsie'' was a British television show in which former footballers Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves discussed current football themes such as the day's matches. It ran on ITV from 1985 to 1992. Format Englishman Jimmy Greaves and S ...

'', featuring

and

, featuring football news, action and live chat was introduced by ITV on Saturday lunchtimes from 1985 to replace the ''On The Ball'' segment of ''World of Sport'', enjoying a successful run that ended in 1992 when

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

gained exclusive rights to broadcast English top-flight football. From 1985, ''Wrestling'' with

would follow immediately after ''Saint and Greavsie'', before being dropped in December 1988, only shortly prior to the popularity of the US

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

promotion (now World Wrestling Entertainment) gaining momentum in the UK in that era via coverage on

Sky Television plc The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

from early 1989. During this period, matches from

Joint Promotions Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom spans over one hundred years but became popular when the then new independent television network ITV began showing it in 1955, firstly on Saturday afternoons and then also in a late-night midweek slot. ...

, who previously held exclusive rights to ITV coverage, were supplemented with matches from rival promotion

All Star Wrestling All Star Wrestling (ASW) is a British professional wrestling promotion operated by Brian Dixon and based in Birkenhead, England. Founded as Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead in October 1970, it has also been known over the years as All Star P ...

. It was originally planned to bring US wrestling to viewers on average of once a month in this slot - three weeks of the UK version and one of the American version - but the US version only appeared on a total of six occasions in the two years that it played in that slot. Between 1992 and 1995, several ITV regions screened rival US promotion

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nation ...

's programme ''

WCW Worldwide ''WCW WorldWide'' was an American syndicated television show that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) that aired from October 8, 1975, to March 31, 2001. At the time of its cancellation, ''WorldWide'' was the longest-running, uni ...

'' in the old Saturday afternoon slot, having previously transmitted the promotion as late night viewing. In the mid 2000s,

The Wrestling Channel The Fight Network (formerly The Wrestling Channel, TWC and TWC Fight!) was a free-to-air digital satellite television sports channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland, devoted to airing programming related to boxing, mixed martial arts, pro-w ...

, later The Fight Network, purchased the broadcasting rights to ''World of Sport''s wrestling shows until the channel stopped transmitting. It was then shown on UK satellite channel Men and Movies. The ''Results Service'' also continued as a standalone programme in its own right, presented generally by Elton Welsby, but was dropped in May 1992. The football results continued to feature on ITV for the next few seasons as part of the Saturday ''ITN Early Evening News'' bulletin. David Bobin or Graham Miller presented and did so until both presenters defected to

at the end of the 1995/96 season. Live coverage of sports such as athletics, darts, ice skating and snooker continued to play a part in the Saturday afternoon schedule on ITV for a time, with a single event being shown for two hours. However, this gradually diminished after a few years and eventually disappeared from the schedules. ITV paid tribute to ''World of Sport'' as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations in September 2005. Various tie-in publications including ''World of Sport'' Annuals and a companion book were published throughout its run.

Revival of wrestling

On 17 October 2016,

announced that they would be bringing back professional wrestling, arguably ''World of Sport'' most popular segment. They announced they would be recording a pilot episode on 1 November 2016, being filmed at

MediaCityUK MediaCityUK is a mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by Peel Media; its principal tenants are media organisations and the Quayside MediaCi ...

Salford, Greater Manchester Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county aft ...

. The show featured independent wrestlers such as

El Ligero Simon Musk (born 7 January 1985) is an English professional wrestler better known under his in-ring persona of masked Mexican luchador, El Ligero (or simply Ligero). He is most known for his time in WWE, on their NXT UK brand. Professional wre ...

Grado Grado may refer to: People * Cristina Grado (1939–2016), Italian film actress * Jonathan Grado (born 1991), American entrepreneur and photographer * Francesco De Grado ( fl. 1694–1730), Italian engraver * Gaetano Grado, Italian mafioso * ...

, and

Sha Samuels Shaaheen Hosseinpour (born 27 February 1985) is an English professional wrestler. He is mostly known for his time in WWE where he performed on the NXT UK brand under the ring name Sha Samuels. Professional wrestling career Insane Championship ...

. ITV also announced that former

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

commentator

Jim Ross James William Ross (born January 3, 1952) is an American professional wrestling commentator currently signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator, analyst, and senior advisor. Ross is best known for a long and distinguished career as ...

would call the pilot episode. It aired on

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

on ITV, where Grado won the ''World of Sport'' Championship. The following year on 23 March,

Impact Wrestling Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promot ...

(formerly known as TNA/Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) announced that they would be teaming with

to yet again bring back the show with

Jeff Jarrett Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett (born July 14, 1967) is an American professional wrestler and promoter. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he also serves as Director of Business Development. Beginning his career in his father J ...

as an executive producer as a ten-episode series. The show was announced to be taping at

Preston Guild Hall Preston Guild Hall is an entertainment venue in Preston, Lancashire, England. History The Guild Hall was commissioned to replace the town's Public Hall. The new building, which was designed by Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall, was due to be rea ...

on 25 May, and 26 May. TNA talents such as

and

Magnus Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...

(in his debut for the series) along with independent wrestlers such as

returning to the series, were confirmed to be part of the series cast. On 4 May 2017

and

announced that the tapings scheduled for 25 and 26 May at

had been postponed indefinitely due to prolonged contract negotiations. In April 2018 ITV announced ''World of Sport Wrestling'' would air a ten-part series later in the year on Saturday afternoons. The shows was taped in Norwich on 10, 11 and 12 May. Jim Ross was involved and neither was Impact Wrestling. ''World of Sport Wrestling'' aired from 28 July 2018 at 5pm on

until 29 September 2018. A six date live tour of the show took place during January/February 2019.

References

External links

Archive episodes of World of Sport
BFI Database
World Sport Portal
* http://www.britishwrestlersreunion.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:World of Sport (British TV series) 1965 British television series debuts 1985 British television series endings 1960s British sports television series 1970s British sports television series 1980s British sports television series Television shows produced by ABC Weekend TV Television series by ITV Studios Black-and-white British television shows English-language television shows Television shows produced by Thames Television London Weekend Television shows Professional wrestling television series Television shows shot at Teddington Studios