The Crucible: 40 Golden Snooker Years

Good evening and welcome to the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

For the past 40 years,

it's been a theatre defined by its name, the Crucible,

the home of snooker's World Championship,

a sedate sport superheated in this city of steel.

Apply heat in a confined, intimate space,

and there WILL be sparks.

-COMMENTATOR:

-What a fantastic maximum break...

The toughest taken to the point of meltdown.

It's hard to described the claustrophobia

of that little arena and all of the history.

I have a searingly personal connection with this place.

My father passed away this year,

just before the World Championships,

I still played in it. He was with me from the start,

so I thought, "Finish this time round."

It was so very special to me, and here I am in Sheffield again.

Yeah, it's me, without the cue,

not playing, but looking back.

What is it about this place?

Steve Davis, the world snooker champion.

Once you get serious about snooker,

it's where you want to play, isn't it?

The best moments in snooker have all been at the Crucible.

It's such a special venue, and the atmosphere in there,

it sort of gives you goose bumps.

It's the shrine of snooker.

The tales of the Crucible are not told in a rush.

These are crafted stories, chapter after chapter,

stories within stories.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Oh! Wonderful!

Sad stories.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Jimmy, who's been there three times before

will be the saddest person in Sheffield.

You want sad? Here we go, then.

-COMMENTATOR:

-He's done it!

He was, like...

I'll have company.

The Crucible and snooker are all about being out there on your own,

but we are a family, a gathering in a landmark year.

Happy 40th anniversary

to the Crucible.

I've been coming here for 37 years,

nearly the time the Crucible's been here, for the World Championship.

There's been some marvellous moments for me over the years,

six-times world champion, obviously,

and it's the pinnacle for a snooker player to play in this venue.

But it can also be your worst nightmare.

Imagine a trip to the dentist's, your first driving test,

and possibly your first job interview all rolled into one.

It is one of the great sporting arenas.

It's there with Wimbledon, with Augusta for the Masters,

you know, Yankee Stadium.

Choose your one...

There's a kind of mecca,

a cathedral,

use all of the cliches of its sport. It is THE one.

I can't think of any other sport it would really work for,

but somehow, for snooker, it's just perfect.

When you're a young lad, that's where you should aspire to play.

It's like going to Wembley with your football boots.

It's exactly the same for the Crucible.

If you've got a cue, that's where you need to be.

The World Championship comes to Sheffield in the spring,

and it brings television with it.

Part of the process of transformation -

a small theatre about to go global with those stories.

Slow in the telling, but colourful -

snooker is all about colour.

But not as seen in the days of Joe Davis - no relation -

Joe won the first 15 World Championships,

and then brother Fred took over with eight.

You can't blame anyone called Davis for making snooker a bit dull,

but it was a bit grey, a bit in black and white,

until late in the 1960s, when the sport found itself a new champion.

The great Sir David Attenborough

was the very first controller of BBC Two,

and one of his great decisions, to use colour, was snooker.

-AS ATTENBOROUGH:

-We're going to have snooker.

It's anthropologically fascinating,

seeing these weird creatures bending down, pushing sticks.

No-one quite knows why they do it.

Snooker's colour was back, and it had a voice, too -

Whispering Ted Lowe, who devised a new show.

POT BLACK THEME TUNE PLAYS

Perhaps this is the moment I should remind you

that we have £100 for a break of up to 99.

Pot Black was the sport's new shop window, the one-frame dash,

snooker's T20, but what about the long-form World Championship?

Well, it had its new stars like Ray Reardon,

six-times world champion.

-But something was missing.

-It didn't have the buzz, you know,

like the glare,

all the pizzazz, it didn't have that,

it was really lacking something.

We went to Australia twice.

We went up to the Newcastle and Manchester area.

It didn't have a home.

The show without a stage.

It had a backer... Blimey, tobacco sponsorship!

..the BBC were keen and it had a promoter,

Mike Watterson, who, in 1977,

set about finding that elusive ingredient - a place to call home.

I just thought I'd bring that to show you.

-Blimey! What have we got there?

-That's 1977.

-That was the very first time...

-I never played in it that year.

It's funny how it came to be here in the first place.

The fact that snooker is at the Crucible, in one respect,

is to do with your wife.

Yes. She was going to this play here with a friend.

She came back and said, "I've just seen a cracking venue for snooker."

-What was the play?

-I can't remember, Steve, you know?

It's important(!)

My memory is, as well, but it doesn't go that far back.

I said to her, "Well, I'll have a look at it."

I came to the Crucible, had a look,

I walked into the auditorium and I went, "Wow! Perfect."

I said, "How wide is the stage?"

Malcolm, the stage manager, he said it's 36 feet.

Perfect - six feet of legroom, six feet of table, six feet of legroom,

and so on.

He said it was designed by a famous Shakespearean actor

that started at one end of the stage and he made this speech.

As he walked to the other side of the stage,

that's where it had to finish.

And it was exactly 36 feet.

So it was providence.

-COMMENTATOR:

-John Spencer takes the world crown for the third time.

And the world champion 1977,

receiving his cheque for £6,000,

and promoter Mike Watterson

offering the congratulations

as we say goodbye from the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

That gave me a hell of a buzz,

and I still get a terrific buzz when I walk in here.

It's a great place.

And so began the age of the Crucible.

40 years and counting,

offering its stage to the stars. Everyone has a favourite.

Ronnie! Ronnie!

I was absolutely sucked in by the 1980 win

of Cliff Thorburn over Alex Higgins -

the fluid, God-given talent,

the artistry against the learned,

schooled, disciplined, technical player.

From that moment onwards, from 1980,

that became, if you want to give it a grand name,

the dialectic of snooker.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It's very difficult to play in front of Alex Higgins's home crowd.

You're a fantastic audience, and I just hope you stick with him

because he's the biggest draw in the game of snooker today.

Chalk and cheese,

and room for them both.

I remember perfectly the golden era of the main players,

when they were household names.

Alex Higgins was the hero in our house.

And Jimmy White. When Jimmy White came along,

they seemed to be the kids from the wrong side of the tracks.

Oh!

Was that good? Did you like that?

They looked like they'd just come out of a snooker hall,

straight into the finals, and into the championship.

Obviously Alex Higgins has moved into this position

of super-super legend,

but he was the smoke-and-drink man of snooker. He was...

HE INHALES RAPIDLY

..like that, drink, drink, drink.

The most fascinating you've ever seen.

Orange and vodka going down his face,

then he would come up and do these remarkable things,

and people loved him for it because it's as if he kept snooker honest,

he kept one foot in the smoky club.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Still enough points on the table for Alex

if he can just take his opportunity.

That's a tremendous shot under pressure.

A lot of courage Alex has got.

The Higgins break against Jimmy White,

every shot he played was totally unconventional.

There's no way that the purists would never recommend anybody

playing shots like that, and Alex would just hit them

in the centre of the pockets,

and he kept putting himself in unbelievably hard positions

and getting out and cleaning up.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Oh, marvellous!

And the audience go mad.

What a finish.

He'd promised his baby daughter, Lauren, he'd win at the Crucible.

This, of hers, for good luck.

It wasn't quite the style of Ray Reardon going for his seventh title.

It was another final of contrasts.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Just three balls to go now

for a break of 135.

122.

Ray Reardon has sat in his chair for the whole of this final frame.

Fantastic!

Standing ovation throughout

the 1,000 people here at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

Hurricane Higgins, after ten years,

has regained the title.

The tears and the baby, wasn't it?

He didn't know whether to hold the trophy or the baby, I don't think.

I don't know which one meant more.

The moment when he was going...

HE WHIMPERS

..and summoning down his baby.

-Now, I reckon here...

-Mm-hm.

..was exactly where you were brought into your dad's arms.

I know. He wouldn't be able to lift me up now, would he?

No. And I could, but I'm not going to.

It looks very different.

I know, it probably does.

I think I remember all the lights, obviously,

cos it's full of lights, isn't it?

And the audience and the noise.

I think, as well,

it blurs into my memory cos I've seen it so many times on television.

-Yeah.

-It's a special moment for me.

-Yeah.

But, yeah, it brings back a lot of memories being here.

Your dad was a fantastic competitor.

He had, like, fire coming out of every pore.

And I used to be quite scared of him.

He was quite animalistic around the table.

He was very much showing the aggression.

Like, you could see his nostrils flaring out, and everything.

The other thing was when, all of a sudden, things were going right

and he got a fluke, he'd be grinning at the crowd.

Love it. Yeah, just really playing up to it, yeah.

I know I might be a bit biased,

but I think my dad made snooker what it is,

and I think a lot of people

wouldn't be where they were today, because he made it interesting,

exciting, and I think that's undeniable.

Totally undeniable. During the '70s,

when the game was right in the doldrums,

it was him that dragged it out.

People identified with him.

He was the cavalier player.

I think he probably would have won a lot more matches

if it hadn't been for the fact that he liked to please the crowd.

-Yeah.

-That's what he liked to do.

He was a character, wasn't he?

Oh! Totally a character.

-COMMENTATOR:

-And a true standing ovation.

It was a lot more colourful cos of my dad.

-Totally.

-Yeah.

-I had some of the most amazing matches against him.

-Are you upset?

-Yeah, a little bit.

Don't be upset.

It is sad that he's not here, especially with it being 40 years.

-It would have been lovely.

-It would have been nice.

-He could've had a lovely time.

-Yeah.

-I think he'd have enjoyed it now.

-Yeah.

-I like to remember him...

-I like to remember when he tilts his cap.

-With the hat.

And throws it and he winks.

-And he says, "Come on, babes."

-Fantastic.

-Yeah.

And so it grew, the theatre within the theatre -

its annual cast of characters.

New faces in the line-up.

New storylines.

The quest for the Crucible's first maximum break.

I had a dream that I made a 147.

I didn't think anything of it then.

And then I fluked the first red.

Terry went, you know... like that, kind of a thing.

Can you imagine being there

to see the very first one at the Crucible?

It must have been a wondrous, wondrous experience

for those who saw it.

I wasn't at home watching it on television, I was in the Crucible.

I was at the back of the auditorium,

and we were watching it, starting to think, "This actually might happen."

The break had begun with a fluked red, the story's first twist.

But now Cliff took a turn for the worse.

I wasn't feeling well, I just...

I slept for about an hour the night before. I felt awful.

'Like, my nose was running, I had to actually stop.'

I'm going to have a little break here.

LAUGHTER

-COMMENTATOR:

-Well, what a sensible fellow.

At a stage like this, with just one red left.

What a moment this is.

It is truly electric here.

Every bone in your body is willing him to do it, you know?

And you're up cheering, you're cheering at the television,

it's just wonderful to watch it.

I just felt like I was, you know, just right there.

And you could see the other players come in from the other match.

They stopped it to peer round

because they got wind of what was going on.

Who was it that walked round?

Yes, it was Bill Werbeniuk.

I can't remember the other player.

But it was definitely Bill Werbeniuk,

cos he's kind of unforgettable.

Bill Werbeniuk stuck his head around the corner there.

And I'm going to myself, "Not now, Bill, come on, now," you know?

It's like this...whoa...

-COMMENTATOR:

-And Bill Werbeniuk as tense as he is.

APPLAUSE

When I was shooting the black, I said to myself,

"Well, we're just going to make this one straight in,

"it's not even going to touch the sides of the pocket."

It's an amazing moment of breaking that standard

BBC code of, you know, impartiality,

and he went down with the cue and it's like, "Good luck, mate."

-COMMENTATOR:

-Oh, good luck, mate.

Oh, wonderful!

That is really, truly wonderful.

Yeah!

Oh, my God! Oh, my God, I was...

And that "phew!" he gives, it's... You know, he was all man.

Terry Griffiths, who's got a job on his hands, walks out,

pretending to smile,

to just get out of the room.

That's right. Yes.

"I was very 'ap-py for him," as he said afterwards!

You get fantastic drama at the World Championship.

You really do.

And it's hard to describe the claustrophobia of that little arena,

and all of the history.

Some of the great moments in television history

have been made there.

I mean, you know, the black ball final.

The black ball final.

1985. Dennis Taylor against...

Well, as they say, I was there.

That was one of the great television events, wasn't it?

-It looks totally different, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

We were involved in something that was iconic,

that a third of the population, back in the day,

watched on TV and had to go to work the next morning.

-Yeah.

-And couldn't turn their TVs off.

Steve Davis, not well liked in our house.

He'd denied too many of our heroes championships in the past.

Dennis Taylor, himself,

I think there was that thing of we were definitely willing him.

Somebody had to come along because Steve Davis just seemed unstoppable.

No-one beat Davis.

No-one beat him.

He was not beatable.

Well, I was a cert to win that final, I know that.

Well, you certainly were at 7-0 and 8-0.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Steve Davis, he's really riding on

the crest of a wave at the moment.

Everybody forgets Dennis Taylor was 8-0 down in that final,

and he came back and he won, what,

seven of the next eight in the second session?

All of a sudden my wheel fell off, I collapsed by the end of the night,

9-7.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Six frames in a row!

Marvellous performance by Dennis Taylor,

to narrow the gap to only two frames.

That spirit that he showed in the second session was what got us,

in the end, to the black ball final.

-COMMENTATOR:

-And Dennis Taylor, a very satisfied Irishman,

sits there with the frames all square at 17 each.

It was a big night for... I think, for all of us.

It was agonising.

It really was a big deal.

It sounds crazy but it was a big thing.

We were in this room with 900 fans,

who were chewing their nails,

not knowing what was happening outside in the real world,

and how many people were watching.

I think it was something like 18.5 million people.

I mean, that's the kind of audience you get for a World Cup final,

or something, and it was in the early hours of the morning.

It just gripped the nation.

Nobody ever dreamt it was going to go down to the black,

so we didn't know how to handle the pressure,

even you, that had won it the two previous years.

Proper cliffhanger stuff,

to go down to the very last black ball in a competition like that.

The pressure on us both was incredible.

I mean, we couldn't get a ball in the pocket in that last frame.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Certainly going through his mind

that he'd certainly like to play the double.

And I'd tried to double the black.

And the crowd all started cheering and I thought, "It's in!"

CHEERING

GROANING

I had chances, Dennis had chances.

GROANING

-COMMENTATOR:

-That was the biggest shot of his life.

I reckon it's about here, the corner pocket.

Which... Oh, the top?

What do you mean, which corner pocket?

From the commentary box, the top-left corner pocket.

I'd say the black was about there.

I've never asked you this question.

Did you think I was going to pot it?

Definitely, because when I'd seen it finish, I went back,

and I remember pushing my old upside-down glasses way up,

and I thought there's no way Steve will miss this.

-COMMENTATOR:

-No.

GROANING

This is really unbelievable.

I came to the table thinking, "How have I got this chance?"

-COMMENTATOR:

-He's done it.

My one overriding memory is when Dennis Taylor knocks it in,

and he gets the cue, doesn't he?

And it's not a very great celebration,

but it's kind of iconic. And it's like...something like that.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Dennis Taylor,

for the first time,

becomes Embassy World Snooker Champion 1985.

I don't think that Dennis actually believed that he'd won it.

He needed convincing. Somebody had to come up and say,

"Dennis, you've won this thing."

But the facials were just phenomenal.

And the nice little "uh-uh-uh" of Dennis Taylor was...

it was a big night for all of us.

It was a bit like the Rocky films, you know,

he CAN be stopped.

-COMMENTATOR:

-A fabulous picture of a very happy and popular man.

Steve, it's a pretty tough moment, this one, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Can you believe what's happened here tonight?

Yeah, it happened, in black and white.

LAUGHTER

Worst day of my life.

Have you got over that yet, Steve?

Well, not really, but, you know, I've come to terms with it.

I reckon about 40 years, I'll be over it.

Truly over it.

I beat Steve Davis, who's been the best player in the world.

There's not a lot more you can say, really.

FANS SHOUT OUT

Well, I'm the best this year.

The ginger magician and the fellow with the funny upside-down glasses.

-We were involved in the best of the lot.

-Yeah.

The Rack Pack, directed by Brian Welsh,

a film made about snooker in the 1980s.

The golden age, they say.

I'm in it. That's me on the left, or rather the actor who played me.

Here's the real me.

-COMMENTATOR:

-He's breathing heavily as he comes down to this final pink.

And that's it.

The World Snooker Champion 1981, Steve Davis.

And here's Will Merrick being me.

Steve Davis, meet Steve Davis.

Nice to see you. How's things, all right?

I was worried you might be doing some sort of acting role

where you didn't look like me any more. You'd have a black beard.

I've been trying to get away from you now for a couple of years.

-Oh, dear.

-Yeah.

Who's the first person who came up and went, "You look like..."?

I had a dinner lady at school.

Someone said to me, "Oh, she's calling you Steve Davis.

"You look like the snooker player Steve Davis. He's tall, redhead.

"Sort of lanky, like a rake."

-We should have a game.

-Yeah?

-Fancy a game?

-Yeah.

That's aggressive.

-That's aggressive, as well.

-I did want to ask you,

when I was watching your footage at the Crucible,

when I'm playing pool

and I'm getting closer and closer to winning,

I lose my head,

and I suddenly start missing shots that I'd never miss.

-You know?

-Yeah.

-I'm overthinking it.

-Yeah.

-Did you... Do you feel those nerves,

-and do you worry that you're going to prang out, as it were?

-Yeah.

If you're lucky, you stay in the moment,

and you don't look too far ahead or back,

as if you've got an empty head

other than that one thing you've got to do.

And the Crucible, because of its nature of being so small,

as a snooker venue, and very tight,

only 900 people, but, like, a lively atmosphere,

the Crucible is where people unravel more so than at any other event.

And down for the black. Back in the circle.

WILL PANTS

My grandad would be so proud.

When you think about the Crucible,

it's 17 days on red alert.

You're just on tenterhooks all the time. Knowing that you've won it,

the emotion starts welling up inside you.

And, of course, the other thing is, when I lose the '85 final,

on the last ball,

I walked to the table with the possibility to win it.

And everybody's ooh-ing and aah-ing in the crowd,

and you're on tenterhooks, because they're on tenterhooks,

and everybody in the room is absolutely transfixed by it.

If I pot it, what happens?

-I win it.

-Yeah.

-And that would have been my fourth.

-Got to give them a couple, though, haven't you?

-Yeah.

That's what everybody told me, and I hated those words.

I hated them.

I did manage to make amends for losing the final in 1985.

I won three more world titles that decade.

Life was good for me and my manager and friend Barry Hearn.

Look at him on his mobile.

You could back then. We go way back.

Today, Barry runs World Snooker.

He's done all right, hasn't he?

-Morning. What you doing here?

-Morning. How you doing?

All right?

-All right?

-All right?

-Obligatory handshake.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Congratulations there

to the Embassy World Champion Steve Davis from his manager Barry Hearn.

The young man, just 23 years of age,

coming from Plumstead, London,

is now the Embassy World Champion 1981.

What a prophetic image that was,

Barry Hearn bursting into the arena and embracing you in a way

that completely almost crushed your ribs, and it's a fabulous image,

and who was to know that Barry Hearn would then go on

to run, and some might say rescue, snooker for the 21st century.

When people say, "I've always wanted to see the Taj Mahal,

"I want to see the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,"

to me, I wanted to be at the Crucible

with my mate, who was going to absolutely smash everybody up.

Leading up to the Crucible, you know, '81,

it wasn't just about you winning the World Championships for me.

It justified me in a strange way, you know?

-We'd beat the world.

-We'd beat the world.

And it was so...

It was a personal thing.

That was the one day of my life...

-Yeah, yeah.

-..that was the most exciting.

I am an excitable person,

I have never felt things going through my body that I felt in '81.

I mean, it's not the greatest work of art I've ever seen.

-No, not at all.

-But the characters are in there.

-Look, Mike Watterson, who started the Crucible.

-Ann Yates.

-Ann Yates.

Bill Werbeniuk.

And then the Reardons and the Spencers.

-And when we talk about characters...

-It's a schoolyard there.

Not in that picture is another of the Sheffield characters,

one of the cast at the Crucible, John Airey -

a superfan, I suppose we'd call him.

'81 was the first year, so this is the 36th year.

There's some dodgy pictures, if you go on YouTube,

of a 14-year-old kid with a bowl-head haircut and dodgy flares

jumping up and down. Yeah, I've been coming every year since.

You know, there's probably 30, 40 people

have been coming for donkey's years.

You know, you build relationships, and everybody likes snooker,

that's the common bond, and you can sit down there and watch the snooker

and chat in the pub afterwards with a pint.

It's a nice, relaxing holiday.

I remember the Crucible as many wonderful things

but never as a holiday resort.

The same people go there every year, practically.

And not only do they go there every year,

they sit in the same seat. Can you believe it?

Can you believe booking your holidays for a week at the Crucible?

There's something wrong with these people.

They want looking at, you know. They should consult somebody.

It's ridiculous. I used to go in,

I said, "Hello, George, Bill, Fred. Nice to see you back this year.

"Have a good tournament."

I'm asking THEM to have a good tournament and they said,

"Nice to see you again, Ray."

-It's different here, isn't it?

-Yeah.

I think there's any few things

going for it. One, which I think is often overlooked in snooker venues,

the acoustics help.

-Yeah.

-In here it's like playing in somebody's front room -

everything's soft and cushioned, and the balls click nicely.

How many sessions a tournament do you watch here?

Well, I guess it's, what, 17 days times three, so...

-50-odd.

-Gee whiz.

The morning sessions are the trickiest ones.

You've got to be here for 10am.

And you've had paracetamol for breakfast.

And you can't fall asleep in the front row

because you'll look like a real mug, then.

Some sessions are slower than others

but a new story is never far away.

Take the Bradford Crooner, who'd never won a match at the Crucible.

Now, Joe Johnson is the kind of story... This is why I love snooker.

We all used to cheer for our Welsh snooker players,

and when Terry was drawn against this bloke we'd never heard of,

Joe Johnson, we were thinking, "That's it, Terry's through."

We're in the corridors backstage,

which is usually adorned

with pictures on the walls of the players.

-That's right.

-And then all of the press cuttings.

-Yup.

-Back in 1986,

you became more featured in the press

as the tournament unfolded.

Yeah, I think that had something to do with the singing with the band.

# Here I stand with my everlasting love... #

It's great for me because, you know, the focus came on to me,

and I seemed to handle it pretty good.

It was nice to be the focus instead of you.

But then you did one of the best comebacks that we'd seen.

He was playing Terry Griffiths on this table and he was 12-9 down.

I had never beaten him as well.

He had given me some real good hidings, Terry.

Any time he wanted to beat me, he could beat me.

You could see Joe thought he'd lost.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Terry marching on a bit here.

He missed a green off the spot

and we're talking about one shot changing a game.

Well, that changed my destiny.

He completely relaxed and he just started swinging.

-COMMENTATOR:

-What a performance this is by Joe Johnson.

How do you combat this sort of snooker?

A quite remarkable match.

He was playing natural, you know,

club snooker, where he wasn't worried about anything

and it made me 300 quid, so I was happy.

Fast-forward to the final.

Who was it I played? I've forgotten who it was(!)

You totally destroyed me.

For me, a completely different feeling to the year before

where I had lost to Dennis.

I just went, "Hands up, I've been outplayed."

You absolutely flew.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Joe is a terrific player

and probably his greatest attribute coming through

this World Championship is his cool,

calm and collected manner at the table.

I was playing totally relaxed snooker

and you were probably under pressure

from losing the year before.

You may have had something in your mind...

I don't mean this disrespectfully,

but I think you probably thought that I was an easy touch.

I always knew how good you were.

But you must have fancied it, you must have done.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Just 17 days ago, he was a rank outsider.

The crowd here at the Crucible

are going mad for Bradford's Joe Johnson.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The most remarkable world final I have ever seen.

It was a win for the underdog and everybody was cheering for him,

you know? It's not that they didn't want Steve to win,

it's that they generally,

and it's the way the British public are normally,

they generally want the underdog to win

and it was a fabulous performance.

That's one of the things I love about snooker.

I love looking at that last 32 thinking, "Is there someone here?

"Is there a Joe Johnson

"that's going to come through and is going to get through to the final?"

Or maybe a new star is born?

Do you still get the excitement when you come to the Crucible?

Oh, I love coming to the Crucible.

I come here every year and it's brilliant to walk back in

but it's tinged with sadness

-because we're not going to play here any more.

-I know.

I know we're not.

Steve's going to do some trick shots.

-A couple of trick shots.

-Two trick shots.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

This may not work in the end, but it looks fantastic, right?

If I get four, I'm happy.

Five is very, very good. Six is the miracle one.

Did you get that? Did you get that?

Retirement from the game comes to us all.

I announced mine at the Crucible in 2016,

but was delighted to stay part of the BBC team.

Showbiz!

Staying warm at the Crucible.

It's the other side of superheated sport in Sheffield. Ask Hazel.

It's a greenhouse, remember.

It might look beautiful but it's very cold.

It is the world's second-longest annual sporting event

behind the Tour de France.

You kind of go through something every April, don't you?

You come out the other end of it after a Crucible campaign.

The slave drivers that work us drive us into the ground.

They are actually all laughing in our ear now.

Steve buys his own chocolate brownies

and doesn't offer anybody else one.

That's the sort of people you're dealing with. He's a coffee snob.

I had my run in the 1980s, and then this bloke took over -

world champion seven times in the 1990s.

It wasn't as if we hadn't seen him coming.

-COMMENTATOR:

-The under-16 champion from Fife in Scotland

making his TV debut, Stephen Hendry.

Stephen came into the picture,

and when a Scotsman is playing at the Crucible,

you're rushing back from training to watch him play and, you know,

it was a fantastic time.

I think many people thought before Stephen Hendry came along

that Steve Davis owned the Crucible

and then came this young, freshfaced Scot

who exuded a winning mentality probably like we've never seen

and will never see again.

Hendry had the potting thing...

just like the magnificent break-building of...

The same cue...da-da-da, da, da, da,

hit the ball.

He made snooker look like it was being played on

a three by six bar box table.

I mean, he just never missed.

He was 16 years old when he turned professional.

He was 21 when he won his first World Championship in 1990,

the youngest ever.

He ruled the '90s.

He was still only 31 when he won his seventh title in 1999.

It's a strange old thing, trying to analyse why we stopped.

Do you think, after all these years, you still love the game?

Not in exactly the same way but it's in your blood?

I know what you mean, it's what we're best at, snooker.

So I don't think it ever leaves you and I think i will always be

involved in the game cos basically it's all I know.

I love the game, I loved it more when I was playing on Sunday nights

but I still enjoy it.

You, all of a sudden, said, "Well, now that I'm not winning,

-"I'm going to retire."

-Hmm.

-Whereas I went,

"I'm losing but I still love the game

"so I'm going to carry on playing even if I don't win."

Two different mentalities from two of the biggest winners in the game.

Yeah. For me,

there's loving the game

and there's enjoying what you get out of it

and although I love the game, when you took away the winning,

which was the ultimate for me, you took away the sort of desire.

Perhaps it's a lot easier when you're young.

This is Stephen at 17 at his first Crucible...

when it's all in front of you.

I get to the Crucible and I'm drawn against Willie Thorne

and I'm thinking, "Don't disgrace yourself.

"Don't lose 10-0 or 10-1 on live TV."

I lost the match 10-8,

got that sort of famous nice applause from him going out,

which I look back on now and I just think,

"Oh, God, I want to punch him!"

But he didn't mean it, like, sarcastically.

-He was just relieved.

-Probably, yes.

I think I will win it in the next five years.

I always just loved playing there.

I think a lot of players you sort of hear moaning,

"Oh, it's too long,"

and then they get to the semifinals, they get beat,

"Oh, I'm tired, I'm drained."

Complete nonsense, I just loved it.

Even if you have four matches go to the final frame,

I think, you're at the World Championship, at the Crucible,

you still get yourself up for the final somehow.

-COMMENTATOR:

-And with that break of 71,

Stephen Hendry brings a great championship to an end.

He has beaten Jimmy White by 18 frames to 12

to become the youngest-ever champion.

To some degree, you broke millions of snooker fans' hearts

on many occasions because you did more damage in the finals

of the World Championship to Jimmy White than I did.

Was there any part of you that felt a bit sorry for Jimmy?

Er...no.

When interviewed, you realised he was brutal as a competitive animal.

He was a more clinical animal than I was, even back then.

And any suggestion of a social moment or something that may be fun,

he said, "No, why do that? Why do that?

"It's winning, it's only winning."

And you think, "Oh, all right."

And of course it worked. My goodness, it worked for him.

And maybe if Jimmy had had a tenth of that, and other players,

he might have just had that.

Jimmy was doing other stuff.

Jimmy White would be my favourite player.

I mean, what a story.

Got to be the best player never to have been world champion.

So many finals, so many near misses,

it just never quite happened for him.

Six Crucibles, five consecutive Crucible finals.

Four finals at the Crucible against Stephen Hendry,

and he's in the record books at losing them.

And it was heartbreaking. I mean, really heartbreaking.

I won six finals, Jimmy lost six.

You must get fed up with the amount of times people say

the same old questions about, you know, this is the World Championship

and all that. You had the roller coaster at it.

Yeah. I'm obviously quite proud of being in six finals

but do you know what? I don't remember the matches I win.

Do you only remember the matches you've lost?

You obviously remember the ones you've lost.

A couple of the finals, I weren't quite there with Hendry.

I don't know how I got to the final.

'92, he's in his fourth final, we've seen him lose three times already,

he's lost to Davis, Parrott, lost to Hendry already, of course.

And he's 14-8 up, Jimmy,

and, listen, at 14-8 up, you're world champion.

You're world champion. You know you are.

You're spending your winnings.

-COMMENTATOR:

-This has been a fabulous clearance.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Jimmy White cleared up brilliantly.

14-8 up with Hendry, and in my corner thinking,

-"I'll thank him, he helped me. I won't thank him, he didn't."

-Don't.

I know! I should have just rolled up and snookered him but...you know.

-COMMENTATOR:

-And that's why he's the number one in the world.

Wonderful shot.

All of a sudden it's 14-12 and, like,

I couldn't have potted them if they were in a line-up. You lose focus.

-COMMENTATOR:

-His mind must be on the three previous finals

he's been in.

I won ten frames in a row to beat him.

-COMMENTATOR:

-And there's a rather sad picture.

Jimmy will be the saddest person in Sheffield.

What does that do to you? I mean, how do you take that?

How do you compute that? He must have been sitting there

thinking all sorts of things.

-COMMENTATOR:

-He becomes the 1992 Embassy World Champion

for the second time.

I think the nation wanted Jimmy White. "Please, Jimmy.

"Jimmy, please win a Crucible final."

-COMMENTATOR:

-Jimmy White to break.

Then, '94, of course, you go to a final frame.

That's his sixth,

you know, and Hendry has now beaten him in three finals.

You don't lose six times. You lose five times and then you win,

then you beat the bad guy. OK, we all know it.

17-17, I think Hendry is in the balls, and then Jimmy White is in.

Stephen Hendry - 24.

And you know what? He's on his way.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Just look at the scores, 17 frames each.

24 points each.

What a shot he's taking on.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I thought he was going to win. I was in my chair and I wouldn't have had

many supporters in the audience when I was playing Jimmy

but I had two or three in the balcony and looked up and I thought,

"Well, that's it, I'm not winning this one."

He potted this brilliant blue into the middle pocket

and you're thinking,

"He's on a roll, he's about to be crowned world champion."

Everyone at home is thinking, "Here we go. Finally."

GASPS AND GROANS

You know, he's not even close, he's not even close on that black.

I had a great winning chance there and I think I rushed the black,

obviously under extreme pressure.

As soon as I seen the black wobbling,

I just shot out of my chair.

He's cool as mustard.

Perhaps because I'd resigned myself to defeat,

but I was so relaxed in that clearance.

I look back on it now and I think,

"God, you must have been absolutely shaking,"

but I swear I was so relaxed.

And you're thinking to yourself,

"Jimmy White is not coming back to the table.

"Jimmy White has lost another world title."

Not many people could take that.

Most people would not be able to take, mentally,

what Jimmy has been through.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Stephen Hendry has proved once again

that he's the best player in the world.

It's heartbreaking when you watch his speech afterwards,

you know, because he's such a good loser, he's such a class act.

What can I say, apart from happy birthday?

LAUGHTER

He's beginning to annoy me.

I'm obviously quite proud of being in six finals, but the way I was

progressing in the lifestyle, I might have been dead, you know?

-Really?

-Yeah. So I've got to sort of say...

I mean, is it true? Were you partying between matches?

You know like you are now with this DJ stuff?

When you're giving it boom-boom all night?

There was some of that going on.

It was either gambling or partying.

I'm not proud of it but there's nothing I can do about it.

Listen, I'm 54 and, realistically,

I can't win the World Championships but I'm still enjoying it.

I enjoy practising.

So while I'm still enjoying it, I still believe I can win.

Listen, this has been a pleasure, as always, mate.

-Thank you.

-Keep rocking and rolling. Thank you.

-Terrific.

Getting inside the head of any snooker player, well,

it's a gift, and nobody does it better than this man -

psychiatrist and professor and doctor - Steve Peters.

-Steve.

-Hello.

-How are you doing? All right? Nice to see you.

-You're getting used to this place.

-I should have a room here now.

I know, you should. Well, I'm in dressing room 12 today.

I'm having problems with my interviewing technique.

I'm under pressure a bit, so perhaps you can help me.

Right, not a problem.

Actually, it's not me, we need to talk about Ronnie.

Ronnie O'Sullivan.

It seems to me this is the only place where the players

could truly unravel.

The Crucible has a specific challenge even within snooker.

It was surprising

when I first started getting into what Ronnie was doing.

I had to get him to explain to me the nuances of the sport

so I see how he's perceiving them,

and then one of the things he mentioned with the Crucible was,

when it comes towards the worlds,

I've got to get my endurance on my feet.

He says, "You're not used to it, you do short frames."

So here he has to build up with practices

and on his feet much longer times in order to get that endurance.

I think perhaps one of the great things that Ronnie can do

is he's able to play quickly and naturally

and take his brain a bit out of gear,

and that must be, at the Crucible, more of an advantage than anything.

It is, and once he gets into this flow,

his confidence level for the next shot goes up and up.

My job is to say, "Well, let's get that confidence, regardless.

"Don't rely on getting into the flow on a good shot.

"If it goes wrong and wrong and wrong,

"learn to deal with that

"and have the confidence to know it'll happen."

Most of them are perfectionists.

They see anything less than winning as, "I've failed."

And that's a shame because, actually,

anything is good once you've got here.

But winning is what you want.

It's a test of expertise

to marry the long-form game with a short fuse,

the least conventional of his generation.

Our Ronnie.

You have to go and see a psychologist.

Oh, I'll fly through them, I know all the right answers for that!

Well, Steve Peters put you up.

Oh, no, I've seen so many psychiatrists, psychologists,

I know exactly what to say. I'll be fine with them.

So much of a buzz, innit, turning up for the World Championship?

Is it, though, Steve? 17 days.

Did you think? I find it a lot of stress and pressure.

I find when I'm playing, it's fine, but it's the waiting around.

Yeah, it is, yeah, well,

you have to wait around for those odd moments of panic.

You get that fleeting moment where you win it and you're in the zone

and you're flying. Don't get me wrong, that's an amazing feeling.

-Yeah.

-But 17 days of it? You're, like...

-It's a war of attrition.

Yeah, it's a war of attrition, yeah.

I've been 16-8 up in the semis thinking, "This could go wrong."

I'm thinking, like, that's not a nice feeling.

I don't know, it's just the Crucible.

I think that does it to you, doesn't it?

In some ways, he's overcome the mistrust of the marathon -

in many ways.

Five-times world champion, but let's face it,

it really should have been six-, seven-, eight-, nine-,

ten-times world champion.

He's a great character to have in the game,

he absolutely comes down from that lineage of Higgins, White,

O'Sullivan. He's more talented than anyone in that lineage.

-It's the truth.

-Here we have somebody who has personality,

who has sporting genius, also wows crowds like I've never seen.

He's an absolute one-off.

He's the sort of person that makes people who don't watch your sport

watch your sport.

There is no better sight in world sport for me

than seeing Ronnie O'Sullivan clearing up.

The one record that will literally never be beaten,

and you can take it from me

it won't be, is five minutes 20 seconds by Ronnie O'Sullivan,

maximum break.

Probably the most extraordinary feat anyone's ever achieved

on a snooker table, I would say.

Certainly televised.

I think it's one of the most incredible things

ever seen in sport,

to be honest.

One.

APPLAUSE

It's artistic, it's creative, it's...

It's clairvoyant, it's psychic.

He's tuning in to higher energy, without any shadow of a doubt.

He's basically got the cue ball on a string.

We're watching a magician at work.

-COMMENTATOR:

-I'm starting to get a bit excited here.

It doesn't look hurried.

He doesn't look as if he's trying to be really quick.

He just made it look so easy,

and that's what the greats do in any sport.

Each shot by shot...he made it look easy, but the speed was phenomenal.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Four minutes for the century. Amazing.

Right, this is the key shot.

He needs a good angle on this red to get a good black.

He's got it, just.

113.

There were some bits where he stops and he looks and you think,

"Come on, hurry up, you've got to break the record!"

He does it in the time it takes.

It's unbelievable.

129.

-COMMENTATORS:

-Perfect.

-Yes, absolutely perfect.

134.

-COMMENTATOR:

-I don't believe this.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

What a break!

What a fantastic maximum break that is.

Ronnie O'Sullivan's delighted, the crowd's delighted,

John Virgo and I am delighted.

Five minutes for one unbelievable maximum break.

What took him so long(?)

You know? Incredible.

Steve, come on, five minutes 20 seconds?

-And he dropped his chalk.

-He dropped his chalk in the middle of it.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Sensational.

We were all there through television

and that's the magic of the Crucible, because we were there.

As David Vine and others have said throughout the years,

welcome to the best seat in the house.

That's where I am now, the X, watching the best,

but somehow still closely connected,

living every shot,

glued to every camera shot.

When I started watching snooker, it was literally one camera,

possibly two cameras, possibly three.

Now you've got cameras in pockets,

you've got a camera looking down on the players as well.

I think we should say good evening and welcome

to each of our cameramen,

because although it looks easy and although they are supposed to be

anonymous by the very nature of what they're doing,

without them nothing gets broadcast.

Let's say good evening. In the corner, it's Darryl.

CHEERING

And you watch the dance of the cameras,

these amazingly experienced cameramen and you think, "My God,

"he's getting too close," but he knows.

Instinctively, I've spoken to them,

they learn the body language of the players, so they know,

"Oh, he'll do another turn round the table so I'll stay back."

Or, "All right, he'll stay on that side of the table, so I'll go in."

They have to predict that so they're not kind of

breaking the concentration.

They're fully aware that although their first job is to get

the pictures to the public, almost equal first is,

they mustn't break the concentration of the player.

Now these computer graphics that give you the exact position,

lower down, and map the ball so accurately -

how they do that I don't know.

-COMMENTATOR:

-That's what he's faced with there.

It's extraordinary how it's evolved from one, possibly two cameras

and Whispering Ted Lowe to this all-singing,

all-dancing box of tricks that we now have at our disposal.

Right, Hazel, you sit in my seat, right, and I'll be the presenter.

I've always wanted to be the presenter.

This is a bit of a change, role reversal.

I'm feeling the pressure already.

You've seen so much stuff at the Crucible

but obviously you missed the '90s, effectively,

but you've seen the modern-day era unfold.

I've witnessed so many amazing things.

I do remember that the first World Championship we did together

was 2002, and that was Ebdon's year.

-Yeah.

-That was Ebdon against Hendry, 18-17 in the final.

I thought they were all like that!

Much of the drama of the Crucible is about ripping up convention,

like being known as the Hurricane or the Rocket.

And then there's Peter Ebdon, who moves at a...slower pace.

So the Peter Ebdon/Stephen Hendry final,

possibly the tensest final since 1985.

The one thing we know about Peter Ebdon,

and I can speak from personal experience here,

sometimes we go very late into the night when Peter is playing.

And I say that in the kindest possible sense, Peter.

And it went late on

and Stephen Hendry has a chance to make it eight world titles.

When I think of Stephen, and I've said it before,

I likened Stephen to the biggest, baddest,

meanest great white shark there's ever been

because he was absolutely ruthless.

Really, when I should have won 18-16,

I missed the black off the spot that I thought was in.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Oh, dear, dear, dear.

Peter Ebdon - one.

How's he missed that?

It was just refocus,

getting the disappointment out of my mind

of losing the previous frame and just putting everything into it.

I think back to that World Championship

and it really was like wringing a sponge,

a little bit more, little bit more, little bit more, right,

little bit more, come on, little bit more,

and that's what it was like. Everything that I am I gave.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Stephen Hendry, he's now got to sit there

and wonder how many he's going to be behind

when he gets back to the table...

IF he gets back to the table.

I probably made one of the best breaks under pressure

in my entire career.

-COMMENTATOR:

-What a moment in the life of Peter Ebdon.

Everything he's worked for,

dreamt of...

will become a reality,

pot this or not.

It's over!

Seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry claps his hands and says

"Well done, Peter Ebdon, you are the Embassy champion of the world."

Hendry, devastated, no-one likes seeing that.

When you look back at my face, yeah, I was way shocked.

That still sends shivers down my spine, thinking about that.

It was just the satisfaction of knowing that you've beaten

the most successful player of all time.

Family and friends there,

and my daughter Clarissa was there at the end and I held her up.

And, yeah, it sends a chill down my spine thinking about it now.

The theatre, the stage and the set, built with infinite care.

Any special pressure on the World Championship tables?

Putting them up? Do you feel the heat, the pressure?

Oh, God, you feel a massive pressure,

because it's so much coverage

and the whole world's looking at it.

I know there's a lot going on at the World Championship

but at the end of the day it comes down to those big green things

in the middle of the floor, you know?

An immense amount of pressure.

It's not good for us, cos it's tiny.

From one side of the set to the table is only 5ft 4in,

or 1.53 in new money.

4ft 10in, innit?

Average cue size, 4'10", so it only gives them six inches.

It must hurt when, all of a sudden, you've put your heart and soul into

making the table, to the best of your ability, perfect,

and then a player comes off and says...

-Rubbish.

-..it was rubbish.

COMMENTATOR LAUGHS

-COMMENTATOR:

-What's he doing?

I've had that many times, you know? But, you know,

and sometimes things go wrong,

but the majority of the time, it's out of your control.

It's atmosphere, heating, too hot.

The playing conditions now,

you just cannot do any more, you know?

We're almost up to date and ready to start again,

which brings us to the reigning world champion.

And here's one of those snooker stories within a story.

And here comes Leicester's world number one, Mark Selby!

I did catch the final last year,

although there was something on that was a little bit more important

on that particular occasion.

I was at home with my boys watching Leicester

win the Premier League title. I'm not sure I've mentioned it before!

-COMMENTATOR:

-The final of the World Championship, Crucible Theatre,

Mark Selby looking for his second, Ding looking for his first.

It doesn't get better than this.

It's fascinating that Leicester were winning the title at the same time

and, yet, here's a huge Leicester City fan, Mark Selby, and, you know,

that can actually put you off, is the truth.

You know, you're either thinking, "Am I going to be inspired by this,

"because," you know,

"this incredible sporting thing has happened?"

Or, actually, "Am I going to take my eye off the ball?"

-COMMENTATOR:

-That's an excellent shot.

I sort of, at the interval,

I said to my friend,

"What's the score with Leicester?"

And it was 0-0 at the time.

-COMMENTATOR:

-It's a fabulous chance here...and it's there.

Mark Selby, for the second time,

lifts the world title and he becomes world champion for 2016.

It was only after I'd won,

I'd gone back to my seat and one of my friends

who was sat next to me in the crowd

said to me that Tottenham had drew 2-2,

and Leicester were champions,

so that sort of made it even better.

This is part two of a sporting double for your hometown.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So my big question is, are you going to let them share your open-top bus?

Well, I didn't get one last time, when I won it two years ago, so...

The joy afterwards as well, when he realised, I've got it all,

we've done it all, the whole of Leicester was delighted,

they'd found a king in their car park,

they'd won the League title and they'd won the World Championship.

I watched the end of it. To be honest,

I'd had a few by that stage so I might not remember it too well.

The Leicester sporting double, all part of the global appeal of today.

Prize money this year, nearly £2 million.

The television audience? Keep adding the noughts.

I think that last year Ding Junhui in the final attracted

an audience in China of over 250 million people...

-Is that what it was?

-..during the middle of the night,

-watching his match.

-250...

-I mean, the 18 million...

A quarter of a billion?!

And meanwhile,

meanwhile,

bless, players like Mark Williams

have got "Dai Llewellyn's tractor fitter"

stitched to their jacket.

He's going to get amazing hits on their website, it's going to crash.

-From China!

-A quarter of a billion people say, "What's this?

"Find out." I love that. Because for all its glamour,

for all that Barry Hearn has brought to the game,

it still has these wonderful little...

"petewidginsdoubleglazing.co.uk"

written across the jacket.

The whole of China.

We chuckle at our peril.

This is the Crucible,

with its heat that can keep each and every one of us,

wherever we are, warmed by its glow.

The dream of people now is to go to the Crucible as a spectator,

not as a player, to sample that atmosphere that is totally unique,

that can't be replicated anywhere in the world on a sporting stage,

which evolves like reading a great book,

with twists and turns in each chapter,

and until you get to the final page you don't know who's won it.

You're so close, it's so intense,

there's an electricity that crackles in the place.

You really feel, you know,

sort of in the centre of a great web and every twitch on the filament is

something that kind of comes back to you. It's magnified.

You had these 998 people around you

and, yeah, you're there in the middle.

And everyone's so quiet and you can almost hear people whispering.

People don't think you can hear them but you can.

It's too small. It's cramped.

There's not enough room for the players,

there's not enough room for television, there's lots of things

that shouldn't be right about the place, but it just is.

It sends a little shiver down your spine because it's got

so much history attached to it.

It's just pure theatre, it's drama.

It's just the Crucible, I think it just does it to you, doesn't it?

On my tombstone will not be written,

"This is the man who took the World Championships

"away from the Crucible."

It's staying. And it don't matter how much is involved.

And I have never said that once in my entire life.

Great days, mate. Great days.

That's a wrap, boys, yes?

I had my time upon this stage, this small space, this compact arena,

but massive.

Stand by to be squeezed in again,

stand by to be transported wherever the Crucible takes us.