0:00:02 > 0:00:03What a big crowd at Wigan.
0:00:03 > 0:00:05Until last Sunday the home team hadn't lost a match,
0:00:05 > 0:00:10they're rather keen to, of course, break this record.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14Eddie Waring is the man who introduced the nation to rugby league.
0:00:14 > 0:00:20One ton of rugby, you're looking at there - meat, brawn, muscle, brain, the lot of it.
0:00:20 > 0:00:25He gave millions of TV viewers a vision of the North of England.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Oh, what a tackle!
0:00:28 > 0:00:31If he's still got his head on, he'll enjoy the match.
0:00:31 > 0:00:36Up and under. It's a beauty, up and under.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40As the voice of rugby league, he became a symbol of the North,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43but in his own heartland, he was both loved and loathed.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47There is a conflict between Eddie himself, who feels that he's evangelising the sport,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49he's spreading the game, he's helping it to expand,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52and the people who are involved in rugby league
0:00:52 > 0:00:56in the North of England, who don't see it that way at all.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01The more fame Eddie enjoyed, the more he became a controversial and divisive figure,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05accused of being a Northern caricature who didn't take rugby league seriously.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10To be told that you know nothing about the game,
0:01:10 > 0:01:13that you're a lousy commentator, you only say the obvious,
0:01:13 > 0:01:18and you're poking fun at everything and taking the mickey out of it, would hurt most people, I think.
0:01:18 > 0:01:24He's missed it! He's missed it! He's on the ground, he's missed it. Poor lad.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Eddie's story tells us much about a sport born out of class conflict,
0:01:28 > 0:01:34troubled by financial affairs and involved in a struggle for wider recognition.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39Eddie Waring was an entrepreneur and sporting pioneer, who took the game to new levels.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43In doing so, he entered dangerous territory.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48This is his story, about his role in the history of rugby league.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03Rugby league is all about pace, power and skill.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10It's the North's beautiful game.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15For fans, it's the ultimate contact sport, superior to any other.
0:02:19 > 0:02:25For the best part of 30 years, the fortunes of the game were closely tied to one man,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29an evangelist for the sport, who some say was bigger than the game itself.
0:02:29 > 0:02:36He's in with a chance! He'll score if he doesn't drop the ball!
0:02:36 > 0:02:38He scores!
0:02:38 > 0:02:42In Eddie's heyday, rugby league was watched by millions on TV,
0:02:42 > 0:02:47despite only being played professionally in a narrow band of towns in Yorkshire
0:02:47 > 0:02:48and the North West of England.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51..this stadium really alive!
0:02:51 > 0:02:56Many believe the game's popularity is down to its idiosyncratic commentator.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04It was completely different to anything that had gone before.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06Simple as that.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09He has a very strong sense of theatre as well.
0:03:09 > 0:03:16Oh! Going for the early bath, as they say.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18He got his words jumbled up.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21And the score is still 13-4.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Could be more. Uh..less...more.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29Somebody said that Eddie commentated like Les Dawson played the piano.
0:03:31 > 0:03:32It's just such a remarkable voice.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36It's almost like a Vespa motorbike starting up.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41And we say in rugby league, what's happening at the hour is when to start the testing
0:03:41 > 0:03:43and what he's testing is his running.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Just listen to the commentary.
0:03:46 > 0:03:52Nobody will catch this fellow! Nobody will catch him! Nobody will catch him!
0:03:52 > 0:03:53A lady wrote to Eddie
0:03:53 > 0:03:58after the game and said that his commentary
0:03:58 > 0:04:01was just like having an orgasm.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04I wouldn't know.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06He's gone past two.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11He's gone past three, gone past four. And what a brilliant try!
0:04:11 > 0:04:14One of the interesting things when you listen to Eddie commentate
0:04:14 > 0:04:16is that he actually sounds like a fan at the match.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20He's got a bit of the Wembley breeze into him.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22He won't stay down very long. He's down again!
0:04:22 > 0:04:26He's only a short fellow, he hasn't got very far to fall.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30But it all painted a picture, and we all enjoyed it.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33Or most of us enjoyed it.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37He might take it. It's going to be a sensational finish!
0:04:37 > 0:04:41He gets a sensational finish!
0:04:44 > 0:04:51The game that Eddie loved was born out of a bitter feud within rugby at the end of the 19th century.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55It came at a time of great change, both on and off the field.
0:04:55 > 0:05:00In the 1880s, there had been the rise of trade unions.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02In the 1890s, there had been the rise of socialism
0:05:02 > 0:05:04and of the Labour movement,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07the formation of the Independent Labour Party in Yorkshire.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Um, and there was a real sense that the working classes were on the march.
0:05:11 > 0:05:19And on the sporting field, in the gentleman's game of rugby union, the southern teams were struggling.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24Here they were, with their own game, the game of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and they were being beaten,
0:05:24 > 0:05:30often comprehensively, by textile workers, miners and dockers from the North of England.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33This was almost tantamount to revolution.
0:05:33 > 0:05:40The battle lines had been drawn over payments to players in industrial towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45It was a matter of Northern working men working six-day weeks, not being able to go without the money,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48so they needed to be compensated for that.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53But there was another level to it as well, which was "This is our game.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55"Don't you Northern oiks be trying to take it off us.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58"We want to stay in control, thank you very much."
0:05:58 > 0:06:03From 1895 onwards, there were two sports, amateur rugby union
0:06:03 > 0:06:07and professional Northern union, which would later become rugby league.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12The two would endure deep suspicion and hostility that would last the best part of a century.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16Union saw itself as the national game, but league
0:06:16 > 0:06:20soon had a new fan base right across the industrial belt of England.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27One player's story epitomised the divisions within rugby.
0:06:27 > 0:06:33Manual labourer Dicky Lockwood was union's brightest star, but when the split came, he switched codes.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37Eddie was brought up on stories of the teams who'd broken away.
0:06:37 > 0:06:42And in the Congregationalist Waring household, in the Yorkshire mill town of Dewsbury,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Dicky Lockwood became a family hero.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49Dicky Lockwood was the David Beckham of his era.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52Five foot four inches tall,
0:06:52 > 0:06:56he'd captained England at rugby union before the split.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00And when the split came,
0:07:00 > 0:07:07Dicky Lockwood and his colleagues who played for England were written out of the records.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12In a rugby-loving household in Dewsbury, such as Eddie Waring's family,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Dicky Lockwood would have been seen as a symbol of,
0:07:15 > 0:07:22not just of rugby, but of the ability of ordinary people to stand up for their rights.
0:07:22 > 0:07:29Eddie inherited this through his father and his grandfather, these feelings.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32And he vowed that one day,
0:07:32 > 0:07:37he would show the rugby union people what a wonderful game rugby league was.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40And of course, Eddie felt that it was the best game in the world.
0:07:40 > 0:07:46Rugby league was not only competing with rugby union, it was in competition with football too.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48The rules were changed to open up the game.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Supporters could now see much more of the ball.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56And in some Northern towns and cities, it quickly took off.
0:07:56 > 0:07:57All matches were played
0:07:57 > 0:08:02at 3. 30 on Saturday afternoons. About 2.00,
0:08:02 > 0:08:04the doors of the back-to-back houses
0:08:04 > 0:08:09would start opening, whatever the weather was like.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12And out of these houses,
0:08:12 > 0:08:18men would start walking away down the streets. They were long streets.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20There were rivers of people coming towards the ground.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25It was hard in the North of England.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27Hard to earn a living.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Things like sporting contests
0:08:30 > 0:08:36were very important to keeping the spirit of the workers going.
0:08:40 > 0:08:46Rugby league was also big in Dewsbury, where typewriter salesman Eddie was cutting a dashing figure.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51He was regarded as being a bit of a snappy dresser.
0:08:51 > 0:08:57When people in Dewsbury wore black and brown and dark blue, Eddie was
0:08:57 > 0:09:00wearing cream and white raincoats with yellow scarves.
0:09:00 > 0:09:06So he was going about town as the man that could get things done.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09He was also showing he understood the power of the media.
0:09:09 > 0:09:15Eddie was managing the Dewsbury boys' team, for whom there'd be an exotic name change.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19The idea of giving a youth team a nickname or a name like
0:09:19 > 0:09:22the Black Knights was pretty revolutionary stuff, really.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26What Eddie realised, being the marketing man that he was
0:09:26 > 0:09:30and having that sort of head on him, was that it would be easier to whip up
0:09:30 > 0:09:35a bit of hype around the concept if he gave it a really obviously recognisable name.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Eddie stopped selling typewriters and started using them instead.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42He was now writing about rugby league for the local paper,
0:09:42 > 0:09:49and in 1936 he landed his dream job as the manager of Dewsbury Rugby League Club.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53There was obviously a conflict of interest, because Eddie was
0:09:53 > 0:10:00publicising the benefits of people attending the Dewsbury matches.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05And as manager, he was benefiting from the extra income that that would produce.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08It wasn't just about rugby league.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10For a time, he actually introduced baseball,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14which was very much an alien sport in the country at that time and still is now.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19He brought Dewsbury to that quite successfully in the short-term.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22He also did things like tractor-pulling competitions,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25and even Russian Cossack dancing, which is typical Eddie.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29Who would have thought of Russian Cossack dancing in Dewsbury?
0:10:30 > 0:10:34The outbreak of World War II brought challenges to all sports.
0:10:34 > 0:10:41Within days, all events were banned amid fears that packed stadia would be targeted by German bombers.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45It meant the touring New Zealand side had no-one to play.
0:10:45 > 0:10:50But Eddie, who was serving as a part-time policeman in Dewsbury, spotted an opportunity.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55He was driving around one night, listening to the car radio,
0:10:55 > 0:10:57and he suddenly hears that this ban has been lifted.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02So he thinks "Aha, in that case I'll get the New Zealand tourists here,
0:11:02 > 0:11:04"and they can play a game here."
0:11:05 > 0:11:09And he does this. He apparently sets around it in one evening.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12He's around town, sticking up posters saying "Come to the game.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15"Match certain."
0:11:15 > 0:11:18He didn't have time to get a band, but he had a trumpeter
0:11:18 > 0:11:21to play the National Anthem at the beginning.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25He always used to say that it was the only professional
0:11:25 > 0:11:31sporting event that took place on that Saturday in 1939.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36New rules were introduced during the war to enable clubs to function
0:11:36 > 0:11:39whilst their players were serving with the forces.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Teams could call on any player who was stationed in nearby military camps.
0:11:43 > 0:11:50Eddie started his own recruitment drive, and persuaded more than 40 internationals to play for him.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53Dewsbury now had an all-star team.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58They ended up in the 1943 season, Dewsbury, winning every available trophy.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00All three of them, the Challenge Cup, the Championship
0:12:00 > 0:12:05and the Yorkshire Cup, and playing some pretty good rugby in doing so.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07Eddie's name was on everyone's lips.
0:12:07 > 0:12:13He was the best-known administrator within the game, but his success came under scrutiny.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15In building that great Dewsbury side,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Eddie ruffled a lot of feathers.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21He was very aggressive in the way he recruited players,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24he avoided following regulations,
0:12:24 > 0:12:25he bent the law.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28He did a lot of things that maybe he shouldn't have done.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Eddie knew what players wanted.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33They played for money.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38Although there were regulations stating that a maximum amount could
0:12:38 > 0:12:42be paid, it appears that they were able to get extra.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44He was a wheeler-dealer.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48Things became so bad that at one point, somebody wrote
0:12:48 > 0:12:50to the rugby authorities and said,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53"Who's running the game, the Rugby Football League or Eddie Waring?!"
0:12:53 > 0:13:00By the end of the war, Eddie was in charge of Leeds, a much bigger club than Dewsbury.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03But within a year he'd packed his bags, loaded up his typewriter
0:13:03 > 0:13:07and set sail for the other side of the world.
0:13:07 > 0:13:14The 1946 Great Britain tour to Australia and New Zealand would be a watershed moment for British sport.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20It was the first post-war tour, and would shape the fortunes of an eager journalist from Yorkshire too.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24The team made the four-week journey on a British navy aircraft carrier, The Indomitable.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27And amongst the handful of pressmen with the tour party
0:13:27 > 0:13:30was Eddie Waring, who'd paid his own fare to be there.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34There's absolutely no question that the experience did prove life-changing to him.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37He was already a journalist.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39He'd agreed when he went there to do work
0:13:39 > 0:13:43for the Yorkshire newspapers, for example, to send them stories back.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48But more importantly for him, he'd also agreed to cover the tour for the Sunday pictorial newspaper,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51which went on to become the Sunday Mirror.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54Australia was a rugby league stronghold,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58and this first tour for 10 years meant the players were treated like stars wherever they went.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03Rugby league in Australia is egalitarian,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07whereas in Yorkshire and Lancashire, it had working-class roots.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09His eyes were really open to what the sport
0:14:09 > 0:14:12could actually be in terms of glamour, but certainly
0:14:12 > 0:14:17in terms of media and in terms of his own future within that media,
0:14:17 > 0:14:19both from a written point of view
0:14:19 > 0:14:23with the newspapers, but also from a broadcasting point of view.
0:14:25 > 0:14:31Eddie was so in tune with the changing face of the media that he filmed much of the '46 tour.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33These films would prove useful for Eddie later in his career.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36It had been thought they'd been thrown away,
0:14:36 > 0:14:41but they've survived, and are being seen by the rugby league historian Tony Collins
0:14:41 > 0:14:43for the very first time.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46These films are fantastically important for rugby league,
0:14:46 > 0:14:52because we get to see some of the great players playing some of the great games of this era.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59But I think they're more important than that, because it's
0:14:59 > 0:15:06one of the rare opportunities that we have to see sport being played in its social context.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14The tour was a great success. Not only did the Great Britain team win the series,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18but Eddie saw that the sport had reached all parts of Australian society.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21The team met a string of high-ranking Australians,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25many of whom had been former rugby league players themselves.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32One of the things that Eddie constantly stressed
0:15:32 > 0:15:37is this idea that in his words, rugby league was the most democratic game of all.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40I think the trip to Australia in 1946 will have confirmed that belief
0:15:40 > 0:15:44that given a chance, given an equal opportunity,
0:15:44 > 0:15:50it could free itself from exclusivity and snobbery and prejudice.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54This is something that could be emulated in Britain.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56This is a launch pad.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06When Eddie returned to Britain, rugby league was booming.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Attendances were up and club coffers were overflowing.
0:16:08 > 0:16:14REPORTER: 'More than 102,000 people set a new world rugby league record when they packed Odsal Stadium
0:16:14 > 0:16:20'in Bradford to watch the Challenge Cup final replay between Halifax, in hoop jerseys, and Warrington.'
0:16:20 > 0:16:26This crowd in 1954 was a sign for many that the sport had never had it so good.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29'Suddenly, he tries a burst through, and a magnificent run sends him
0:16:29 > 0:16:32'tumbling over the line to clinch Warrington's victory.'
0:16:32 > 0:16:37But there were hints of problems to come, due to forces beyond the game's control.
0:16:37 > 0:16:44There was decline in traditional industries - the mines, textiles went into huge decline.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Those staple industries that rugby league had built itself upon
0:16:48 > 0:16:51were no longer the dominant industries in Britain.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54And a new threat was gathering on the horizon.
0:16:54 > 0:17:01'..Capturing the pictures and sounds, the words and music out of the air.'
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Television was a new-fangled invention.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Hold it.
0:17:06 > 0:17:07On you, camera one.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12There was a definite feeling that if you let the television camera into your ground,
0:17:12 > 0:17:18you deterred a lot of spectators from attending.
0:17:18 > 0:17:19So they didn't like it.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23But one rugby league fan couldn't wait for the arrival of television.
0:17:23 > 0:17:28Eddie had seen how powerful the media were in Australia.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32And in the United States, he'd been shown how popular sport was on TV
0:17:32 > 0:17:34by one of Hollywood's biggest stars.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39He met Bob Hope in Los Angeles, and went with him
0:17:39 > 0:17:42to an American football game that was being televised.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48And they were sitting somewhere near the commentary, and Bob Hope said, "Television's the thing.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52"It's going to take off." And my father took that on board.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59'This evening, the eyes of rugby league fans are on Bradford'.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03The BBC had been covering rugby league since the late 1920s.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06- Number 14.- Hunslet.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08But some felt that its rank of sports broadcasters,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11who were drawn from public and grammar schools,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15had little in common with the North and had poor knowledge of the sport.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18It was something Eddie hoped to capitalise on.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24Eddie had been stressing his capabilities as a broadcaster
0:18:24 > 0:18:29to the BBC as early as 1931.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33"Dear Sir, I notice there is a possibility in the near future
0:18:33 > 0:18:37"of you broadcasting a running commentary on selected games in the North of England.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42"In consequence of this, I am taking the liberty of writing to you, wondering if you're interested
0:18:42 > 0:18:46"in my qualifications to assist you in the broadcasting on these occasions.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50"At present, I am a rugby league football writer for a newspaper in Dewsbury,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54"and from an early age, I have been interested in this code.
0:18:54 > 0:19:00"I have a good knowledge of the game and am familiar with the majority of players in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04"I remain, yours faithfully, EM Waring."
0:19:04 > 0:19:07He was initially turned down,
0:19:07 > 0:19:09dismissed as a nuisance.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13Then, when he finally did get a chance as a commentator, he was heavily criticised.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15They make a number of criticisms about the fact
0:19:15 > 0:19:19that he doesn't identify the players, it's very halting and so on and so forth.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22Eddie's TV debut hadn't gone well.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Undeterred, he continued to press his case.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30"I appreciate your writing to me and the criticisms you make.
0:19:30 > 0:19:36"Your comments and experience gained are most important, and I can assure you, they will not be lost.
0:19:36 > 0:19:42"I feel comfortable in television, and I also feel that my faults can be eradicated to your satisfaction.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44"Sincerely yours, Eddie Waring."
0:19:44 > 0:19:46The BBC remained unconvinced,
0:19:46 > 0:19:53and Eddie's big chance was slipping away, so he played his trump card.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58One of the interesting things is that Eddie provides that link
0:19:58 > 0:20:01into the rugby league community that the BBC don't have.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04In many ways, the fact that Eddie had these contacts
0:20:04 > 0:20:09overcame some of the disadvantages that he had as a commentator.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11Eddie's expertise had won the day.
0:20:11 > 0:20:17After the best part of 20 years of trying, he'd finally convinced the BBC of his value.
0:20:17 > 0:20:23And by the late 1950s, Eddie had cemented his place as the voice of rugby league on the BBC.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26From cup finals to internationals,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Eddie and rugby league became a permanent fixture
0:20:29 > 0:20:33on Saturday afternoon sports programmes like Sportsview and Grandstand.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Our next reporter is Eddie Waring, for whom the rugby league year ahead
0:20:37 > 0:20:38is full of many bright things,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41and who addresses us now from his own particular patch.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Did you know there are nine verses in Ilkley Moor Baht 'At?
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Rugby league was a mainstay
0:20:52 > 0:20:53of Grandstand very often,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55particularly in the winter,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58when the weather was bad and other outside events were cancelled.
0:20:58 > 0:21:04Very rarely was rugby league cancelled. It wasn't just because it was convenient, it was popular.
0:21:04 > 0:21:11Soon Eddie's unique commentary style was bringing the game to a whole new national audience.
0:21:11 > 0:21:18Oh, and it's a try! A great try by Johnny Raper.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21One of the reasons for Eddie's popularity, to this day,
0:21:21 > 0:21:30in fact, is that he regarded himself as a guest when being invited by people switching on the televisions.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35He felt that he should act in a courteous and polite manner,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38as though he was walking through their front door.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41He's come back onto the field on our right.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44If you can come close, there's a bit of a do here.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48There's the players, breaking up after a bit of a squabble.
0:21:48 > 0:21:49But what made Eddie different
0:21:49 > 0:21:54from the BBC's stable of sports commentators was his distinct Northernness.
0:21:54 > 0:22:00Hardisty there without his little mate, Hepworth, the pigeon-fancier.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03I don't think we could have dreamt Eddie up, really.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06When the referee blew the whistle, he switched himself on.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10..Terry O'Grady coming away, and there's an extra man here.
0:22:10 > 0:22:16There's an extra man. Boston must score...done it again!
0:22:16 > 0:22:20I mean, he had that accent, but it sort of accentuated
0:22:20 > 0:22:22when he got into the commentary box.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27There was a great try by Sullivan, created by Boston.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30It was an accent that I kind of related to,
0:22:30 > 0:22:32cos obviously I'm a West Yorkshire lad myself.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36But it always seemed like it had been amplified,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39like there had been a kind of qualification of its Northernness.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42"Well, here we are..."
0:22:42 > 0:22:45And it's a kick, and it's a chase to the ball.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Can he get it? It a try! It's a try!
0:22:48 > 0:22:53It's not in any way a typical Northern accent. It's just not.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55It goes off in all sorts of tangents.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58It veers this way and it veers that way.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02I loved the remark of a spectator behind me. He said, "Have a go."
0:23:02 > 0:23:04I ask you.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Some people are never satisfied in the North of England.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11There is an element of, I don't know, putting your Sunday best on.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16He's trying to impress. It's a little bit posh. He's trying to be posh.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19He's more Harrogate than Dewsbury, really, in that respect.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25Eddie soon became much more than a sports commentator.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27He was the BBC's rugby league reporter...
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Rugby league's a hard game, you know...
0:23:30 > 0:23:35..taking him, and the sport's industrial heartland, directly into the nation's living rooms.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40It's a grim place, but the people are spirited, and they're very loyal too.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42They take their sport very seriously.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47In the Featherstone team, there's a milkman, a dustman, a businessman,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51six miners and a fish-and-chip shop owner.
0:23:51 > 0:23:58People saw rugby league for what it was, an excellent game, very entertaining,
0:23:58 > 0:24:05played at some times in very difficult conditions by real men, in places that perhaps they'd never
0:24:05 > 0:24:08heard of before, Swinton, Featherstone.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Apologies to Swinton and Featherstone, but you know what I mean.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15In 1952, Featherstone were at Wembley.
0:24:15 > 0:24:21Their players trained on rabbit pie, and they got £8 a man for losing.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25On Saturday, the winners will get £80 a man,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28and it'll be champagne and oysters for them.
0:24:28 > 0:24:30He had an affinity with the players. You felt that.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35There was a kind of "We're all in this together", almost cliquey-ness.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40Welcome to Oldham for the first round,
0:24:40 > 0:24:44Oldham and Barrow. The players are just coming off the field...
0:24:44 > 0:24:46The arrival of BBC Two in the North in 1965
0:24:46 > 0:24:50further boosted rugby league's national profile.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53For 15 years, Tuesday night would be rugby league night,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56though only the second half of the matches were shown live.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Rugby league, and Eddie, were now getting twice the exposure.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03The four best teams with the best points average will go into the
0:25:03 > 0:25:07semifinal, and then subsequently into the final for the BBC Trophy.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10He was able to explain the rules of the game,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14which for people, particularly from the south of England who
0:25:14 > 0:25:19had never seen a game of rugby league, this was very welcome.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Because he kicked the ball directly into touch,
0:25:23 > 0:25:28it was a scrum down at the point that he kicked the ball from.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30What we call "ball back".
0:25:34 > 0:25:38Eddie was keen to expand the game beyond the North of England.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Rugby league's showcase was the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley.
0:25:41 > 0:25:47Many hoped the annual trip to the capital would lead to a great breakthrough.
0:25:47 > 0:25:53By going down to Wembley Stadium, playing the final in the same place as the FA Cup Final,
0:25:53 > 0:25:58it was hoped that this would give it a national prominence that its
0:25:58 > 0:26:02isolation in the North of England had precluded previously.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04And he scores! He does.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Wembley became central to rugby league's expansion plans.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12And there were emerging markets waiting to be conquered.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18In 1965, the chance came for Eddie to sell the game to a
0:26:18 > 0:26:21brand new and much larger audience in the United States.
0:26:21 > 0:26:28'NBC Sports In Action, with Jim Simpson, brought to you by new Groom and Clean hairdressing.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30'Grooms and cleans with every combing'
0:26:30 > 0:26:35The American TV network NBC came to Wembley for the final
0:26:35 > 0:26:38between Wigan and the Leeds side Hunslet.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41They called in Eddie to act as their expert.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Unlike American football, there is no time-out.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48Play is continuous, and you do have substitutes,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50but only when players are injured.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54- We've got a diagram here. Probably, it might help.- Surely.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59It was interesting to see the way the Americans covered the Final, cos it wasn't really patronising.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05It contrasted rugby league with other sports in Britain, but it did it in terms of the...
0:27:05 > 0:27:07tapestry of British life.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10'This spring, NBC Sports In Action has made several visits to Britain.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15'Each time, we've come away impressed by the colour and vitality of the British sports public'.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19The interesting thing was the contrast that comes out very clearly
0:27:19 > 0:27:23between Eddie the rugby league person, and Eddie the commentator.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27At half-time, he's asked "What do Hunslet need to do to get back in the game?"
0:27:27 > 0:27:30They've got to get an early try if they can.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33They've got to get the ball from the scrums, and they've
0:27:33 > 0:27:36got to use winger Griffiths far more than what they have done.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39- If they do that, they're in with a chance.- 'He knows about the game.'
0:27:39 > 0:27:43He knows how it's played. He knows its tactics, its strategies.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46It's just something you hardly ever see in the BBC commentaries.
0:27:46 > 0:27:52I think it's the toughest team game in the world. They have no protection at all.
0:27:52 > 0:27:53This is quite a game, Eddie.
0:27:53 > 0:27:59Eddie would have seen it as part of the drive to expand rugby league to America.
0:27:59 > 0:28:06But in true Eddie style, he would also have seen it as a way of developing his own ambitions.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09Eddie Waring, we're very happy that you were able to be with us today.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Thanks for inviting me, and thanks for coming.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15- The American adventure never really took off.- I'll keep you to that!
0:28:15 > 0:28:19But back home, Eddie's career was about to enter the stratosphere.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22When Eddie actually becomes a household name,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25can't pin it down exactly, but there's a very good chance,
0:28:25 > 0:28:30I would contend that it's with the 1968 Challenge Cup final,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33the now infamous Water-splash Final, and the Don Fox moment.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41It's Leeds against Wakefield, and Don Fox is Trinity's goal-kicking machine.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43Gets at it, kicks it,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46and he gets two points for it.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50But as the game wore on, another factor came into play, the weather.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52Well, the holiday season's coming,
0:28:52 > 0:28:55so it gets you into practice for the beach.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58In truth, it probably shouldn't have been played.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03The pitch was waterlogged. It was almost a game of water polo, there was so much water on the pitch.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09At the last minute, Wakefield scored a try from their kick-off.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11It's a try! It's a try!
0:29:14 > 0:29:16It was 11-10 to Leeds.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21Don Fox, all he had to do was kick a goal from the front of the post
0:29:21 > 0:29:24to win the Cup for Wakefield Trinity.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27What a grandstand finish this is.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32He's missed it! He missed it! He's on the ground, he's missed it.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35And there goes the whistle for time.
0:29:35 > 0:29:42Any other commentator at that moment watching Don Fox miss that goal, would have shouted something like
0:29:42 > 0:29:47"What an idiot", or something along those lines or "Oh, no, Wakefield have lost", that type of approach.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50Eddie didn't do that. He went straight for the humanity of it.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52What a dramatic...
0:29:52 > 0:29:55Everybody's got their head in their hands,
0:29:55 > 0:29:59and he's in tears. He's in tears. He's a poor lad.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02Eddie just felt for him, and said so.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05There's the poor lad.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08It came from the depths of Eddie, didn't it?
0:30:08 > 0:30:09What a moment to live with.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15I think that really clicked with the nation at large.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17I think people would have seen that on the news bulletins.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22So for the first time, it wasn't just about the sporting audience, everybody saw it.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25In fact, viewers were starting to see a lot more
0:30:25 > 0:30:28of Eddie on their TV screens.
0:30:28 > 0:30:34Mr Rugby League himself, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Eddie Waring!
0:30:34 > 0:30:37APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:30:39 > 0:30:46# By the old mill stream... #
0:30:46 > 0:30:51Eddie the TV personality was taking off.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56And he was soon to get the perfect vehicle for his growing career.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00MUSIC: "It's A Knockout" THEME
0:31:00 > 0:31:04It's A Knockout became one of the biggest shows on TV.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08Are you ready, girls? HOOTER BLOWS
0:31:08 > 0:31:13But for some viewers, there was a blurring between Eddie the rugby league commentator,
0:31:13 > 0:31:15and Eddie the entertainer.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17You've got your tooter.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19Was Eddie laughing with the game, or poking fun at it?
0:31:19 > 0:31:22- HOOTER BLASTS - Off they go!
0:31:22 > 0:31:27I wasn't consulted, but I would have been against it if I had been, for the simple reason that
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Knockout was a send-up, really.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34Well, the last one's all right, because it was in the spout before I blew the hooter, so we count that.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39Eddie's commentary on Knockout was remarkably similar to that of rugby league.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42Three jesters have to get through the hoop...
0:31:42 > 0:31:44And he's in for the early bath.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49That made the stick a positive cudgel to beat him with.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54And on the terraces, the knockabout nature of It's A Knockout wasn't going down well either.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01Never seen anything like this, certainly not this pillow fight...
0:32:01 > 0:32:07I think it made us feel that we weren't being taken seriously, that somehow,
0:32:07 > 0:32:09rugby league was not as other sports,
0:32:09 > 0:32:12and it didn't need to be treated with the same respect.
0:32:12 > 0:32:17The equivalent of Eddie Waring would have been Tommy Cooper
0:32:17 > 0:32:20covering the All England Tennis Championships.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24He was certainly moving in different circles.
0:32:24 > 0:32:29A string of sports stars and actors all experienced an audience with Eddie.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37He was a cross between a Bradford mill owner and a matinee idol.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40THEY LAUGH
0:32:41 > 0:32:49I don't think it ever went to his head that he was a famous person, although he did like fame.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52There was now a danger that Eddie's public profile
0:32:52 > 0:32:55was becoming bigger than the game he was commentating on.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05Whilst most viewers were now getting their weekly fix of rugby league and Eddie via Grandstand
0:33:05 > 0:33:07and the Floodlit Trophy,
0:33:07 > 0:33:13one primetime BBC documentary in 1969 showed the game in a whole new light.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17The Game That Got Away was an authored piece about rugby league.
0:33:17 > 0:33:22And it touched upon a growing cause of concern - how the game was portrayed on TV.
0:33:22 > 0:33:28We've got a big crowd at Wigan and the home team, who until last Saturday, hadn't lost a match,
0:33:28 > 0:33:32they're rather keen to, of course, break this Castleford record.
0:33:32 > 0:33:33There's two games.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37There's the game you see on television and the game you see here.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40It can be the same game in the sense that television
0:33:40 > 0:33:43can be here and Eddie Waring, who is perhaps the best commentator
0:33:43 > 0:33:45can be here. But the thing he's presenting
0:33:45 > 0:33:48comes over as a kind of comedy, doesn't it?
0:33:48 > 0:33:52Almost as a rival to all-in wrestling, and that isn't the game at all.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55The game is a very serious, very tough game.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59But it's also, although the players would blush if you said this,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02it's a very intelligent game. Almost an intellectual game.
0:34:04 > 0:34:09The programme also lifted the lid on the murky world of business and money,
0:34:09 > 0:34:13and especially how clubs would tempt players away from union to join the professional code.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20I had £4,000 in £5 notes in a brown paper parcel.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22- Yes...- No kidding, this.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26It's usually a working-class type of fellow that,
0:34:26 > 0:34:29shall I say, takes the bait or makes the right decision.
0:34:29 > 0:34:36The only people that we leave alone, seriously, when the people are going to Oxford and Cambridge,
0:34:36 > 0:34:42we always say "Well, that's something out of our...there's no chance of getting these boys."
0:34:42 > 0:34:46And a certain former rugby boss had also had a go at poaching players.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48Oh, it was just a job of work.
0:34:48 > 0:34:54I never thought...you know, it's like going and buying a stake in a hotel or something.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58I don't look upon it as anything very difficult.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02The higher Eddie's profile rose, the more he became a figure of mystery
0:35:02 > 0:35:06who operated not from the BBC or from a rugby ground,
0:35:06 > 0:35:08but from the Queens Hotel in the centre of Leeds.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13He kind of almost established himself as the...
0:35:13 > 0:35:18separate headquarters for his coverage of the game.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21It was almost like an alternative seat of power.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27It was a place for him to strut his stuff and to appear the big man.
0:35:27 > 0:35:33If he'd got people there from the Rugby Football League, for example, he would take calls from the BBC.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36There was a standing joke that a lot of the time, that was just showbiz.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40He'd be talking to somebody from the Rugby League, and a telephone call would come
0:35:40 > 0:35:44through and the bellboy would go "Mr Waring, it's David Attenborough from the BBC."
0:35:44 > 0:35:50From the Queens, Eddie also helped fix deals for the game's star players.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55Sometimes, you'd get a bit... wanting to go to another club.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59So Eddie arranged it. Private meeting.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01We met at his hotel in Leeds.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04We had a chat,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08and I think if I'd put my mind to it and really wanted to go,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12I should have done, because Leeds was a tremendous club.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15And Eddie arranged that for me. That would have been great for me.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20And it wasn't just player deals that Eddie was involved in.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24He also brought sponsors to the table that would play to a Northern stereotype.
0:36:24 > 0:36:30Rugby league needed money, and over the years, a string of brewery and tobacco companies got involved.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33This is a match sponsored by John Player No.6.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39They were attracted by a target audience, and Eddie Waring.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42It's often been said about Eddie that he had a bit of stardust about him
0:36:42 > 0:36:47and if you got close to him, who knows, a bit of that stardust might sprinkle off on to you.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51There was definitely an element of that with those sorts of sponsors.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53But the Queens Hotel played another role.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57It kept his public and private lives very separate.
0:36:57 > 0:37:02Eddie had married in the early 1930s, but the relationship hadn't lasted.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06When that broke down, Eddie met the real love of his life,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09which is Mary, with whom he had his son, Tony.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12Whilst we, probably, today wouldn't see that as in any way
0:37:12 > 0:37:14particularly scandalous,
0:37:14 > 0:37:16I think Eddie was always slightly nervous that,
0:37:16 > 0:37:21had any of this got out into the public arena, it may have brought an end to his career.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27Off the field, Eddie's Mr Fixer reputation was growing.
0:37:27 > 0:37:33On tour, he'd sort out problems for players, and back home he'd organise rugby league road shows
0:37:33 > 0:37:38where he'd show the films he'd taken of the Great Britain team playing down under.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41Eddie's roadshows could fill town halls.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44In fact, one town hall, Huddersfield,
0:37:44 > 0:37:49he was reluctant to go there because it was a very big town hall, and he felt he couldn't fill it.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51But the local Huddersfield chap said,
0:37:51 > 0:37:55"There's only two things that can fill Huddersfield Town Hall.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58"One is Eddie Waring and the other is the Messiah."
0:37:59 > 0:38:04Eddie did the show, and he filled Huddersfield Town Hall.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07He got some football people like Bill Shankly, Matt Busby.
0:38:07 > 0:38:14All the people you'd never dream of going in the back room of a pub, Eddie got them there.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20While Eddie became more of a household name, rugby league's decline continued.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27In the early '60s, it became fashionable to be from the North.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32Rugby league never became part of that,
0:38:32 > 0:38:37partially because I think it was more fashionable to be from the North
0:38:37 > 0:38:39than it was to be in the North.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43I think the 13-a-side code went through very difficult times.
0:38:43 > 0:38:49I would say from about 1965-66 onwards, wages were increasing.
0:38:49 > 0:38:55Attendances were dropping because there was more sport on television, so it affected gates.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58By 1970,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01a member of the Rugby League Council, the game's governing body, was
0:39:01 > 0:39:07so much in despair that he said "Rugby league is not dying, it's dead."
0:39:08 > 0:39:13Rugby league was enduring its darkest days, but Eddie's star continued to rise.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15And it's the winner!
0:39:15 > 0:39:17THEY PROTEST
0:39:18 > 0:39:23For people in the North of England, rugby league was not just about winning and losing.
0:39:23 > 0:39:29It carried so much more resonance in terms of politics, class, in terms of...
0:39:29 > 0:39:34real or imagined grievances at the way that society treated them.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36This is a funny shape for a football, Eddie.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40- It depends how you pull it out and push it in.- So I've heard.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43For Eddie then to come along and start popping up on game shows and
0:39:43 > 0:39:47things like that, and appear to be making fun of the game,
0:39:47 > 0:39:49really put a lot of people's backs up.
0:39:49 > 0:39:54He just loved to tell you about what he was going to be appearing in,
0:39:54 > 0:39:57and things he'd be doing with Mike Yarwood.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01'Thank you very much, Mr Gascoin,'
0:40:01 > 0:40:05Gascoinee, Gas, Mr Gas...Bamber.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10My name is Eddie Waring, and I am a rugby league raconteur.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Purists would take the view that... Did he sell out?
0:40:15 > 0:40:21Like a lot of people, he saw the opportunities that television
0:40:21 > 0:40:23offered up to him.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26You might say actually, you'd be daft to turn them down.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29CHEERING Thought you were going to trip up.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34It was petty jealousy. It was for rugby league, and a lot of people thought it was for his ego.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38Nothing could be further from the truth.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42These colours of blue and red are Wakefield Trinity in rugby...
0:40:42 > 0:40:48You often hear it said that he almost sold his soul in a way.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53He basically became not so much an Uncle Eddie as an Uncle Tom for the
0:40:53 > 0:40:58BBC, and gave them the image of the North that they wanted to portray.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03- How are you all up there, I ask myself, in Yorkshireland? - Hello, Cilla.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07I think Eddie was simply being Eddie. He was an entertainer.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09He wanted to entertain people.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12Back on the pitch, Eddie's influence was growing.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17Rugby league was a winter sport, and cold weather could play havoc with the fixture list.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22For Eddie and the TV outside broadcast team, this was a problem that had to be overcome.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25So we get there, and maybe the pitch was frozen.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28And we say "Why haven't you got any braziers out?"
0:41:28 > 0:41:32Because that's the only way you could unfreeze a pitch in those days.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37So Eddie and I sometimes physically moved braziers around.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42And on one occasion, due to extreme weather, most of Grandstand's sport
0:41:42 > 0:41:46was called off, and all eyes were on Eddie.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48The frost was ten yards in at least.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53The visiting side came and their coach said "No way, I'm not risking my players on that."
0:41:53 > 0:41:57Eddie turned to me and said, "Do you know the referee?" I said "Yeah, I know him well."
0:41:57 > 0:42:02He said, "Right, we'll go to the end of the car park, and when he comes, sort him."
0:42:02 > 0:42:06By that, he meant I told him that Eddie would see him after the game
0:42:06 > 0:42:11and it would be in his best interests to make sure the game went ahead.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15His career would probably take an upward curve...and...
0:42:15 > 0:42:17the game went ahead.
0:42:19 > 0:42:24Rugby league's money problems were still an issue, and in 1971 the sport
0:42:24 > 0:42:27commissioned management consultants to take a deep look at the game.
0:42:27 > 0:42:33Just a few sentences of the Caine Report were devoted to Eddie, but the impact was huge.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37The report said the BBC's coverage was harmful to the game,
0:42:37 > 0:42:39and that the commentator had little credibility.
0:42:39 > 0:42:45Eddie might be entertaining, but the laughter was patronising.
0:42:45 > 0:42:51Eddie called a press conference to deny that his commentary was detrimental to the game.
0:42:51 > 0:42:58And the BBC came to support him to say what a wonderful chap Eddie was and he wasn't just A commentator,
0:42:58 > 0:43:00he was THE commentator,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03and anybody who criticised Eddie Waring didn't understand rugby league.
0:43:03 > 0:43:08I think the thing that upset sometimes was the feeling of
0:43:08 > 0:43:14people saying he didn't know about the game, which was clearly untrue.
0:43:14 > 0:43:21I think he tended to take the view that the prophet isn't recognised in his own land.
0:43:21 > 0:43:26The press had a field day, but the BBC stood squarely behind their man.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30I seem to remember the BBC said, "No Eddie, no contract."
0:43:30 > 0:43:35The BBC wouldn't be told by any sport what commentator it could use anyway.
0:43:36 > 0:43:42In this instance, there was no question that it would be anyone other than Eddie Waring.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49On the terraces, the relationship between Eddie and his employer seemed less than straightforward.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51Some supporters felt that in sticking with Eddie,
0:43:51 > 0:43:57the BBC was propagating a Northern caricature who relied on humour rather than analysis.
0:43:57 > 0:44:02Others saw a pro-union bias at the heart of the corporation.
0:44:02 > 0:44:03Absolute nonsense.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07We didn't come much rugby union other than the internationals in those days.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10There was no pro-rugby union bias.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14When there was a big rugby league event such as the Rugby League Cup Final
0:44:14 > 0:44:16or a rugby league international,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19then rugby league got the same sort of treatment
0:44:19 > 0:44:22as a rugby union international would get.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26In the aftermath of the Caine Report, Eddie threatened legal action,
0:44:26 > 0:44:30and in his Sunday Mirror column, he hit back at his critics.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33"Rugby is a very difficult game to understand.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37"I could teach 22 Aborigines to play soccer in half an hour.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42"I couldn't teach 26 undergraduates how to scrummage in less than half a day.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44"My job is twofold - to get as much out of
0:44:44 > 0:44:48"each game as I can for the viewers, and to sell the game nationally.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51"I think I do both."
0:44:52 > 0:44:58The Caine Report did lead to structural changes within the game, but ironically, with the full weight
0:44:58 > 0:45:04of the BBC behind him, Eddie's position as the voice and face of rugby league was stronger than ever.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09And within months, almost 20 million viewers would see Eddie on his biggest stage yet.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11- Fred Astaire.- And Ginger Rogers.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17It's The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special of 1971,
0:45:17 > 0:45:22and Eddie's rubbing shoulders with some of the BBC's big names.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24# Lovelier... #
0:45:24 > 0:45:28Eddie said to me "When you're booked for the Morecambe and Wise, David, you've arrived".
0:45:28 > 0:45:34# ..While there's moonlight and music and love and romance
0:45:35 > 0:45:39# Let's face the music and dance... #
0:45:41 > 0:45:44LOUD CHEERS
0:45:44 > 0:45:47Eddie's raised profile was paying off.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52Audience research conducted by the BBC showed he had a new and growing fan base.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54He was becoming a cult figure.
0:45:54 > 0:45:59- AS EDDIE:- This lad's a plumber, and we all think he's a grand lad!
0:45:59 > 0:46:04He seemed to go down, shall we say, rather better in the South than the North.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08There was a strong body of opinion in the North that the sooner
0:46:08 > 0:46:16he was bundled out of his commentary position and dispatched to the outer mountains somewhere, the better.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21I did have plans to kidnap him just before the Saturday afternoon broadcast,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24and releasing him after the match.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28I think you imagined that bit.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35We scrapped those plans as a step too far.
0:46:35 > 0:46:41But patience on the terraces was wearing thin, and fans were demanding action.
0:46:41 > 0:46:47In 1976, the BBC received a petition from the 1895 Club, a supporters'
0:46:47 > 0:46:51group who took their name from an earlier time of rugby revolution.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55They said 11,000 people had signed their petition.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57Some had offered their signatures in blood.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00They wanted big changes in how the game was portrayed.
0:47:00 > 0:47:05He actually got in the way of the game being properly presented.
0:47:05 > 0:47:10He personified what the BBC wanted to make of rugby league,
0:47:10 > 0:47:14this cloth cap, Northern working-men's,
0:47:14 > 0:47:19pigeon-fanciers, whippet races image of the game.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21You felt you were being patronised.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23Eddie sort of...
0:47:23 > 0:47:27embodied a North of England that had probably disappeared by the end
0:47:27 > 0:47:30of the Second World War, or was well on the way to disappearing.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32This was the 1970s, remember.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36The BBC disputed both the size of the protest
0:47:36 > 0:47:38and many of the points that were raised.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42It said the game's national profile was mainly down to Eddie.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45Nevertheless, the damage had been done.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50Eddie took that to heart, because it was the real fans of rugby league
0:47:50 > 0:47:53that were making these statements.
0:47:53 > 0:48:00He felt that for all the years that he had worked for rugby league
0:48:00 > 0:48:04and promoted rugby league, that it was undeserved.
0:48:04 > 0:48:09A once flamboyant Eddie was now trying not to be noticed.
0:48:09 > 0:48:13From that point onwards, he started a slow retreat into his shell.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18He starts to feel a bit more threatened by the people around him.
0:48:18 > 0:48:23There was one situation at Widnes where we were coming off after a game,
0:48:23 > 0:48:27and somebody had waited and was giving us a load of verbal.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31And when my father and I said, "Clear off, we don't need this"
0:48:31 > 0:48:34and Eddie was perturbed about it, the bloke seemed to lunge.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38So me and my father took him down and put him to the ground and called an officer.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42This game is going to continue... at a hard pace...
0:48:42 > 0:48:46Eddie in 1976 had become...
0:48:46 > 0:48:48an exile in his own country.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53..In a rather difficult defensive position...
0:48:53 > 0:48:57He was no longer part of the rugby league community
0:48:57 > 0:49:01which he felt so strongly about 30 years previously.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08And you wonder sometimes, as he got towards the end of his career, whether late at night,
0:49:08 > 0:49:15he looked in the mirror and saw the Eddie of 1946 looking back at him and asking, "What did you do?
0:49:15 > 0:49:17"What did you do?"
0:49:17 > 0:49:21And that maybe the Eddie of 1946 would whisper to him,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24"You're a poor lad, Eddie. You're a poor lad."
0:49:27 > 0:49:31Now in his mid-sixties, Eddie still commentated every week,
0:49:31 > 0:49:35but the controversy about the BBC's rugby league coverage continued.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39The game endured a new low in 1978, when a dog wouldn't leave the pitch
0:49:39 > 0:49:44during a cup tie between Leeds and Halifax. It became national news.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46Even Blue Peter picked up the story.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50- PETER PURVES:- The collie dog, which found instant fame when commentator Eddie Waring
0:49:50 > 0:49:53gave him just as many mentions as the two-legged players.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55Doesn't run until he takes the kick.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58And...he's started to run.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01He's going to be offside, and he kicks.
0:50:01 > 0:50:07The dog spent much of the game on the pitch, in full view of the TV cameras.
0:50:07 > 0:50:15Well, I mean, this is where I would plead guilty if I was being accused of sending it up.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17I had to send it up, didn't I?
0:50:17 > 0:50:20There it is. "K. Nine." Oh, dear.
0:50:20 > 0:50:25He's what they call a five-eighths, not a three-quarters.
0:50:25 > 0:50:32Eddie was horrified, and said to me at half-time,
0:50:32 > 0:50:38was I absolutely sure that this was the right way to do all this, because it was really getting
0:50:38 > 0:50:42in the way of the game, and it wasn't doing the game any good.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46So I just said "Well, it's there. I can't ignore it.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50"So...let's go for it."
0:50:50 > 0:50:52Oh, dear.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57Eddie and the BBC took the flak, but a much bigger struggle was about to unfold.
0:50:59 > 0:51:05And the red, red robins go bob, bob, bobbing along...
0:51:05 > 0:51:10By now, TV viewers were used to the obscure nature of some of Eddie's commentaries.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12But all wasn't well.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15His delivery was becoming more erratic.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18What no-one knew was that these were the signs
0:51:18 > 0:51:21that Eddie was now fighting the greatest battle of his life.
0:51:24 > 0:51:25There were times when...
0:51:25 > 0:51:27he wasn't with it, really.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34He was struggling to commentate.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40The ball has been lost...
0:51:40 > 0:51:47But...distraught is the word, I think...
0:51:47 > 0:51:50He stops being able to identify players.
0:51:50 > 0:51:56This is a break. And a try. Andy...
0:51:59 > 0:52:02It was simply a case of "It's a try" or "He's going to score"
0:52:02 > 0:52:05or "He's dropped the ball", that sort of thing.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10Well, we've got a sub warming up.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12Just...
0:52:12 > 0:52:13I don't know...
0:52:14 > 0:52:19He was having to have stick-on labels
0:52:19 > 0:52:24posted on the window in front of him with the names of the players.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27People whispering in his ear what things were.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29This was more than forgetfulness.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31Eddie was struggling with dementia.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34With this sort of rugby, the game will never die.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40I asked him if he was thinking of retiring from the BBC.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44And for the first time in my life,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47I saw a different Eddie,
0:52:47 > 0:52:52and he turned on me and quite sternly said he would know when to retire.
0:52:52 > 0:52:58It was his business and nobody else's, and he didn't want me making those sort of comments.
0:52:58 > 0:53:04With Eddie reluctant to go, the big problem for both his family and the BBC
0:53:04 > 0:53:08was how to convince him that it was now time to hang up his microphone.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12I knew perfectly well that if I was to call Eddie to my office,
0:53:12 > 0:53:18I was head of sport at the time, or to go up to see him and say, "Eddie, we feel that the time has
0:53:18 > 0:53:23"come when you should give up", he would have been devastated. Absolutely devastated.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28So what we did between us was, over a period of a few months,
0:53:28 > 0:53:30persuade Eddie that it would be
0:53:30 > 0:53:38a good thing for him to come to me, and say that he wanted to resign while he was at the top and give up.
0:53:38 > 0:53:39And that's what happened.
0:53:40 > 0:53:45Eddie's last cup final came in 1981, and before the game,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48he was interviewed by Grandstand's David Coleman.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52A hesitant Eddie struggled with some of the questions.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54Eddie, I remember as a young reporter,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56when I was in the Manchester newsroom, you were working on news
0:53:56 > 0:53:59from the North, and you were a very straight reporter in those days.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01Yet you changed your style for commentating, and it's been very effective.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05- Was this a conscious change of style?- I don't think so.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08I think it would result in somebody saying, "You was so awful tonight"
0:54:08 > 0:54:14or "I don't fancy what you did", and then you veer into something I like,
0:54:14 > 0:54:20I remember at a match when you were there, you were running and we couldn't see you for dust.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22Enjoy it, I hope it's a good last match.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25Thanks for the way you've looked after it. Good luck.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27Thanks a lot.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34Eddie cut quite a sad figure,
0:54:34 > 0:54:36which was a shame, because...
0:54:36 > 0:54:40what was happening to the game then was what Eddie would have wanted.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42It was beginning to change.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45It was beginning to regain its old popularity.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48It was beginning to become much more modern and forward-looking,
0:54:48 > 0:54:54exactly the things that Eddie had campaigned for as a young journalist in the '40s and '50s.
0:54:54 > 0:54:59Late in 1981, Eddie received an MBE for services to rugby league.
0:54:59 > 0:55:04The dementia had now taken hold, and Eddie's health was deteriorating.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07There'd be one last visit to Headingley
0:55:07 > 0:55:11to bid farewell to the game that he loved so much.
0:55:11 > 0:55:16Just before we went to our seats, Eddie put his
0:55:16 > 0:55:22trilby hat on and his camel coat and walked towards the window.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27The crowd in the stand to our right all stood up, recognising him,
0:55:27 > 0:55:32and started applauding as much as to say, "Welcome back, Eddie."
0:55:34 > 0:55:38The applause went round and round like a Mexican wave.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41It was a very moving moment. When Eddie turned round, he was in tears.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46After spells of being nursed at home,
0:55:46 > 0:55:49and just two years after his last commentary,
0:55:49 > 0:55:54Eddie was admitted to the High Royds Psychiatric Hospital near Leeds.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00Really just...got worse.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02In the end,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06my father wasn't, didn't speak.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10So you can imagine, from a great communicator
0:56:10 > 0:56:14to be in that situation was tragic.
0:56:17 > 0:56:23To see this marvellous, vibrant man who was such a great personality
0:56:23 > 0:56:29reduced to such a state was extremely sad, very sad indeed.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38In October 1986, the man who'd brought rugby league to the nation
0:56:38 > 0:56:44finally faded away in the psychiatric unit that had become his home.
0:56:44 > 0:56:45He was 76.
0:56:53 > 0:56:58The years after Eddie's death, saw great changes for the sport that he'd championed.
0:56:58 > 0:57:05In 1995, one hundred years since the great rugby split, the feud with union was finally over.
0:57:05 > 0:57:10The 15-a-side game had also turned professional.
0:57:10 > 0:57:12Despite Eddie's hopes for expansion,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16rugby league remained tied to its Northern roots.
0:57:16 > 0:57:21But a new revolution brought Super League, summer rugby and new names for some old teams.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26There were also millions of pounds from Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, bringing respite
0:57:26 > 0:57:29from the financial troubles which had dogged the game for so long.
0:57:32 > 0:57:38The way in which it's adopted the nicknames, it brought in the razzmatazz,
0:57:38 > 0:57:43attracted families on the basis of the match-day experience.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48That was the type of thing that Eddie was arguing for in the 1940s.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52And this demonstrates how far ahead of his time he really was.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56He was born 100 years ago.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01And still, people...
0:58:01 > 0:58:07remember him and put rugby league and Eddie Waring in the same sentence.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13It's easy to overlook the entrepreneurial nature of the man
0:58:13 > 0:58:16and the fact that he was actually a visionary.
0:58:16 > 0:58:21Yes, he was a comical figure and an entertainer, but first and foremost he was a rugby league man
0:58:21 > 0:58:26who was both of his time and a rugby league man who was ahead of his time.
0:58:40 > 0:58:43Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:43 > 0:58:46E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk