The most famous theme tune in history?! (Match of the Day)

Member Name: phillipsdj

Product:	Match of the Day
Date:	16/02/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Football highlights, no ad breaks

Disadvantages: Can finish quite late

Match Of The Day (or MoTD) is a national institution and is in the slightly unusual situation of, despite being famous, it's theme tune is perhaps even more famous - everybody know the classic Do Do Do DoDo DoDo Do opening!.....

*The Beginning*
Match Of The Day originally hit our screens on BBC2 in August 1964 when the legendary Kenneth Wostenholme broadcast live commentary from Anfield of Liverpool versus Arsenal. Around 20,000 people tuned in, which at the time was less than half of the attendance in the ground. This was the first of a weekly live match on the BBC.

The popularity of the 1966 World Cup coverage saw the show moved to BBC1 for the 1966/67 season and on the opening weekend of the following season more than 5 million people tuned in to see Everton against Man Utd. Live matches were continued to be shown until the advent of the Premier League in 1992 when BSkyB won the rights to live matches and MoTD changed it's format to a Saturday night highlights show.

*Current Highlights Format*
For someone like me who was born in the early 80s I have only ever known the show as a football highlights package (although I should probably point out that MoTD does also show some live England games) and it is the best and most famous of its kind. It generally starts between 10 and 10.30pm on a Saturday evening and will last until a little before midnight, given that some matches nowadays don't finish until 7pm I think this is the ideal time to start as it gives the presenters and pundits plenty of time to get their analysis together and gives viewers time to finish their days tasks etc and settle down on the sofa.

The show has 1 presenter (ex England striker Gary Lineker at present) and usually 2 pundits who go through all of that days top flight games.

*The Presenters*
Since 1973 the show has miraculously only had 3 presenters, these are:

Jimmy Hill
Des Lynam
Gary Lineker

There have also been a large number of pundits who have been used to analyse the action. Presently these include:

Alan Hansen
Mark Lawrenson
Lee Dixon
Garth Crooks
Gary Pallister
Martin Keown
Alan Shearer
+ I'm sure there will be a whole load more that I have forgotten!

*Worth Watching?*
YES!!!

If like me you are a football fan who can not afford Sky and also have no Saturday night social life then this is definitely the show for you! It shows all the talking points of the days games as well extended highlights of certain games and the chat between the pundits is informative, easy going and sometimes funny! If you do have a social life, the show is repeated on Sunday mornings at around 8am and is perfect hangover viewing!

Summary: One of my favourite shows of all time!