Lynam started his career in broadcasting as a freelance radio journalist on BBC Radio Brighton (1968–1969). He quickly joined national BBC radio in London, and went on to anchor Sport on Two and Sports Report (1969–1978) on BBC Radio 2. From 1974 to 1976, he co-presented the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 on three mornings each week.[4] He was also the radio boxing commentator for 20 years.
Lynam moved to television in 1977 starting off with Sportswide as part of Nationwide continuing until the series ended in 1983, and then presented Grandstand (1979–1991, occasionally until 1999), Sportsnight (1991–1997) and Match of the Day (1988–1999) on the BBC for many years, and also fronted BBC coverage of Wimbledon (highlights 1983[5] to 1989[6] with Gerald Williams, main presenter 1991–1997 and 1999), the Grand National (1985–1999), the Football World Cup (1982–1998) and the Olympic Games (1980–1996).[4]
In 1988 and 1989, Lynam presented the BBC series Holiday.[7]
Between 1988 and the end of the 1991–1992 season, the BBC had lost the rights for top flight league matches to ITV, although the BBC retained rights for the FA Cup. Lynam presented Match of the Day on FA Cup weekends for four years until the end of the 1991–1992 season. In August 1992, at the start of the new formation of the Premier League, the BBC regained highlights of top flight league matches.[9] Lynam presented Match of the Day highlights of Premier League matches on the BBC until 1999.
Throughout his time on the BBC, Lynam was praised for his witty and down-to-earth style. In 1998, Lynam made a brief return to BBC Radio 2, presenting the 5–7pm Drivetime show on Fridays only. During this period, Johnnie Walker presented the show from Monday to Thursday.[10]
ITV: 1999–2004
Lynam moved from the BBC to ITV in August 1999, to present ITV's live football coverage, including coverage of the midweek UEFA Champions League. Lynam said at the time: "Leaving the BBC after 30 years was not an easy decision to make, but it was time for a new challenge – and it's no secret that live football is what I love best." A month earlier, Lynam had complained in a newspaper interview about BBC1's late scheduling on a Saturday evening of Match of the Day, which had sometimes been shown with a late start time of 10.50pm. Lynam said: "The moment you put it past 10.30 I start fuming."[11]
ITV later gained a deal to air Premier League highlights. In 2001, Lynam presented The Premiership, which was first aired on ITV at 7pm on 18 August 2001. After disappointing viewing figures in the first couple of months for The Premiership on ITV, a decision was made to shift the programme from its original 7pm slot to a permanent later time of 10:30pm, from 17 November 2001.[12] The programme ran until May 2004.
Lynam continued to present football coverage for ITV until 2004. He decided to retire from presenting live sport after the Euro 2004 football championships. Soon afterwards the BBC announced that Lynam would present a new weekly radio programme, Des Meets..., on BBC Radio Five Live from August 2004.[13]
2005–2013
In May 2005, Lynam presented the BBC1 programme We'll Meet Again, marking the 60th anniversary of VE Day. During the show Tara McDonald performed the song "We'll Meet Again" live. The following month, he presented an episode of Have I Got News For You on BBC1, the third time he had presented the show, having twice hosted the show the previous year.
In June and July 2005, Lynam co-presented (with Sir David Frost) the series The World's Greatest Sporting Legend on Sky One.[14] In the summer of 2005, Lynam also covered the Wimbledon Championships for BBC Radio Five Live.
In October 2005, Lynam published his autobiography I Should Have Been at Work.[15] The title of the book is a reference to when Lynam said "Good afternoon. Shouldn't you be at work?" when introducing coverage of an England match at 2pm on a Monday during the 1998 Football World Cup finals.[16]
In 2005, Lynam said that he regretted his decision to move to ITV from the BBC in 1999. Lynam said: "If it was a decision I had to make now I probably wouldn't do it. Some people said I went from being a great broadcaster, or at least a very acceptably good one, to being a somewhat inadequate one overnight".[17]
Also that year, Lynam replaced Richard Whiteley as the host of Channel 4's Countdown, with his first episode airing on 31 October 2005, following Whiteley's death. Although his contract was to last until December 2007, Lynam left Countdown after less than 18 months at the end of 2006, because he regularly needed to travel to Leeds where Countdown was recorded, while his home was in Worthing, West Sussex about 250 miles away. He was replaced by Des O'Connor.[18] Lynam did, however, return for Countdown's 5000th episode, broadcast on 26 March 2010, as the Dictionary Corner guest.[19]
In April 2009, Lynam spoke about his recollection of the Hillsborough disaster for a Football Focus special programme marking the 20th anniversary of the disaster.[8]
From 2011 to 2013, Lynam co-hosted, with Christopher Matthew, three series of Touchline Tales on BBC Radio 4, a humorous look at sport.
In a 2015 interview, Lynam stated that "I liked the radio boxing commentaries very much, especially following Muhammad Ali around the world. That was a great period of my life."[20]
Personal life
Lynam married Susan Skinner on 2 October 1965[21] and they had one son, Patrick (born 1970); however, by 1973 the marriage began to break down owing to Lynam's career commitments, and they divorced in 1974. Lynam married his long-term partner, Rosemary Diamond, in 2011.[citation needed]
Lynam is a supporter of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. In the 1990s he declined an invitation to join the board of directors at Brighton.[22]
Robert Primrose Wilson is a former Scotland international football goalkeeper and later broadcaster.
Grandstand was the former flagship sports programme of the British Broadcasting Corporation which was broadcast on Saturday afternoons on BBC1 between 1958 and 2007, and from 1981 on Sunday afternoons as Sunday Grandstand on BBC2, although until 1998 the Sunday edition aired only during the summer.
Robert Jeffrey Stelling is an English television presenter. He presented Gillette Soccer Saturday for Sky Sports from 1994 until 2023 and hosted coverage of the Champions League between 2011 and 2015.
Jacob John Humphrey DL is an English television presenter, best known for hosting Champions League and Premier League football on BT Sport, CBBC's Bamzooki, and BBC Sport's coverage of Formula 1 Grand Prix. He is the co-founder and Director of Whisper Group, and hosts the High Performance Podcast.
Sportsnight was a midweek BBC television sports programme that ran from 1968 until 1997.
Peter Brackley was an English football commentator, perhaps most famous for commentating for Football Italia on Channel 4 in the 1990s, for the computer game series Pro Evolution Soccer until Pro Evolution Soccer 6, and for Michael Owen's World League Soccer '99.
Breakfast Time is British television's first national breakfast television programme. It was broadcast from 17 January 1983 until 29 September 1989 on BBC1 across the United Kingdom. It was broadcast for the first time just over two weeks before TV-am, the commercial breakfast television station.
The Premiership is a television programme which showed highlights of the FA Premier League. It was ITV Sport's flagship football show from August 2001 to May 2004. The show was created after the ITV network won a multimillion-pound deal to air Premier League highlights once owned by the BBC. The programme was presented by Des Lynam, with Gabby Logan as a stand-in and Ally McCoist, Ron Atkinson, Terry Venables, Barry Venison and Andy Townsend frequently serving as pundits.
Matt Smith is a British broadcaster who worked with ITV Sport between 2001 and 2015. He currently presents TNT Sports' coverage of Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League, Conference Football and England Under 21 matches.
Today at Wimbledon is a BBC TV show, showing highlights and discussion from the day's play at the Wimbledon Championships currently hosted by Clare Balding. The show lasts for 60 minutes and is broadcast on BBC Two at 8:30 pm.
This is a list of British television related events from 1997.
This is a list of British television related events from 1992.
This is a list of British television related events from 1991.
This is a list of British television related events from 1985.
This is a list of British television related events from 1984.
This is a list of British television related events from 1982.
This is a list of events in British radio during 1999.
Gerald Williams was a British tennis commentator and journalist. Williams wrote for the Croydon Advertiser and the Daily Mail. Williams was a studio guest on the nightly round-up of Wimbledon coverage on BBC television from 1981 to 1989.
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