The Quite Remarkable David Coleman

Hello. I'm speaking from the observation platform at London

Airport. And this is the moment they've been

waiting for. David Coleman, the pioneer of modern sports

broadcasting died peacefully in his sleep on the 21st December last

year. Leaving a loving family and just

about every generation of television viewer from black-and-white to

digital to mourn his passing. It really is quite a remarkable

sight, certainly one of the most remarkable sights in Britain today.

There'll not be another David Coleman. Irreplaceable.

He touched all of our lives in one way or another.

Fantastic run. When I was growing up, David was on the screen most

nights of the week. He was there for the big moments. Pele. What a save!

Gordon Banks! As soon as he got a microphone in front of him, he was

excited so everyone watching him was too. This is ridiculous. The

Portuguese are torn apart. Just seemed to always hit the mark. Even

if it was just something like "1-0! ".

"1-0", that's it, you know. Driven wide. Yes! Dad, can you say hello to

me when you're on the telly. He said, when I touch my ear, I'm

saying hello to you and suddenly he's touching his ear and we are

going "he said hello". ". Remarkable. From the heart it was

timed. He was one of these commentators who was a comforting

feature in the background who you could trust. Princess Anne becomes

the first member of the Royal Family to take part in a quiz show. An

amazing coup. Seb Co E-bacc at his best. The Olympic champion as well.

David Coleman said you ran well, that was better than your coach

saying well. I was in awe of him, as just about everybody else was. Steve

Ovett. Those blue eyes like chips of ice. You wouldn't know that the

Rolls-Royce wasn't the standard. Th The man that lost his way was Seb

Coe. It was only when I listened to his commentaries that I realised I

was sitting next to a Rolls-Royce. Going for gold. He gets the gold.

For television audiences of the 20th century, the name of David Coleman

will forever be associated with the BBC. So it seemed fitting here that

at Broadcasting House, colleague, friends and family gathered to

celebrate his life. Let me take you back to Saturday,

September 21st, 1971. A voice from the Grandstand studio shouted in my

ear "we only want 45 seconds from you Motson! " Coleman, sitting about

four or five yards down shouted back from the other end "do what you want

and let them sort it out". I'll never forget in 1990 in Cuba,

Lynford Christie winning the 100 metres and the programme finished,

we got off air and the phone rang from London, saying the satellite

went down during 100 metres. He said, can you give us a bit of

sound. He said "are you standing by, VT in London" and somebody said yes

and he held his watch like this and went one, two, three and he said,

"even start and it's Lynford Christie". I think you will find

that's good enough, he said. Two of the favourites are out of it

now. David's last big job was at Sydney

with all the satellite feeds and computerised graphics that we take

so much for granted today. What a contrast all this was

compared with his first live broadcast 45 years earlier. From

where I'm sitting, it looks pretty good. 7-2 this afternoon Wolves v

Manchester City and they are on their way back. David knew about

athletics, partly because he was one himself, a very good one. He won the

Manchester mile in 1949. I first became aware of the Olympic Games

listening to a radio set in 1936. I was ten years old. And I've been

fascinated by Olympic history ever since. I've now become part of it.

But not the part I wanted! I was going to be the 15050 metre gold

medallist, but I wasn't good enough -- 1500 metre. He often talked

ability what had most impact on him as being a person, that was being in

the Army actually because he was called up when he was 18. He was a

PE Instructor, as well as working on the signals and things based in

Kenya, so he had to grow up really fast. It taught him a lot of

discipline in life and, you know, that stayed with him ever since.

There were no media studies courses in those days, he just got on wit.

At the tender age of 22, he'd become the Editor of the County Press in

Cheshire, landing a job as a news Assistant at BBC Birmingham in 1954

and he made his first television appearance on Sport Special, soon

afterwards. Good evening and welcome to the second edition of Sports

Special, the Saturday night programme. Those were the days when

BBC announcers had such posh act send, they made even the Queen sound

a little common. We are calling on Birmingham, up there our reporter

David Coleman is bringing us the Midlands point of view. But not

David. He was a grammar schoolboy, an ordinary boy with an

extraordinary ability. The BBC, don't forget, it was people sat down

in a dinner jacket and read the news. Up until the 60s, he wouldn't

have been employed as a doorman, never mind a presenter, the '60s

changed that. David came in with that tsunami, if you like, of

working class and low middle class kids who found a way point to --

into the BBC. Roy Swinbourne was taking the goals. We useded to love

going up to see dad's parents as children because they lived in

Manchester in Alderley Edge and it was the cobbled street, two up two

down, outside toilet, it was Coronation Street revisited. It was

fascinating. One person out of four in Burnley goes to see the football

club in action. A higher percentage of the population than anywhere else

in the country. You saw the way he had started his life and he'd really

never changed. On Saturday this week, Peterborough United, the

non-league club, go to Huddersfield Town, the Second Division club to

meet them in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The first thing I knew about

him was, he was working as a journalist for the BBC in

Birmingham. I think he did an interview with Danny Blanchflower

and I saw that and thought, well, here is a man we need to bring down

to London. In 1958, he replaced Peter Dimmock

as presenter of the BBC's news Saturday afternoon programme,

Grandstand. He was to stay in that job for ten

years. Ten hugely successful years.

Welcome to the programme today. We have every one of the top

international swimmers in Great Britain. He was broadcasting with

the adrenaline sloshing around. It somehow had everybody sitting on the

edges of their seats too. Everybody was very sharp and focussed.

Everybody was on their game all the time when David was broadcasting. As

well as live sport, Grandstand dipped its toe into nueshz cover

covering stories such as The Beatles returning from the US from their

triumphant tour in 1964. Never before have we seen scenes like

these. He was the voice of sport. Television, athletic, swimming. His

knowledge was quite remarkable, but I suppose if you do it for 350 years

like David did, you are bound to gather something over the years. The

latest on the FA Cup at Wembley, and sensational news too. On a Saturday

morning he used to call me into the bathroom, he'd be there with his

towel and the foam on his face and he'd said "I want you test me" these

were the days when they had the special printer. They must be

playing extra time. Celtic 1, Rangers 1. It's like so-and-so

scores so many away wins and that kind of thing and he'd have it all

and I'd test him every Saturday morning before he went. He believed

in homework and had an attentive memory and wouldn't go into any

set-up under-prepared. Bournemouth 0, Shrewsbury 0. He invented Final

Score effectively. It was never done before ever. It was mimicked by a

few others, but none reached the standards he did. When I watched

Coleman in action on the teleprinter giving the football results, it was

a delight. He was so skilful and knowledgeable at that. One just

gazed in admiration, quite frankly. Brighton 1, Watford 4. Brighton

remain third from bottom, Watford's first away win in 11 matches.

Obviously today, there are people that do this wonderfully well, but

David I think was the first. Before the technology came in to help him

along and when you're the first, I guess everyone wants to build on

what's gone before. What a great honour it is to have

you with us in the Grandstand studio. Television was changing at a

break neck speed. Live broadcasts were becoming routine. He handled

them with great aplomb. This is the winning trophy is it? -

risks of going live were only too obvious with television recording

still in its infancy. In this new broadcasting world, timing was

everything. Anyway, here is someone who is often

seen, Peter O'Sullivan. The big race will be shown today on the great

Victoria Cup. He worked on television, but we didn't think

anything more of it, he could have driven a bus. He went to work and we

didn't realise how important it was. He did take us in one Saturday

morning, David and I went, my twin. The producer was called David. The

screaming and shouting that went on...

We could see dad on the monitor and he was listening to all this in his

earphone and we are thinking, what is going on, you know, and you could

see the clock and there's 30 seconds to go and it looks like bedlam.

Suddenly it was cue David and he looks at the camera and gets on wit.

It was amazing. At the start of the programme we were showing a Cup

Final from Glasgow. By now, the space age arrived. Satellites wither

bouncing pictures from continent to continent and David was reiring the

new opportunities it gave him. Getting a rugby match and a fight.

Everything going in there. How this game can possibly keep going...

Chile v Italy, the first time the two countries have met, we hope it

will be the last. By reason or by force is Chile's motto. Today they

were prepared to be reasonable. The Italians only used force. And the

result was a disaster for the World Cup.

He was never short on an opinion and it chimed publicly. I'm sure there

were people that used to get irritated but they were normally

from vested interests in the sport. The public always liked people that

go on television and give an unvarnished view of what you are

about to watch or what you have just seen. If the up with is going to

survive in its present form, something's got to be done about

teams that play like this. After seeing the film tonight, you at home

may well think that teams that play in this manner ought to be expelled

immediately from the competition. See what you think.

That was Salvatore. I think the game is over. Till Ashton on his way to

the dressing room. I don't think there's ever been a football match

played liabling this in Chile or indeed anywhere else in the world.

One thing I would say about David Coleman more than anything else, he

was a success because he was an enthusiast. He loved football. He

did. He was at the stage where the world was sootedenly concentrating

on football -- suddenly. As a football commentator, David

pulled off the remarkable feat of combining his calm master art with

the occasional touch of hysteria. He must score, he must score! Well,

this is ridiculous. The Portuguese are torn apart.

They wanted him to be more than a detached by stander, to feel that he

was involved. His audience loved him for that.

My first ever memory of a World Cup was really England playing in Mexico

in 1970. That save from Gordon Banks brilliantly commentated on by David

Coleman. Dame Janet rows. Oh, and he look looks like he's getting there.

Pele! What a save! -- dangerous. He added occasion to the World Cups or

the games. His voice is always the one I'll remember in football.

Liverpool swarming forward knew. -- now. Keegan. Goal. Keegan does it.

He once said to me, throw your homework away, but he didn't mean

that literally, but he meant, I was getting bogged down with too many

facts and figures, when really all that mattered was what was going

Onuoha the pitch. That just meant I should describe and interpret it.

These were great lessons I learned from him.

Keegan and the one-two. And it's 3-1. The keeper buries his face in

anguish. The first time I remember his persona coming across to me, the

Sunderland fans will remember the 1973 Cup Final. We won 1-0 against

Leeds, I remember running out in the street meeting my friends and they

were all going, "1-0"! "Porterfield, 1-0! ". ".

Astonishing. Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Kent. And no wonder he

kissed it. He made the 1-0, it wasn't an attempt to imitate him

because I don't think anybody could, but people, if he didn't say it,

they thought, what's happened to David. They expected it. Going to

take him on. Round the back. Clark. 1-0!

1-0. 1-0. Everyone used to say 1-0, that's it, you know. People would

say, I wonder what he'll say when it's two. Best is upfront. There he

is, the defence split. Can he do it? He surely must. What a goal to score

and who can score it but George Best with the skill, the timing, the

confidence, to take it on and on and on until the net was bare. You don't

win matches if you don't take chances and he had such a

distinctive phrase. That's how I remember David, as the football

commentator that we all listened to. I remember the first thing I had to

do, I had to go with him, he had a four-seater plane that took him from

an aerodrome in Buckinghamshire to wherever the game was and flew him

back in the evening. It was amazing, he came home for supper and came in

to introduce Match Of The Day because he was a presenteder, as

well as a commentator. He loved to come home, he'd rather come home

than stay away, if possible. He'd rather come home to eat. He used to

get stopped for speeding a lot. Pf If there were speed cameras then,

like there are now, I don't think he'd have a licence. Going in the

car and saying the run away train went over the hill and he blew the

horn and we are all going, oh, no, we are going to get stopped by

police. He'd carry on "the runaway train went over the hill and blew"

and we loved it. . And he'd do it again. He wrote his car off coming

back from an interview in Northampton and turned his car over

eight times, came out with a scratch and got a taxi back to the studio to

do the programme. That was what he was like. It had to be done. Very

business-like. Mickey, how long have you been boxing? Six months.

David was the master of many disciplines. His interviewing was

opinionated but informed. He knew attitudes to broadcasting were

changing, as society changed. He knew exactly what he could and could

not get away with. I became number one. I have been loose in my

beliefs. I've been an Islamic believer, I didn't pray like I

should pray and I didn't eat like I should eat. Surely the most

important thing for you is that your pride's been hurt? This is what you

say. I didn't say my pride's been hurt. His interviewing technique was

always good. He was never a waffler, that's something I've very much

learned from him, never talk too much. We touched on the possibility

of you getting a possibility as a direct person. What are you like at

home? Quite normal in actual fact to. Be a direct person is quite a

compliment because there's so many people not direct. I've mingled with

politicians in my life and they are an absolute disgrace. His

interviewing skills were fluent, he listened carefully, he wasn't afraid

to interrupt if he had something to say. He wasn't, I have to say, not

daunted by the prospect of interviewing very important people.

That's because I think he had a great gift for putting people at

ease. I'm not terribly sure how to start

this interview. Do we start by calling you Sir Alfred? Ish at the

beginning and finish off by where we left our previous meeting. Britain's

soccer star Jimmy grieves is back in the country he seems to miss so

much. He left eight days ago to honour his contract with Milan --

Jimmy Greave St Helens. REPORTER: What's in the news? What

do you mean? It's reported that you are not going back to Italy. Is that

true? No, not at the moment, I'm going back Friday. You are going

back are you? Certainly. He was a brave as well as talented

broadcaster. There wasn't anything he wasn't prepared to have a go at

doing. He never backed off. It was always full only with David. If you

have never seen slow motion before, you can have a look at it for the

first time in this country. Let's take them through. Gnash in the dark

kit is clearly the winner. If we can check their placings. Sorry about

that, as you might have gathered, we have not used that machine very

often and need a bit of practise. We'll check later on how the boys

finished. The big difference between them and

now, black-and-white television and now, was that the equipment was

absolutely awful. I mean, you could hear the clunk of the cameras,

they'd go boing. You got down the defence. The first one was

Callaghan? We might rescue that. Talking about the first being a

classic there. If I keep talking, we might be able to rescue that. Both

the en opening goals came from wingmen. If our presenter and you

have an autocue, it's printed on toilet roll and it would break

within 30 seconds, so you had to be prepared for that and David was. He

was an exemplary pro. He never went into anything without being properly

prepared. How do you like being described as the Prime Minister's

secret weapon? Ah it's great, yes. I didn't get the bit where they said

earning all these dollars for Britain. Are we sharing?

By now, the BBC was beginning to build its sports programming around

David. In 1968, he fronted a new concept

based on exploiting his challenging style.

Could be a bit Robin Dayish in his time. Interesting. Sportsnight with

Coleman changed things a bit because, here for the first time,

was the man who was in charge of the programme was the presenter, if your

name is on the title, you should have the last say.

Good evening, tonight the final of the commentator's competition, the

BBC's nationwide search to find an extra commentator to join the team

when we cover the World Cup in Mexico next year. When he was sat in

the Coleman studio, you got the impression he was probably

producing, commentating, producing, doing everything from that seat.

Tells you something about what the BBC recognised. They recognised that

putting his name in title, millions of viewers would recognise that that

programme was fronted by one of the world's best sports broadcasters,

David Coleman. He was a hard man to avoid but the vast growing sporting

audience seemed perfectly happy. He seemed to have his finger on the

pulse of the sporting nation. There you are, a wonderful present for

you. Two ?4 stand tickets. Thank you. Enjoy the match. No doubt about

Leicester City winning? No. It wasn't just his voice, it was

everything, Sportsnight with Coleman. It made it real to have

him. I'm getting a tired about hearing about the magic of the

Brazilians. Do you think we have taken anything out of the World Cup?

Have you learned anything from the World Cup? He would pin people. The

days of the soft soap of an interview which actually we have

almost got back into was something he changed. He changed the rules. If

you went on that show and you were the international President of a

sports federation, you either were very naive or stupid to go on there

unbriefed. I've seen him absolutely take people apart and he took

pleasure in it. Do you regard yourself as being tough? No, I

don't. This is just about the most

representative and complete array of sportsmen ever assembled in the

country. Top of the table, last year's winner, David Broom. The most

eagerly awaited programme was Sports Review of this year and this is

where his confrontational style met his match. Since you have been so

successful, you find it so relaxing? Not really, no. Competitions aren't

at all relaxing, no. Which section of the three-day event do you enjoy

best? The end. How much time have you got for

training and what do you do? Normally speaking, I rely on the

amount of riding I manage to do to keep me fit, but on that particular

occasion, I didn't summon up enough energy to do some extra.

Spend our life asking people questions, we do it all the time.

It's being on the end of other people's questions, you slightly

feel for them. On the other hand, that's their business, you know,

supply the answers to the questions. I think he probably subsequently may

have thought he was foolish to ask me what fitness work I did when I

did my exercises and I said I did them at night and stopped. He looked

at me and the people round about me starting to titter and that was the

end of the interview. Early morning training? Actually, it was late at

night. Oh!

LAUGHTER. His relationship with famous limp

Cumbrians and the games themselves would eventually come to define his

later years in broadcasting -- Olympians.

Now we only have a few moments to wait before the climax of the events

in Tokyo. As we wait for what has been described as the best Olympic

athletics ever, meet the girl who ran the race of her life yesterday.

Ann packer had six demanding days, before the record-breaking 800

metres and she spoke with David Coleman just after. The French girl

was well clear. Did you think you were going to catch her? I think at

that moment I did because I had no pain... David always had a very

personal approach to people that he was going to be talking about and I

think really that's why he was able to communicate so well to the public

the sort of thoughts and feelings and ups and downs of a sportsman's

career. Packer on the outside. Got to do a

lot of running to get there. And she's doing it. He was a very good

athlete himself and every other athlete that worked with him will

feel that the commentary he did for them was the special one. And it was

special buzzth because he delivered a lot of special ones. I thought

after I finished I'd give anything to hear your voice getting excited.

We are about to send the sound commentary up to London. Can we pick

up the last part of it. Here she goes on the outside. A tremendous

run! She's going to do it. Ann Packer is going to take the gold!

His voice was breaking and people remember his commentary more than my

race I think. What a consolation. Ann Packer wins.

Fantastic run! Fantastic indeed, I must say. I've

worked on athletics and they say every time they look back at their

greatest, favourite moment, it's the words of David Coleman that bring

them to tears. They say it would. The same if it wasn't with David

Coleman. He was a bit of a mentor really. We were able to talk to him

about what we were doing in training and he was always interested and

because of his knowledge, he was able to appreciate how things were

going for us. You are on the kerb and you seem to be blocked. I

interrupted him one day and he said, I'm just going up the hill. His

focus was unbelievable. He was still running in his 70s.

Thank you very much for coming out and breaking training. Thank you

very much. It's a great pleasure to be with you again. He presented no

fewer than 11 Olympic Games, from Rome in 19609 to Sydney in 2000.

-- 1960. They've been all over the place in this race. Undoubtedly, his

most challenging broadcast was Munich in 1972.

There's now a total security clampdown on the Olympic village.

He was on air for several hours live and unscripted during one of the

most harrowing episodes in sporting history.

I don't think there's any question that what was such a tragedy was

certainly David's finest hour as a broadcaster because he had nothing

to talk about for the better part of a day. Yet he made it all work. I

remember very, very clearly sitting there marvelling because I did

think, in that situation, what do you do now. I thought, he didn't

have any help, but he was there as a sole eyewitness of that

extraordinary event and he was brilliant. The general opinion

seemed to be that things would start happening tonight. And the general

impression has been too that the Germans were extremely anxious to

settle. I was in Munich with him when that was happening, doing

another sport and the way he calmly came into the studio and grasped the

significance of that event was quite an education. He ehe sat there for

hours commentating on the developing scene as to what was going to happen

to the hostages. We'll have to let you know later on during the

programme exactly what's happened. It was the rest day on track and

field and I'd gone to bed at five in the morning looking forward to a day

off. There was a sudden pounding on the door. I looked at the watch, it

was nine o'clock in the morning and the door was shaking. I sensed

something very viewed -- I said something very rude and it's my day

off and it was the late Ron Pickering shouting "David you've got

to wake up, they need you, some Israelis have been killed, we think

Arabs are responsible, they are holding Israelis hostage and

threatening to murder somebody every one or two hours".

I remember looking at the clock with a minute to go and everything was so

still in the studio. We started a countdown from a minute. I kept my

eye on the big clock and Paul Fox came through to me on the head phone

and said, David, you may well be taken off the air, the security

people have been on, we understand the terrorists are listening to you

in the Israeli block". Pf These are live pictures of the

Israeli block. It's now 20 seconds before 12

o'clock. I couldn't do anything about it. If

we were taken off the air by the security people I couldn't do

anything about it. We never established whether they knew what

was going on, the terrorists. I remember, you know, as studio clocks

do, the finger shivering second by second as it ticked round.

It seemed almost, you know, in tune with the moment.

As we waited for the attack. It didn't happen.

I hear that at this moment, the helicopters are lifting off the

special pad in the Olympic village where they've been standing since

this afternoon. That is the helicopter.

It appeared that an exchange was in progress. Except that we heard some

shots had been fired. In the end, it turned out that there were 11

members of whom the two had been killed and nine left. There was a

policeman and five terrorists. It was a very, very un uncertain and

unreal occasion. If The Olympic Games stands still.

The flags in the stadium at half-mast. The citizens of Munich,

the thousands of competitors and officials bewildered and appalled.

He got so much credit for how he dealt with that situation, being

just a sports journalth journalist to a lot of people. -- sports

journalist. It was his training and instinct and the fact that he's so

well read that he has the voice to deliver emotion that made what he

did quite special. This hastily conceived memorial

ceremony, conceived yesterday for the two dead Israelis, but now

embracing the men who died last night in the bloody chaos at the

airport. Let's be clear, what happened back in 1972 at those

Olympic Games in Munich was one of the biggest atrocities we have ever

seen at a big international sporting event. Maybe we need to think about

recent atrocities that we have known that have made a huge impact on our

consciousness. Just imagine an Olympic Games overshadowed by that

kind of attack. It really was absolutely shocking and no-one had

seen anything like it before. It wasn't very easy going on with

it. I asked to be excused from some of the events the next day. I had to

go on commentating but I never did feel in tune with the Games. The

closing was especially difficult. Above the stadium, shining very

brightly in in darkness, a gigantic man-made rainbow. This replacing the

traditional fireworks that normally signal the end of the Olympic Games.

Munich was really the first time that I really watched an Olympic

Games because this was the sport I was involved in. Again, it was

sadly, I have to say, a sublime piece of observation, not a

commentary, it was an observation. Today, people might say, why would

you have a sports commentator commentating on this kind of

terrorist atrocity, you might not expect that. What they don't realise

is that David, with his journalistic background, was ideally equipped.

David's role and enthusiasm could border on hysteria at times. You

could see the concentration in his eyes. Steve Ovett in fourth place.

Those blue eyes like chips of ice. He was the commentator picking out

and encapsulating it with just one of the great lines and we knew what

he meant, his eyes like chips of ice. Coe has a lot to do. He's

coming from a long way back. They have been all over the place. Coe

leaves in disappointment as his great rival, Steve Ovett celebrates.

He was never short of giving you advice. I remember returning from

the 1994 I think they were, the Commonwealth Games in Victoria in

Canada, sitting next to him on the flight and half way through the

flight, actually taking me to task for the way I ran the 800 metres,

you know. 14 years earlier. Ovett's first defeat.

What a comeback for Coe. Hardly anyone would tip him for this race

but use don't become a bad athlete in a week. He was never short on

advice. In fairness, he was usually accurate too. North-east not going

to be caught. -- he's not going to be caught. He's got a lot of sport

and of all things British and he always wanted us to do really well

and it came across. It wasn't so much that he was being biassed

towards us, I think he wanted us to do really well at whatever level we

were at. Sebastien Co E-bacc at his best, is the Olympic champion again

In the moments of broadcasting, sitting if in a hotel lobby or

restaurant, that's where his love of it came out, he should have done

this and that and he's not coached properly and why didn't he do that,

you know and you would think about him and listen to him and think, he

knows what he's talking about. He was excited. I remember it like it

was yesterday. It's Lynford Christie! His voice and the tone

asth and everything else. He is the Olympic champion! The greatest prize

in sport. He was generally excited and happy

and pleased that I won. The faster man in the world. Sally Gunnell. One

to go. He goes for it and gets it rights. Pf

Mike Johnson, one of the greatest Olympic athletes in history.

Holmes has been caught by the break. At his last Olympic Games, he found

himself commentating alongside some of the athletes he helped bring to

prominence. When I first sat down next to David

in the commentary box, there is nobody bigger, there hasn't been

anybody bigger in terms of sports broadcasting, so to say I felt

inferior would be an understatement. Around the national winners

enclosure, a great deal of excitement about the Liverpool and

Manchester United match. The latest score was 1-1. Here now, reporting

from Manchester, is Barry Davies. BBC Sport was nothing as tolerant

with each other as they are now. It was quite the reverse. What do you

want to do now? Say clearly what you want to do now. To say it was

hostile, people might cringe at that word, but it was in many ways and

words were exchanged and people call each other names that now they would

have the recipient running to the human resources department in five

seconds. Ready to turn over. Dayed individual. No score. He accepted

the fact that it was the programme and made it clear his Ed torial

views should be taken into account. That's putting it politely. He was

very demanding of editors and producers and, if the cameras wasn't

in the right place or the sound wasn't right, they would know about

it, they would get the sharp end of his tongue. Keep your camera still

now, bloody chattering all the way through it, get your bloody finger

out and leave your cameras in the same position, you've got one bloody

zoom over there, you can cover it. David in the commentary box was the

boss and it was like when you played with him in the commentary box, you

were playing for best team. Firstly, I joined the BBC to commentate and I

was really nervous, indoor meeting at Birmingham and I went to turn up

there and I knew how the reputation he had for being precious in the box

and I was edging my way and he went "Crammy, sit next to me, you are

next to me, bum" and he looked after me and made sure nobody would get to

me and he looked after me. If anybody from the outside criticised

his team, he'd defend you to the hilt. At the same time within that

team, if you did anything wrong, you would be the first to know about it.

The relationships were important then. There were people who hadn't

been there so long and I realised certain parts of the production

staff were fearful of him, really fearful, about upsetting him. .

Rather terrified of him because obviously he was a very exacting

person in what he wanted and he wasn't somebody that suffers fools

gladly. I was sat down at the 1991 World

Championships in Tokyo and David leaned over and pulled me head phone

just from the side of my ear and whispered "Bob's record that's stood

for so long is now Consigned to the history books". That's pretty much

what I said and David just smiled, you know, he was very giving. If you

got it wrong, woe betide, you got a tongue lashing from Mr David

Coleman. Don't forget... Did I forget

anything. The week before a recording, the researchers would

come up with questions for the show and he'd ring up the research and

say "I've been thinking, about that question for Lynford Christie"...

The Americans broke the world record. If there was anything going

wrong, production-wise, he could give out a volley. I'm going to put

a little bit of that on your nose. Is that nonallergic? Yes. Are you

sure? Yes. I am sure. The rants were for a reason. He wanted to it be

correct and if it wasn't, it wouldn't do.

Question of sport was conceived as a regional show for Manchester in

1968. It just might work, they thought, and how it was a huge hit.

BBC One grabbed it and they have never let it go and the Coleman

career took another trajectory. Welcome to' question of sport with

Ally McCoist and John Parrott. We used to look forward to Dave

presenting it. He had a lot of jokes.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE None of the team Captains always

used to go for away because David would absolutely rip you apart if

you didn't get your rugby question right. Pick a number and recognise

the person. Number six, please, David. What he'd do is, he'd say

it's that Irish jockey and David would be going, I'm sure it is,

egging him on a bit. Heired go "I know who that is, it's Jim Reed, the

jockey". ". Who is it? Princess Anne. It's not is it? I said, I'll

get beheaded for this. I thought, it looks a bit like Princess Anne.

David was nodding his head. We didn't know she was coming on the

following week. I ran in a race at Cheltenham. If you went all the way

around, it was filthy and if I hadn't recognised the colours, I

wouldn't have recognised myself so I wouldn't have blamed anybody else

for not recognising me. Tough ability to get everybody just to

enjoy it, he did. I think his touch beforehand in terms of geftzing

people to relax and feel they were very much part of the team and it

was very much just a game, you know, was essential, to be honest --

getting people to relax. With Captains like that, he could have

got overwhelmed I think. Who became America's first world individual

three day event champion? Bruce Davidson. Good stuff. One of the

things that helped us gel together is the fact we both had this love of

sport and used to watch it even when not working, so yes, we had a fair

bit in common. The sports personalities they had on had to

have won something and be at a certain standard and I think my

father was quite keen on that. It was great fun, quite a family

orientated show that we used to go to when filming in London with our

own families. We used to have Sunday lunch first with all the crew and

the different guests because they brought their families along. It was

a nice time, a time for my children actually to enjoy his broadcasting.

Question of sport was the programme that my grandad did. I got thrown

off the set once. I must have been 18 months, two years old and every

time they went "take one", it was like "grandad, I'm here" and it was

like "shush, stop it" and sure enough "get the child off the set,

please! ". You know you've hit the big time

when your show becomes the object of popular satire.

Starting backwards. Quite extraordinary. Do you think that's

what happened? Yes. Is that what happened next? Do you think that's

what happened next? Yes, yes. When the action stops that,'s what

happens next. Good evening. Tonight we combine the first day of

competition at the Moscow Olympic Games with the highlights of... Yes

of sport was an is the icon Is showpiece for sport and was much

paradied for David's capacity for his on-air gaffes. That's where we

start and Harry sets the scene. He was often the butt of comedians,

always affection. Yes, that's Piers Morgan telling me not to forget to

ask someone behind me about his shirt. I'll tell you about that in a

moment or so. It's all going on here. Why did you come from behind

my back. All the best things at television you can't see. . His

professionalism won him the respect of his peers. I've got relatives in

there. This first London Marathon is surely already the most remarkable

success even before it's started. Pf He was as good in snied as he was at

the first Olympic Games in Rome in 1960. Can the New Zealander do it?

Yes, it's a medal for New Zealand. 40 years of the Olympic Games, some

record to be proud of. Whether it's 40 years of Olympic broadcasting, 40

kilometres in a marathon or 40 seconds at the microphone, knowing

when to wind up is a tough decision. Winding it up then and for a moment

it looked as though she might break, but no. We all knew David was going

to leave the BBC and we wanted to give him the most glorious send-off

because he'd touched all of our lives in one way or another. He

didn't want that. But I guess that is the man he is. He didn't want a

big send-off, he didn't want to be patted on the back and be sent on

his way. When you've loved something so much, to give it away is the

hardest decision of all. Don't run, David. As much as he loved his job,

there was something that meant even more to David. His wife, their

family of six and grandchildren were a source of pride deeper than any

award or recognition. May 69 that was. I think he was

proud of so many things he's done. Being presented with his OBE, it's

not something he mentioned a lot, but I'm sure that was a proud

moment. Sam, my younger sister and me were

the two of the six that that were picked out the cast of thousands to

go and watch him get the award from the Queen. It was a fantastic day,

he was very, very proud and when we all got together for lunch

afterwards, it was a fantastic time and I think it was something which

quietly he was just really very pleased to receive. But didn't brag

about it. The lifestyle we had, as children,

we were so lucky because we were constantly as a big family going out

for lunches, going round to nanny's for a barbecue, honestly we weren't

allowed to miss those vents, you had to have an extremely good reason

because grandad would be straight on the phone to you "where are you? ".

". I used to play football. I would stand with my headmaster and I went

"that's my grandad, that's David Coleman" so I knew it got a

reaction, it made the older generation stop. Next thing I know,

there's prose there to see grandad giving all the awards to each team

and he said "hello darling" and gave it to me. That's always going to be

a memory for me, always. He likes to sit in his chair a lot

drinking his red wine. As much as grandad was the Head of The family,

nan ran the family. She's probably the only person that could tell

grandad what to do because, as we all know, he was rather stubborn.

Our dad has these football songs and on one of the songs it has "what a

save" and we couldn't believe it was him at first, then we heard it and

we were look, "oh my God, that's actually grandad".

I cried every time he left home, I have to be honest. I can remember

crying most times when he was going to go away. But I knew he had to go

and once he'd gone it was fine and obviously we were able to watch him

on the TV. David died just before Christmas. A

time to bring families and many friends together.

I was with him when he passed and we'd all spoken about, this is what

is going to happen, you know, but the shock of, you know, the volume

of people, speaking about grandad, people I didn't know knew him. It

was shocking. It was incredible. I was actually in

New Zealand when dad passed and so with the media and, you know,

computers and whatever... When I look on my Twitter account and see

my grandad's trail on Iain Duncan Smith e Twitter, a concept he never

would have understood, that's when I realised, maybe he was famous. -- --

trail on Twitter. He influenced people in the coming generations, of

which I count myself to be one. He created a ridiculous buzz. When you

consider what he's done, why wouldn't he?

For me, the sport has been enhanced by having David Coleman as his

commentator. Overwhelming. And a shock to me and

very emotional to see how much he was respected and loved.

He gave me a lot of help on-screen but probably great advice he gave me

offscreen as well. I don't think if I'd gone to any agent, they wouldn't

have had the inside knowledge that he did. So yes, I have a lot to

thank him for. His Ed torial instincts and the way he changed

sports presentation for me are the things that I will remember him for.

There'll not be another David Coleman.

He just set such a high bar. There were so many great commentators in

that Rae and I think they had to raise the bar because David was so

good. It was his journalistic background and training that made

him so valuable to us and the BBC and to the audience at home because

they understood that here was a top professional at work, not just a

pretty face. Pf I think to have lived such a crazy

and manic life and then in your final hours to just be so peaceful,

he couldn't have wished for more. It's a strange world in which we

live. Totally strange. From one moment from the bigs... How he kept

that back, only Gordon Banks will know. The next moment, you are in

despair... And the news from Munich is there's now a total security

clampdown on the Olympic village. I've got some very, very happy

memories. On the outside, a tremendous run. Is she going to do

it? Ann Packer is going to take it. Sebastien Co E-bacc at his best. A

remarkable sight. Certainly one of the most remarkable sights in

Britain today. I say to all of you, thank you very much indeed.