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ITV's The Big Match Programme

Aztec Gold (January 2017)

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RD
rdd Founding member


Anyway, in 2001, given it had dwindled to virtually nothing, the Big Match branding was dropped again. The
Then there were two big changes in 2004, as they lost the rights to the Premier League, and also decided to network virtually all their coverage, including the League Cup and the Football League, which previously had been mostly regional. The loss of the Premier League also meant they started buying up anything else that cropped up, like Uefa Cup matches, which previously they hadn't bothered with. From the start of the 2004/05 season, everything aside from the Champions League then had a generic ITV football title sequence and used Beautiful Day as the theme tune (which previously had only been used on The Premiership and nothing else). The FA Cup had its own titles and theme when they got it back in 2008 and they stopped using Beautiful Day when they lost the Football League and League Cup rights in 2009. That's it.


As I recall during the Beautiful Day era the Football League highlights show was called "The Championship" (echoing "The Premiership") though IIRC it covered Leagues One and Two also. "You Are the Number One" seemingly lasted until the end of 1995-6, but by 1997, a different theme tune was being used for the Football League Extra highlights show.

One thing stumping me about the "You Are The Number One" era is that, if I recall correctly, ITV went through an odd phase of running multiple choice trivia questions in and out of breaks - like the theme itself may have started with Euro 92. Am I imaging that bit?
SW
Steve Williams
rdd posted:
As I recall during the Beautiful Day era the Football League highlights show was called "The Championship" (echoing "The Premiership") though IIRC it covered Leagues One and Two also. "You Are the Number One" seemingly lasted until the end of 1995-6, but by 1997, a different theme tune was being used for the Football League Extra highlights show.

One thing stumping me about the "You Are The Number One" era is that, if I recall correctly, ITV went through an odd phase of running multiple choice trivia questions in and out of breaks - like the theme itself may have started with Euro 92. Am I imaging that bit?


Not in Euro 92 - they used Sega break bumpers with cock-ups and goals and stuff, as seen here - https://youtu.be/o0tw3rEwNK4. On a couple of occasions Elton Welsby referred to them on air, which of course they weren't supposed to do, but it was early days. They may have done it a bit later, mind.

Yes, the Football League coverage in 2004, when it was all networked, went under the banner of The Championship, even though it included Leagues One and Two instead (although sometimes it'd be truncated for something else, and they'd miss them out). I thought it was hilarious when The Premiership ended and they launched that instead, as if it was the same. At one point during the run they started referring to it as Championship Goals, including in the Radio Times, but the title sequence stayed the same and it reverted back to the old name pretty sharpish.

Football League Extra probably was the last show to use You Are The Number One. It was replaced by the ace Little Britain by Dreadzone.
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