The Big Match

London Weekend Football Highlights 1968-83
On 11th August 1968, two weeks after the channel had launched*, London Weekend Television were scheduled to screen the first ever edition of a weekly Sunday afternoon highlights show called The Big Match, the fixture list had conveniently thrown up a North London derby at White Hart Lane to be featured as the opening game (Arsenal beat Spurs 2-1) but industrial action meant that a repeat of an old match had to be screened instead. Once the programme did finally make it on to the air a fortnight later The Big Match would then feature London clubs playing at home for the next fifteen seasons.**

*Commercial television viewers in the London area had previously been served by ATV at weekends who had produced a Sunday afternoon football highlights show since October 1965 called Star Soccer, From July 1968 ATV began broadcasting a seven days a week service to the Midlands, Star Soccer then continued as a Midlands equivalent of The Big Match.
See ATV London seasons here... 1965/66  |  1966/67  | 1967/68
***The Big Match was also screened by other smaller regions who struggled to justify covering matches of their own.

LWT commentator and studio personal
Brian Moore (pictured) presented and commentated on The Big Match throughout its' entire run. Born on 28th February 1932 and raised in Kent, the Gillingham fan joined BBC Radio in 1961 and commentated on the 1966 World Cup final before moving into television with LWT two years later. Aside from Sunday highlights, he presented ITV's Saturday lunchtime preview sequence On The Ball as well as commentating on Internationals, Cup finals and Thames Television's mid-week highlights. For ITV's World Cup coverage, Moore anchored from a London studio leaving the other regional commentators to cover the actual games, but this arrangement changed in 1990 and he was behind the mic at England's semi-final v West Germany in Italy. By this time he had undergone heart surgery but continued to commentate for ITV until his retirement in 1998, his last match being the World Cup final in France which was won by the hosts. Brian Moore died on 1st September 2001 at the age of 69.
It was Jimmy Hill who had been responsible for bringing Moore to LWT, the ex-Fulham player was the channel's original 'Head of Sport' and from August 1968 until May 1973 he appeared alongside Moore in the studio as a ground breaking analyst on The Big Match. Hill then left for the BBC to become the face of Match Of The Day for the next two decades. In Hill's place came Derby County manager Brian Clough, but the Rams' chairman was unhappy with his manager's media commitments (and the inevitable controversy Clough's outspoken comments caused) and he asked Clough by letter to discontinue his newspaper and TV work, but Clough decided to resign from Derby and ended up at 3rd tier Brighton for what proved to be an unhappy spell, during which - in February 1974 - he was quoted as saying that "TV must be banned from the grounds for at least six months to see the effect on attendance's. I would like to see TV commentators - including myself - on the dole."
Jim Rosenthal (an Oxford United fan) began reading The Big Match football news round-up from the start of the 1980/81 season. Jimmy Hill died on 19th December 2015 aged 87.

The Big Match theme tunes
The original theme was a piece called "Young Scene" composed by Keith Mansfield which appeared on the 1968 KPM Library Music LP "Flamboyant Themes"*. The next tune - "Cheekybird" performed by The Don Harper Orchestra - was only used for one season (1972/73), then came the fondly remembered "La Soirée" theme composed by David Ordini, a single (performed by The Gary Mann Orchestra) was released on the Penny Farthing label on 26th October 1973 (cat no. PEN 820 with "News Scoop" (a version of the original "Grandstand" theme) on the b-side)**. The 4th and final theme was Jeff Wayne's "Jubilation" which was used from the start of the 1980/81 season and issued as a single on the Epic label on 26th September 1980 (cat no. S EPC 8941 with "Time Bomb" on the b-side)***.

*"Young Scene" is often attributed to The Graham Walker Sound (who did cover it), but his is not the version that was used on the programme.
** An alternate version of "La Soiree" was used on the programme from 1977/78 - 1979/80.
***At least one other region [Granada] also used Jeff Wayne's tune for their own highlights programme.

The Mid-Week Match & Midweek Sports Special
LWT held the weekend franchise for ITV London whilst the Monday-Friday service was provided by Thames Television (1968-1992) who were therefore responsible for covering midweek London matches. Midweek football highlights were mostly networked, originally under no specific title and then, by the end of 1974/75, as The Mid-Week Match before Midweek Sports Special was introduced for the 1978/79 season. Brian Moore was very much involved in both a presenting and commentary capacity, Jim Rosenthal was also a regular face in the studio in the 1980's. Midweek Sports Special wasn't just football, although this and boxing tended to dominate the programme.

The LWT region's league teams 1968-1983
Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, West Ham United, Fulham, Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic, Millwall, Orient, Watford, Brentford and Wimbledon.
*Fringe clubs included Luton Town (shared with Anglia), Brighton & Hove Albion (shared with Southern/TVS) and Oxford United (primarily ATV/Central).
With the upgrade to UHF colour, Gillingham - previously covered by Southern - became part of the LWT region until the Bluebell Hill transmitter was handed over to TVS in 1982.

What matches were shown
The following season links detail all of the Saturday fixtures recorded by LWT for highlights on The Big Match, for full details of other region's matches go here. Re-edits of regional games included on The Big Match are, where known, indicated by a letter (G=Granada, Y=Yorkshire, T=Tyne Tees, H=HTV, M=ATV/Central(Midlands), E=(East)Anglia, W=Westward, S=Southern/TVS and X=Scottish). For midweek games (which were networked) go here, for full details of networked Wembley Cup finals go here and for European finals see here. Given dates are for when the match was played (not the broadcast). Non-London based matches are in italics.