Grandstand

The BBC's flagship sports program, Grandstand has been broadcast in Britain since the autumn of 1958. This enduring and resourceful program, runs for approximately five hours every Saturday afternoon pulling together discrete sporting events under one program heading. Grandstand was conceived by Bryan Cargill, then a sports producer within the BBC, with the idea of unifying the Corporation's live Outside Broadcasts within a single sports omnibus. The sports magazine format had its precedents in both BBC radio and television, and Grandstand joined its sister programs Sportsview (a midweek sports magazine which was presented by Peter Dimmock from 1954 and latterly became known as Sportsnight) and Sports Special (a Saturday evening program of filmed highlights, presented by Kenneth Wolstenholme which aired from 1955 to 1964 when it was replaced by Match of the Day a program exclusively dedicated to soccer) to provide a comprehensive sports portfolio without comparison among the ITV companies.