While it is known only too well that repitition is one of the great foibles in this trade, it would always be contended that if a point still carries credence, it’s worth mentioning again.
So we duly find ourselves back in the late 1980s or early 90s. Saturday afternoons in my brother-in-law Kieran’s family home with his dad Denis and late mother Lily.
You’ve heard of the Stations of the Cross, well this was more like the cross of the stations. Reason being that, as has often been said in this space, back in the years, we only had the two stations (RTE One and Two) at home. Thus, getting up to Denis and Lily’s meant that one got to see programmes from a cross section of stations. The likes of Match Of The Day and Dad’s Army and Noel Edmonds’ House Party and many more.
Among them was also Big Break. A snooker based game show hosted by Jim Davidson and John Virgo. The centre piece of which were JV’s Trick Shots. The Salford native was famed for his alacrity at contriving entertaining mimickery with a Snooker ball, and, in actual fact, it would probably be fairly safe to say he attained most of his fame and income via Big Break rather than on the professional circuit.
You know, it’s more than a little ironic that, while getting ‘all’ the stations, touch was lost, to a large degree, with sports coverage on the BBC. With the exception of, incidentally, the World Snooker Championship every April/May and the (tennis) Championships at Wimbledon in the height of strawberry season. The often exhilarating action making the proliferation of Z-List celebrities taking up seats just a tad less nauseating.
Anyway, the upshot of sports coverage outside of Sky taking a back seat was that I didn’t even realise the show had ran for as long as was the case. 11 seasons in all. There’s never a word about the show now – save for the last few days since news of JV’s sad passing in Spain emerged.
Now, it probably goes with saying that at least part of the reason you hear so little about Big Break – comparative to some other great BBC shows which are still gloriously repeated regularly – is down to the nefarious activity it emerged Davidson had been involved in years later.
A great pity and a great disservice to the co-host who was actually a brighter star than the so-called ‘main man’ could ever hope to be. In conclusion, though we might never go back to it, I’m delighted to have known it. Goodnight JV.
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