Saint and Greavsie
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Saint and Greavsie'' was a British television show in which former footballers
Ian St John John "Ian" St John (; 7 June 1938 – 1 March 2021) was a Scottish professional football player, coach and broadcaster. St John played as a forward for Liverpool throughout most of the 1960s. Signed by Bill Shankly in 1961, St John was a key mem ...
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 ...
discussed current football themes such as the day's matches. It 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 ...
from 1985 to 1992.


Format

Englishman Jimmy Greaves and Scotsman Ian St John were successful football players in the 1960s, but they did not play for the same club; Greaves spent the bulk of his career with
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
and
Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
, while St John played mainly for
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 ...
. Their collaboration as television football pundits started with '' On the Ball'' in '' World of Sport''. Usually St John would host from the London studio and would cross over to Greaves, who was elsewhere, to get his views, but they would eventually be based in the same studio. The segment was highly popular, leading to the commissioning of ''Saint and Greavsie'' as a programme in its own right immediately after the demise of ''World of Sport'' in September 1985. A key characteristic of the show was comedy, with St John prompting Greaves to jokes and jibes. The show was usually about 30 minutes long and was initially broadcast shortly after noon on Saturdays, to coincide with the build-up to that afternoon's football matches. In later years it usually went on air shortly after 1pm and in its final season was increased in length to a 45-minute slot. At various points in the show the goals of previous matches would be shown. The show included features on clubs in both English and Scottish leagues and discussion of that weekend's major games, emphasising matches that ITV planned to broadcast. The series initially had a simple opening sequence showing a rotating rudimentary CGI-image of a football pitch revolving several times, before a still of the two presenters popped up at the end; the theme tune was initially identical to that used for the "On the Ball" segment of World of Sport''. In later years, the introduction to the show began with St John and Greaves as cigarette cards from their playing days on the opening credits, and the theme tune was changed to a piece named "Aztec Gold", composed by
Silsoe Silsoe is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. The village used to be on the main A6 road but a bypass around the village was opened in 1981 at a cost of £1.6m. History Origin The village name is derived from the Danish word ...
, which, at the time, was being used as the theme tune for ITV's ''
The Big Match ''The Big Match'' was a British football television programme, screened on ITV between 1968 and 1992. ''The Big Match'' originally launched on London Weekend Television (LWT) – the ITV regional station that served London and the Home Counties ...
'', after being the theme tune for the station's coverage of the
1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...
. Although the show predominantly dealt with football, it also covered sports such as cricket and boxing, with interviewees including
Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...
and
Chris Eubank Christopher Livingstone Eubank (born 8 August 1966) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 1998. He held the WBO middleweight and super-middleweight titles between 1990 and 1995, and is ranked by BoxRec as the thir ...
. When Greaves was ill at Christmas 1990, he was replaced by commentator
Peter Brackley Peter Brackley (13 June 1951 – 14 October 2018) was an English football commentator, perhaps most famous for commentating for ''Football Italia'' on Channel 4 in the 1990s, for the computer game series ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' until ''Pro Evol ...
voicing a puppet modelled on him from ''
Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ov ...
'', a show he had often featured on. In the 1991–92 season, the Rumbelows Cup draw was broadcast on ''Saint and Greavsie''. The away teams for the quarter-finals were drawn by future USA president
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, when the duo were in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
to film a programme looking at how the country was preparing for the
1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...
.


Goal of the Season

After ITV secured the rights to show league football, the network had their own ''Goal of the Season'' award (the BBC had the rights to FA Cup matches, so their award always went to the winning goal in the FA Cup final). Every First Division club were eligible, with the best goal from each respective season chosen by the club's manager. The next week, the list was cut down to six, with the general public able to send their top three goals in order. The goal with the most votes was the winner. In the final series, the twenty nominations were chosen by the ''Saint and Greavsie'' team, as more than one goal scored by
Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
and
Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
players were chosen. Goals from Second Division clubs were also included.


End of an era

In the summer of 1992, ITV lost the rights to broadcast top-tier English football matches as the newly formed
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 ...
contracted to
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 ...
. ITV then discontinued ''Saint and Greavsie''. The final programmes were broadcast from Sweden during
Euro 92 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having qualifi ...
, with the pair singing " The Last Time" in the final credits and making jokes at Sky's expense. Aside from a 1995 series ''Saint and Greavsie's World of Sport'', the pair did not present under the name ''Saint and Greavsie'' again, but continued to link up together and remained in touch. They occasionally presented Champions League preview shows together and both remained employed by ITV for several years. Together, they hosted the discussion show '' Sport in Question''. St John continued to be used as a co-commentator for the ITV network until the arrival of
Jim Beglin James Martin Beglin (born 29 July 1963) is an Irish former professional footballer and current co-commentator for RTÉ, CBS Sports, BT Sport, and Premier League Productions. Playing career Shamrock Rovers Beglin played schoolboy football ...
, while Greaves continued to appear as a pundit and co-commentator in the Central region until 1996, when he was gradually phased out in favour of
Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nick ...
. Away from their work, Greaves and St John rarely met due to living in
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
and on the Wirral respectively, but Greaves said they had a "lovely relationship". In 2004, Saint and Greavsie were studio guests in an episode of ''
Fantasy Football League ''Fantasy Football League'' is a British television comedy programme hosted by David Baddiel and Frank Skinner. It was inspired by the Fantasy Football phenomenon which started in the early 1990s and followed on from a BBC Radio 5 programme hos ...
'', when they were described as the "godfathers" of football comedy by
Frank Skinner Christopher Graham Collins (born 28 January 1957), professionally known as Frank Skinner, is an English comedian, actor, presenter and writer. At the 2001 British Comedy Awards, he was named Best Comedy Entertainment Personality. His televisio ...
and
David Baddiel David Lionel Baddiel (; born 28 May 1964) is an English comedian, presenter, screenwriter, and author. He is known for his work alongside Rob Newman in ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' and his comedy partnership with Frank Skinner. He has al ...
. In earlier years they had been parodied in sketches on the show. St John criticised Baddiel and Skinner in his autobiography and interviews, following their appearance on the show.


Other formats

In 1989,
Grandslam Entertainment Grandslam Interactive Ltd. (formerly Grandslam Entertainments Ltd. and later Grandslam Video Ltd.) was a video games software house based in United Kingdom, Britain. It was formed in late 1987 from a management buy-out of Argus Press Software by ...
released ''Saint and Greavsie'', a football trivia quiz game, on a variety of computer platforms. It was developed by
Core Design Core Design Limited (known as Rebellion (Derby) Ltd between 2006 and 2010) was a British video game developer based in Derby. Founded in May 1988 by former Gremlin Graphics employees, it originally bore the name Megabrite until rebranding as Co ...
. In 2006, Saint and Greavsie released a DVD quiz, featuring retro football action, with a book, ''Saint and Greavsie's Funny Old Games'', having also since been published. In May 2009,
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 ...
announced that Saint and Greavsie were reforming their double act to star in a FA Cup Special on 30 May, the day of the Cup Final. ''The Saint and Greavsie FA Cup Special'' was broken up into three separate mini-programmes appearing throughout the build up to the Everton v Chelsea final.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint and Greavsie 1980s British sports television series 1985 British television series debuts 1990s British sports television series 1992 British television series endings English Football League on television English-language television shows ITV Sport London Weekend Television shows Television series by ITV Studios