BBC Sports Report

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents BBC Sports Report written and read by Pat Murphy.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 – SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR

Sports Report is as much a 75-year history of sport as a BBC radio institution and Pat Murphy pays handsome tribute to a programme that is still followed affectionately by millions.

For nearly 75 years, one BBC programme has been a constant factor in chronicling the way sport is covered, in all its many facets. It has been a window on the sporting world all over the globe – packed tightly into every Saturday evening for the bulk of the year.

First broadcast in 1948, Sports Report is the longest-running radio sporting programme in the world and one of the BBC’s hardy perennials. Pat Murphy has been a reporter on the programme since 1981 and here he sifts comprehensively through the experiences of his contemporaries and those who made their mark on Sports Report in earlier decades.

He hears from commentators, reporters, producers, presenters and the production teams who regularly achieved the broadcasting miracle of getting a live programme on air, without a script, adapting as the hour of news, reaction and comment unfolded.

Drawing on unique access from the BBC Archives Unit, he highlights memorable moments from Sports Report, details the challenges faced in getting live interviews on air from draughty, noisy dressing-room areas and celebrates the feat of just a small production team in the studio who, somehow, get the show up and running every Saturday, with the clock ticking implacably on.

Critics Review

The living history of a huge part of all our lives - and there's no one in the world better to tell it than Pat Murphy
Lee Child, bestselling author
Opens the doors to one of the great radio institutions and makes you realise how much effort and love goes into making it so special
Dan Walker
Pat’s reporting has always been engaging, expressive and arresting. Delighted his Sports Report book is just the same
Mark Pougatch
That opening tune always quickens the pulse. Out of the Blue, into the drama of the sporting day. Insight, interviews, inspirational
Henry Winter
It was the opening theme tune that sucked you in – it’s synonymous with British sport and a staple diet of listening and watching sport on a Saturday afternoon.
Joe Root, England Cricketer
Full of superb anecdotes, brilliantly told, marvellous characters.
Jim Rosenthal
If you have that sporting gene within you, it’s a book that soundtracks your life ... Every stage of that sporting cycle, that familiar tune, those familiar voices, coming at you through each beautifully researched page ... An absolute joy to read
John Inverdale
This marvellous book will delight anyone who has ever shrieked or howled in response to something they heard on Sports Report, and that, surely, must be everybody.
Mark Steel, comedian
Sports Report has run longer than Les Miserables and The Lion King put together. Patrick Murphy is the show’s perfect leading performer to tell its story from opening night in 1948 through the turbulent, exciting three-quarters of a century that followed, both on the fields of play and in the studio.
Sir Tim Rice
An emotional, revealing opus to mark 75 years of the show.
The Times
A definitive history
Daily Mirror
A labour of love
BBC 5 Live
A lovingly curated, profoundly researched book about the history of the show.
The Telegraph
Pat Murphy does it proud... he skilfully weaves tales of the programme’s beginnings, the challenges it has faced over the years and the big stories that have been covered.
Late Tackle
It brings home the enormously long cast list of distinguished people who have reported or worked on the programme… Sports Report is a great institution and Pat’s book does justice to it.
Lord King, former Governor of the Bank of England and Aston Villa supporter
An absolute joy of a book. A better Christmas present I cannot possible fathom
Graeme Swann
Of great interest to anyone wanting to gain an insight into how programmes are produced… a worthy addition to the books published recently commemorating the 100th anniversary of the BBC
Practical Wireless
Beautifully written. It brought back great memories of all my old friends at the best time of my life.
Des Lynam

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