Sportsnight

This article is about the BBC television programme. For other uses, see SportsNight (disambiguation).

Sportsnight
Sportsnight title card, from 1983
Also known as	Sportsnight with Coleman (1968–1972)
Genre	Sport highlights
Presented by	David Coleman (1968–1972) Tony Gubba (1972–1975) Harry Carpenter (1975–1985) Steve Rider (1985–1991) Desmond Lynam (1991–1997)
Theme music composer	Tony Hatch
Opening theme	Sportsnight theme
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
Production
Production company	BBC Sport
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	12 September 1968 (1968-09-12) – 14 May 1997 (1997-05-14)

Sportsnight was a midweek BBC television sports programme that ran from 1968 until 1997.

Sportsview

Sportsnight was a successor to Sportsview which started on 8 April 1954. Sportsview was devised by Paul Fox, later Controller of BBC1 and Peter Dimmock was the original host for a decade (and did host occasional editions from 1964–68). The BBC Sports Personality of the Year award evolved as a spin-off from Sportsview when the last show of its inception year featured the Sports Review of 1954. Frank Bough took over as main host in 1964 and Sportsview was replaced by Sportsnight with Coleman from 12 September 1968. A junior version of Sportsview also ran from 1956 to 1962.

Sportsnight

Sportsnight was originally shown on Thursday nights. The original presenter was David Coleman and the programme was billed as Sportsnight with Coleman. It moved to Wednesdays in 1973. The theme tune was composed by Tony Hatch.

The show broadcast many sports and acted as a midweek version of Grandstand, although almost all of its coverage was in highlights form, often featuring midweek football action, particularly international matches and FA Cup replays. Pre-recorded features were also part of the programme. In the final few years, the Sportsnight brand was used when the BBC was showing live European football.

The programme was not broadcast during the summer months, generally on air from September until the following April.

The final edition of Sportsnight was broadcast on 14 May 1997, with live coverage of that year's UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final.

A further show, Sport on Friday, ran from 1987 until 1997, acting as a companion to both Sportsnight and Grandstand. Its main live coverage was of sports such as snooker, bowls and horse racing. It was shown on BBC2 on Friday afternoons between October and April and ran from 2.15pm until 3.50pm with a three-minute newsbreak at 3pm although occasionally the programme was sometimes extended until as late as 5.30pm. The presenter was initially David Icke but he was dropped and replaced by Helen Rollason in 1990.

Regular hosts

• Peter Dimmock (Sportsview, 1954–1968) (occasional host from 1964-1968)
• Frank Bough (Sportsview, 1964–1968)
• David Coleman (1968–1972)
• Tony Gubba (1972–1975)
• Harry Carpenter (1975–1985)
• Steve Rider (1985–1991)
• Desmond Lynam (1991–1997)