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Saturday
Sport
by
Kenneth Wolstenholme
From
'Kenneth Wolstenholme's Book of World Soccer.' (1963)
Published by World Distributors (Manchester) Limited.
The
BBC camera crew take protection from the blazing sun of
Mexico City.
From left to right: Fred Clarke (sound recordist),
Kenneth Wolstenholme (commentator), Paul Fox (producer,
now {1963} head of BBC TV Public Affairs Programmes),
Hugh Wilson (camerman)
Every
Saturday night during the football season, six million
people tune in to B.B.C.
Television to watch "Saturday Sport", the
thirty-five minute programme which mirrors the day's
sport on film.
"Saturday Sport" has come a long way since the
days of the old "Sports Special", the title
under which the programme first came on to the television
screens some nine years ago. In those days, an entirely
new filming technique had to be devised, and as
processing facilities existed only in London, film had to
be flown, in all weather conditions, to the laboratories
for processing. Today film can be processed in a number
of provincial centres, such as Birmingham, Bristol and
Manchester.
The B.B.C.'s Sport Department is responsible for
"Saturday Sport" as well as for the other three
sports programmes on the BBC network
..."Sportsview","Grandstand" and
"To-day's Sport". It does, therefore, come
under the general direction of the Head of Sport, Bryan
Cowgill. But the general day-to-day editing of
"Saturday Sport" was, last season, the job of
Lawrie Higgins.
Higgins was originally a sports journalist with Kemsley
(now Thomson) Newspapers and then graduated into
television via Associated Television, one of the
commercial companies. He joined the B.B.C. in
November,1961.
His introduction into the editorship of "S' d S'
" h .H k atur ay port was chaotic. e too over for
the edition which was due on the air on December 29,
1961, but widespread fog cut the programme to ribbons.
One camera unit was in the North of England going from
town to town in an effort to find a match that could be
played. It failed. Every northern match except one was
postponed.
Another unit was in the South, but London, too, was
fogbound. Match after match fell out until just one was
left -- Tottenham Hotspur v. Chelsea. Yet some viewers,
wrote to complain that a London "derby" was
chosen for coverage !
Kenneth
Wolstenholme at the BBC
(picture
from BBC SPORT FOOTBALL)
Under
the terms of the B.B.C.'s contract with the Football
League, two League matches can be covered each week on
"Saturday Sport". On cup day's, three matches
may be covered. So Higgins has to plan some weeks ahead
so that the Football League and the clubs concerned can
be notified which games will be covered. Then there are
other big events to be considered -Rugby Union, Rugby
League, racing and the like.
Working some weeks in advance is not easy. Some matches
increase in importance because of recent results or
because a star player has been signed. Other matches
decrease in importance.
Which matches should be covered ? Some people feel that
the net should be spread far and wide so that by the end
of the season everyone of the 92 Football League clubs
would have had at least one showing. But experience has
shown that the public is interested only in the big
matches, the clashes involving the leading First Division
teams or those battling for promotion from the Second
Division. That is why last season, Everton, Leicester and
Tottenham Hotspur were featured more than the other
clubs. After all, they were the front runners in the race
for the league championship.
Some people in the North complain that Spurs were shown
too many times, but then those in the South prorested
that Higgins showed a bias towards the North with the
continual coverage given to Burnley and Everton. Those
who kept records of the matches will know that 50 per
cent of the teams which appeared on "Saturday
Sport" were from the North, with Burnley and Everton
leading the way in the number of appearances. But that is
only to be expected when one remembers how many of the
league teams are situated in the North.
Once he has decided on his programme, editor Lawrie
Higgins has to consult Ronnie Spillane, who is
responsible for the briefing of the camera crews,
provision of scaffolding for cameras and arranging for
the despatch of film to the nearest laboratories.
Come Saturday afternoon, everything is ready to mount yet
another programme. The "Saturday Sport" office
staff report for duty towards the end of
"Grandstand" and take over all the
news-providing equipment, such as tape machines.
Meanwhile, the crews in the field are at work.
At each match there is a commentator. Walley Barnes, Alan
Weeks and I are the three main ones used - and a camera
team of three - cameraman, assistant and sound recordist.
In the early days, we attempted to film the game in
snatches, but it was found that with this method it was
very easy to miss goal or other vital incidents. So now
filming goes on continually throughout the match.
Filming presents problems all its own.
When a football game is covered by what we call
"live" cameras, three cameras are used and they
are under the direction of a producer. By this method,
every portion of the field is covered all the time, and
furthermore, television cameras can pierce the weather
much easier than can film cameras.
Light is the great problem for the film cameraman, and
the months of November, December, January and February
are particularly troublesome. You can meet any mixture of
weather in those months. It can be foggy, hazy, sunny,
frosty or there can be a blizzard. Often the cameraman
has to cope with four differing conditions of light in
the space of ninety minutes. The game can start in
sunshine, followed by a fading of the light as darkness
sets in. Then the light meter reading leaps upwards as
the floodlights are switched on, and the last I5 minutes
of the game can be played under floodlights with the
ground shrouded in haze or thickening fog. All these
conditions call for different types of film, different
exposures.
There is no time for commentary to be put on the edited
film. Nor, indeed, is such a method desirable because no
commentator can get the thrill of a big match sitting in
a dubbing theatre. So the commentaries for the matches
shown on "Saturday Sport"and on other special
B.B.C.-T.V. films- are recorded on the spot, and as the
film is cut, so, too, is the commentary.
Commentating on such occasions calls for a much different
approach than the live outside broadcast. First and
foremost, the commentator has no monitor set so he can
never be certain what picture is actually in the camera
frame. He must, therefore, be certain to explain near
misses at goal in case the camera has not recorded them
faithfully.
Then the commentator must explain the game much more
fully because the viewer is only going to see a cut
version of the game, reduced from ninety minutes to
fifteen or even less. He has to tell the viewer how the
game is going because the viewer can never judge-how can
he when he sees an incident in, say, the eighth minute,
and the next shot is from the thirtieth minute ? In
short, what the commentator must do is attempt to give a
Sunday newspaper report and assessment of the game while
it is actually taking place.
Film is taken from the commentary position by relays of
despatch riders to the laboratories, where it is quickly
processed and then sent to the film editors. (A point
herethe film is not developed. It is edited and
transmitted in the negative state.) The editors are
helped by a dope sheet telephoned to them by the
cameraman's assistant. These dope sheets give such
details as: "Roll 1, 50 feet, disallowed
"goal". Roll 2, 80 feet, "penalty"
and so on. From this information and from his own viewing
of the film, the film editor cuts the film to make a
story of the required length.
The actual length of each story is decided upon by Lawrie
Higgins, who by now has a report on what sort of
entertainment the various games provided. At six o'clock
on Saturday evening, Lawrie Higgins goes into conference
with Richard Tilling, who dircets the studio cameras, and
me. It is at this conference that the running order is
decided.
The two soccer films are the mainstays of each programme,
but there might be other stories, specially filmed, or
highlights from the afternoon's "Grandstand"
programme which are on video-tape. Some people say that
these highlights should not be used, but there is a wide
sporting audience that has been playing or watching
during the afternoon so will have had no chance of seeing
the exciting finish to that race, or some other highlight
from an afternoon's outside broadcast.
Meanwhile, a sub editor is sifting through the news that
chatters in on the tape machines. He comes up with - we
hope - good stories and it might be decided that we can
do a caption routine, or even a film routine of
individuals who have hit the headlines that afternoon.
Richard Tilling then settles down to work out which
machines which film will be on, how he will operate his
studio cameras. If one or both of the matches we have
covered has affected the positions at the top or the
bottom of the division, then it might be decided to show
the new league positions. In that case, caption artists
are called in to make up a "fish and chip
board" . . . this is really a board on to which
individual letters are stuck, so spelling out the
necessary words.
While Lawrie Higgins is checking with film editors and
with Ronnie Spillane about the progress of the editing of
each story, I am writing the script-and my almost
illegible handwriting is expertly read by a typist who
duplicates a number of copies.
An hour before the show goes on the air, rehearsal
begins. For this, Tilling is upstairs in the gallery with
his production assistant, Janet Driver, by his side.
Lawrie Higgins is also there. Tilling can talk to
everyone on the studio floor by means of an
inter-communication system, and these days most comperes
or link-men wear deaf-aids specially made for them. I
don't. I found them uncomfortable and I found myself
shouting to raise my voice over the sounds I could hear
from the gallery in my ear. So I rely more than ever on
Bill Adams, the floor manager, who is Tilling's
second-in-command as far as the studio floor is
concerned.
Rarely do we see the films on rehearsal. They are still
in the hands of the editors. But all the links can be
timed, and so, too, can the telecine cues-the actual
words spoken by me to cover the ten feet of film which is
put on the front of each story as a leader . Rehearsal
over, there is a short break until transmission. Then,
with five minutes to go, it is the commanding voice of
Bill Adams calling: "Five minutes, studio. Settle
down." He checks with me that I've got a jug of
fresh water and a glass and that there's an ashtray on my
desk, just out of sight of the cameras - just as I smoke
throughout a commentary, I also smoke while films are
running. Bill Adams continues his countdown, ticking off
each minute.
Kenneth
Wolstenholme at the BBC
(Picture
from BBC SPORT FOOTBALL
Wolstenholme The voice of football)
Then
it is stand-by. Bill Adams stands by the side of the
camera which is focused on me, arm raised. Suddenly it's,
"Here we go", and on one of my two monitor sets
I can see the ten feet of leader to the opening titles
ticking over. Then up comes the sound and the opening
titles. I can see when I come into view-in fact I know
the opening titles backwards. But as a safeguard, Tilling
calls over the inter-com, "Cut to 4 (meaning camera
No.4), cue Ken." Bill Adams drops his arm and
another show is on the road.
During the programme I can be given late news flashes to
read, and over the telephone Tilling can keep me informed
about the timings, whether we are over-running or
under-running. And if all goes well, we are out right on
time.
But things often go wrong for "Saturday Sport"
and last season we had nightmares during that almost
never-ending arctic spell. Then decisions have to be
taken in seconds. . . and might prove to be wrong. There
was the time last season when a camera team went to cover
the important Second Division match between Huddersfield
Town and Sunderland. As he drove into Huddersfield, the
camera car driver had to use his headlights because of
the poor visibility-just three hours before the
kick-off'. When this was reported to London, the editor,
realising that there were no floodlights on the
Huddersfield ground, ordered a change of plans. The
camera team was switched to Manchester . . . and the
visibility in Huddersfield improved.
The big freeze-up of last season almost drove Higgins and
Spillane to distraction.
They had to try and develop some order out of chaos-and
all at the last minute. Friday became nightmare day as
matches were called off, causing changes of plans. Camera
crews were sent on what proved to be wild goose chases.
So were commentators. Yet every week the programme went
out, and on January 5, 1963, the day on which only three
Third Round F.A. Cup ties were played, "Saturday
Sport" covered all three. . . even though I did have
to travel overnight to Leeds and then race over the
snowbound Pennines and across Lancashire into Cheshire to
cover the Tranmere Rovers v. Chelsea match.
But all that is part of the fun of working on such a
programme, a programme which is not only shown on the
B.B.C. network but is also sold to various Commonwealth
and overseas countries. So world wide is "Saturday
Sport" these days that Alan Prentice, our chief
soccer cameraman who was deservedly awarded the M.B.E. in
the New Year's Honours List, was able to watch the
programme in Australia during the Commonwealth Games.
On
this site also see Commentators
Kenneth
Wolstenholme's Obituary
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