Martin Tyler

Tyler was a ghostwriter on football pundit Jimmy Hill's column in The Times and reported matches under his own name for the paper. At Hill's urging, he took a job behind the scenes on LWT's The Big Match. His job was solely a production role, but at one match he did his own commentary on a tape recorder and handed it in to his bosses. On 28 December 1974, ITV region Southern Television's regular football commentator Gerry Williams was indisposed, and Tyler made his commentary debut at The Dell describing a Second Division clash between Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday. Six weeks later he was asked back, soon becoming a regular commentator. In 1976, Tyler moved to Yorkshire Television and began to make an impression on ITV Sport bosses, who included him in the team for the 1978 World Cup. Another change of region came in 1981 as Tyler moved to Granada in his native North West. In 1982, he led ITV's World Cup team, covering every England game and the final alongside Ian St. John. Throughout the 1980s, Tyler established himself as the ITV network's number two commentator behind Brian Moore. He led the team at the 1984 European Championships and also commentated all the main matches at the 1986 World Cup except the final, for which Moore flew out from London. From 1983, ITV began to show live Football League matches, with Tyler involved in several such broadcasts over the next seven years.

BSkyB (Sky Sports)

The frustration of being the number two commentator saw…