During most of the Eighties and Nineties Des Lynam seemed to be absolutely everywhere. In the final days before Sky hoovered up all the live broadcasting rights, he was the face and voice of most of the Beeb’s sport coverage. Such exposure could have been mass overkill but not in Lynam’s case. Such a consummate professional with a twinkle in his eye and an ear for the perfectly judged wry phrase, we couldn’t get enough of him.
He hadn’t been an overnight sensation. I hadn’t realised at the time but the Irish-born, Brighton-raised journalist had cut his teeth in local radio and even Radio 4’s esteemed news strand Today in the Seventies. His TV career began quietly on the sport slot within the early evening Nationwide programme but really took off in 1979. Lynam’s stint on Radio 2’s live afternoon sports show served him well for his celebrated spell fronting BBC1’s TV equivalent, Grandstand.
I was brought up on David Coleman and Frank Bough, linking live reports and films, device in one ear and pen in hand for four or five hours each week but Des brought an extra dimension to the role. Even ITV’s Dickie Davies couldn’t compete with Lynam’s singular moustache and line in leisure jacket and tie. Even with twenty-first century technology, few modern broadcasters can handle such a range of sports as Des did in Final Score, the ol’ vidiprinter beeping away merrily and the score draw count reminding us of a day when the Pools performed the job of today’s fantasy football.
Des seemed even more at ease when Sunday Grandstand launched in 1981. Whether in Coleman-esque golf sweater or full lounge lizard garb reminiscent of some millionaire gangster sipping cocktails on his Monte Carlo yacht, he was the ideal man to link cricket, show jumping and cross-country on a summer Sunday afternoon while I was home from university.
He was eventually granted weekend afternoons off but, between 1991 and 1997, he shifted to midweek to become the final incumbent of the Sportsnight desk chair although I will always associate that show’s signature tune with either David Coleman or Harry Carpenter. Then there were the global events. Of course it was Des chosen to front the Beeb’s Olympic Games coverage and the major football tournaments such as the World Cup (note in this clip he didn’t concur with Sir Bobby’s suggestion to substitute Gary Lineker who went on to strike the winning penalties!) and, notably, the 1996 Euros, where he carefully avoided ITV’s jarringly jingoistic pro-England stance.
By this time Lynam was revelling in his reputation as a housewives’ favourite, an image happily exploited by impressionists like Rory Bremner. The Beeb was happy to exploit it too, believing the media hype about him attracting female viewers. The ‘tache had long since caught up with the prematurely greying barnet but, whatever the programme, once the opening titles had faded it was always reassuring to see Desmond Lynam’s cheery face welcoming us. I can’t speak for the legions of ladies said to be drooling over Des; for me it was all about the sport….
And he seemed to be the face for all kind of sports. He dispensed with the then traditional Aintree trilby for the annual Grand National outside broadcast and he was an assured anchorman on anything from Wimbledon highlights to athletics. On the radio, boxing had been his first love. Yet until the Nineties, Harry Carpenter had that gig sewn up on BBC Television. Then came the wholesale rights purchase by Sky and bouts were largely lost to terrestrial TV and viewers like me. However, I do recall watching back in 1987 Lynam’s interview on Grandstand with the new heavyweight sensation Mike Tyson. It was nicely judged and showed us a different side of the uncaged ‘beast’ who bludgeoned every opponent he faced in the ring. Tyson was soft-spoken shy and humble, and Des deftly drew him out.
Then there’s the national game. Gary Lineker has been the face of Match of the Day for so long now, it’s hard to recall that he was once the apprentice to the master, Desmond Lynam. Bob Wilson could fall back on his career as Arsenal goalie and Adrian Chiles his longsuffering West Brom fan, but Lynam’s skill was in leading the team of pundits like Jimmy Hill, Alan Hansen or Trevor Brooking on live TV, be it on the big occasions or the weekly Premier League highlights show, MOTD. He possessed a light touch and even demonstrated some neat comedy acting on Comic Relief but also an expert handler of the serious stuff, as on the day of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
However, when the Beeb lost the rights to football highlights, Des jumped ship to ITV. He was neither the first nor the last to follow the money to the commercial world but once he had to utter the dreaded phrase “See you after the break” I knew he would never be the same. It seemed like the end of an era and this clip seems other-worldly: Wycombe Wanderers in an FA Cup semi-final?! The passing of the baton was laid stark when Gary spoke to Des in a clearly rehearsed Sports Review of the Year exchange in 2003. The former host had gone to ITV and there he was, sitting alongside the long-retired Frank Bough and Peter Dimmock. I’m sure the metaphor wasn’t lost on him.
To be honest I’m not sure Des seems comfortable guesting on someone else’s show. When he appeared on Fantasy Football League in ’96 I’d never seen him so lost for words. Perhaps it’s hardly surprising when Frank Skinner and David Baddiel were engaged in sexist banter with Dani Behr, but Des clearly wished he was somewhere else!
Also in the Nineties, I’d often enjoy comedy sports quiz They Think It’s All Over on TV but it started out on BBC Radio 5 (before its Five Live re-brand), and guess who presented it? I actually attended one recording in 1993 and mused at the time whether it would succeed on TV. As it happened, panel game kings Talkback snapped it up but, despite doing a pilot, he decided against continuing, to the subsequent benefit of comedian Nick Hancock’s bank balance.
Of course, Lynam’s skills and personality were too good for pigeonholing under ‘Sport’. At the height of his fame, he co-presented How Do They Do That?, a features series answering viewer questions by means of short filmed reports, and for a few years even fronted the Beeb’s Holiday strand, a role I’d completely forgotten. In more recent times, he’s hosted a few editions of Have I Got News For You? and also replaced the late Richard Whitely on Countdown, but I never watched that. Nonetheless I’ve always felt Des was best suited to the cut-and-thrust of live, unscripted broadcasting, saying all you needed to know with a few ‘bon mots’, a well-timed pause mid-sentence, half-wink and a twitch of that trademark ‘tache.
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