The definitive 1950-1980 F1 TV coverage thread

Thanks for this information as well! I am also working on the commentators list, but it will take some time before I finish it. I was only aware of Adriano Cerqueira commentating some of the races for RTP in the 70s, so this is very valuable information for me.

Also, did Janus Lengel ever commentated races for RTP? I know he had few guest appearances on Globo in mid 70s, while his wife was a studio expert in one of the first (if not first) Polish F1 broadcasts - Monaco 77.

Dweller, hopefully you have better sources than my memory but I can confirm Adriano Cerqueira was the commentator from 1974 or 1975 until at least late in the eighties. Before that, Felipe Nogueira as mentioned before. He was replaced once in 72, I believe, by a speedboat expert called Mário Gonzaga Ribeiro - I do remember him because the way he would call foreign names was even worse than Nogueira .

No recollection whatsoever about Janus Lengel.

I was wondering, where does footage exist for these races nowadays?

I think someone mentioned that maybe pre-1980 footage isn't owned by FOM? I've got footage for 1978 and 1979, albeit poor quality in most cases, but I've seen some clips on YouTube of live broadcast quality footage (by the standards of the day) for races throughout the 1970s.

Dweller23 may be able to answer this much better then me, BoschKurve, but I think ORF has most of the races it covered in the seventies, wheras the BBC for example (who covered less races completely live, partly live or in highlight form than ORF in the seventies anyway) has relatively little of what it covered, for various reasons (wiped after transmission, not recorded in the first place etc.) However every so often I come across snippets of stuff I thought was long gone, like the BBC's coverage of Belgium '66 that was shown on a programme about Jackie Stewart back in January.

You are right about pre-1980, live footage is owned by the broadcasters themselves rather than FOM. The oldest copy I have is the '63 German GP in highlight form. I would estimate, for the seventies at least, that about 60% of the races covered by broadcasters still have live footage existing somewhere. The fun / hard part is obtaining copies!

Dweller, is your ultimate goal maybe to document what footage is remaining out there for each broadcaster? I'm not sure anyone would have the spare man-hours to do that...

I think that would be too hard to achieve. Mostly, because some of the TV channels could throw out the stuff, which could've been picked by someone else (I think it's the case with 1975-79 period Globo TV broadcasts). Obviously, if I know that the given footage is still existing, I will add a note.

I have an idea where I am going with this list, however for now I am trying to compile commentators and running times of each broadcast. Then maybe I'll do 1981-90 period or will move onto American racing (NASCAR, USAC etc.) or Sportscars from 50-80 period.

As always, I will be very thankful for pointing out what's missing from the list as well as for helping me out with commentators.

ORF do have things but cannot sell anything unless the race is done in Austria. Which would mean that, with ORF doing the broadcasts in Austria for Eurovision, the national member of Eurovision/EBU would be licensed to sell a copy of that broadcast

I'd say national broadcasters have (or had) much more than they say or know they do; ITV still has Brands Hatch 1968 (in full!), Monaco 1963 is out somewhere etc. CBS even had the full Indy 500 broadcast from 1964 as was sent to cinemas but was lost a few years ago in a vault fire

I would go with starting an overview of things that have been shown on TV. Making a list of things that exists in collections would be an insane task to do as the most incredible things appear from time to time.

Edited by mscheeres, 02 May 2013 - 20:09.

Well, I think that the broadcasts list will rather show where should people start looking for some of the races.

Anyway, I've done a huge update in last two weeks - filled the gaps for French, US and Canadian broadcasts and found a nice amount of information about Mexican broadcasts. The list for 1976 starts to look crowded, despite the fact that Sweden(?), Germany and Great Britain weren't broadcasted live.

Right now I am looking for all the possible commentators. I'm pretty much done with all the races, obviously I'm still lacking exact info on F1 on Scandinavian TV in 1970s, F1 in Mexico apart from 76-78 period and F1 coverage in Argentina.

So this is the info I'm looking for starters:

For Austrian TV - when did Heinz Pruller start to commentate and who was the commentator before him?
For French TV - when exactly Stephane Collaro was changed to Bernard Giroux/Jose Rosinsky and how many races did Jacques Perrot commentate?
For Swiss TV - was there any other commentator than Roland Christen and Jacques Deschenaux?
For Italian TV - when did Mario Poltronieri start and was there someone else than Piero Casucci that commentated before Poltronieri?
For Portugese TV - when did Adriano Cerqueira exactly start?
For British TV - who commentated the races for ITV in late 60s and early 70s?

If you know about any commentators from 1950-80 period, please tell me - I will be very thankful for help.

Edited by dweller23, 17 May 2013 - 11:18.

I am pretty certain that in Britain the commentators for the late 60s, early 70s were Ray Baxter and Barrie Gill. Andy Marriot did a couple for ITV in the late 70s as well.

Edited by f1steveuk, 17 May 2013 - 12:57.

I found this:

In the video overview section it says it's Anthony Marsh who is the commentator. The similair voice commentated Monaco 1970, but the difference is that first one was broadcasted by ITV, whereas Monaco was broadcasted by BBC.

I am pretty certain that in Britain the commentators for the late 60s, early 70s were Ray Baxter and Barrie Gill. Andy Marriot did a couple for ITV in the late 70s as well.

I think Anthony Marsh did the ITV commentaries Steve, certainly for the '68 and '69 British GP's. Was Raymond contracted to the BBC exclusively? I need to check his book on that. Barrie Gill i would have said was freelance, but the pit lane man in the '69 broadcast is Len Leston!

Andy Marriot did quite a few of the mid/late '70's ITV commentaries as you say, all of the highlights shows that i have seen and of course the 78 Swedish (and South African - must check?) live feeds.

Peter

I think Anthony Marsh did the ITV commentaries Steve, certainly for the '68 and '69 British GP's. Was Raymond contracted to the BBC exclusively? I need to check his book on that. Barrie Gill i would have said was freelance, but the pit lane man in the '69 broadcast is Len Leston!

Andy Marriot did quite a few of the mid/late '70's ITV commentaries as you say, all of the highlights shows that i have seen and of course the 78 Swedish (and South African - must check?) live feeds.

Peter

I'm not sure about South Africa and Sweden 78 (or Monaco - which was broadcasted by both ITV and BBC), but I'm 100% sure Marriot did commentary on Belgian GP in 1979.

... the pit lane man in the '69 broadcast is Len Leston!

Peter

Brother of Les?

Brother of Les?;)

no, his well known tipping error

I'm not sure about South Africa and Sweden 78 (or Monaco - which was broadcasted by both ITV and BBC), but I'm 100% sure Marriot did commentary on Belgian GP in 1979.

yes , i can confirm that he did South Africa and Sweden, not sure about Monaco, and just watched ITV's Belgian coverage t on You Tube. Must have missed this back in the day. I only saw the BBC coverage on the Sunday evening and wasn't aware of this one until now.

Peter

Edited by PeterElleray, 17 May 2013 - 17:07.

As i wrote earlier in this tread, the Holland GP 1978 was shown live on Swedish television. I noticed that it´s still not on your list.

As i wrote earlier in this tread, the Holland GP 1978 was shown live on Swedish television. I noticed that it´s still not on your list.

Apologies, I noticed only Italy back then in this post.

Anyway, had a nice PM exchange today with a person who told me something more about F1 coverage in Scandinavian countries. So there are some updates concerning Swedish and Finnish coverage. This is a good start, I hope that one day old Scandinavian newspapers will be more accessible.

Apologies, I noticed only Italy back then in this post.

Anyway, had a nice PM exchange today with a person who told me something more about F1 coverage in Scandinavian countries. So there are some updates concerning Swedish and Finnish coverage. This is a good start, I hope that one day old Scandinavian newspapers will be more accessible.

No problems!
It will be interesting to see the updates on the scandinavian countries. Just to see what i missed out on by being born 10-15 years too late...

Edited by Psall, 18 May 2013 - 21:57.

yes , i can confirm that he did South Africa and Sweden, not sure about Monaco,

Andy Marriot also interviewed Ronnie through a scrum of people after the SA GP if I remember correctly.

I found the 1978 Monaco GP on ITV was "introduced" by Dickie Davis and Brian Moore. Surely that means they were only in studio rather than doing commentary?

I found the 1978 Monaco GP on ITV was "introduced" by Dickie Davis and Brian Moore. Surely that means they were only in studio rather than doing commentary?

Dickie Davis was the studio presentator for World of Sport. Did he actually ever do commentary on something?

For Portugese TV - when did Adriano Cerqueira exactly start?


Dweller, I wish I could help you but it would imply some research in local newspapers and I am not living in Portugal at the moment. Adriano definitely did not comment before 1974. My gut feeling is that he started in 1976 but cannot be absolutely sure. In case you are interested he was born in 1938 and died in 2005. Apart from his F1 and other motorsport commentary duties he climbed the several steps within RTP's hierarchy and become the Information Director in the Eighties. He was also editor-in-chief of a local motorsport magazine and organised several car shows in Portugal. More complete information in Wikipedia (in portuguese): http://pt.wikipedia....riano_Cerqueira

I contacted RTP about the broadcasts, but they said they don't own the rights to those videos, so I guess we'll never know for 100%.

From more positive side, thanks to Jacques Deschenaux himself, I know now that before Roland Christen, Christian Bonnardelly commentated the races for TSR (1965-1969). Also confirmed that TSR did show USA 1974 live and it was probably the first live F1 broadcast from United States.

Additionally, found out that F1 had wider coverage in late 1970s in Czech Republic and Slovakia (or should I say, Czechoslovakia at that time). So far confirmed Netherlands and Italy in 1977 being shown.

Edited by dweller23, 20 May 2013 - 15:28.

yes , i can confirm that he did South Africa and Sweden, not sure about Monaco, and just watched ITV's Belgian coverage t on You Tube. Must have missed this back in the day. I only saw the BBC coverage on the Sunday evening and wasn't aware of this one until now.

Peter

I watched the live coverage of the 79 Belgian GP and even took some photos off the screen - I could have sworn it was on the BBC though, but the YouTube footage proves otherwise!

Oh, and the Monaco 78 live broadcast was definitely Andrew Marriott commentating.

Edited by dolomite, 20 May 2013 - 21:06.

I watched the live coverage of the 79 Belgian GP and even took some photos off the screen - I could have sworn it was on the BBC though, but the YouTube footage proves otherwise!

Oh, and the Monaco 78 live broadcast was definitely Andrew Marriott commentating.

Belgium 79 was shown live by ITV, but BBC still showed the usual highlights. However, unlike in the rest of 1979 races, Simon Taylor was the commentator rather than Murray Walker.

Okay, so after even more research I found out what was the exact deal with 1976 Japanese GP being shown on Japanese TV. TBS was supposed to rebroadcast the race at 3PM. However, they ended up showing it live, since the race started at 3:09PM.

I am not sure who was the commentator, but it might have been Kenjiro Tanaka.

Hi Dweller!

I took a walk to the library today and looked through the Röster i Radio/TV ´70-´75.

´70 10/5 18:05-19:00 Monaco SVT1

´71 23/5 16:15-17:15 Monaco SVT1 Sigward Andersson
15:45-17:15 Monaco DR
19:15-19:40 Monaco NRK

17/7 14:20-16:30 Silverstone SVT1 Sigward Andersson

1/8 16:00-16:40 Nürburgring SVT1 Sigward Andersson

5/9 14:00-18:00 Sportspegeln (Sporting Mirror) SVT1 including cycling WC, Mendrisio
pre Olympics, München and F1, Monza

´72 1/5 16:50-18:00 Jarama SVT1 Sigward Andersson

14/5 16:00-17:10 Monaco SVT1 Sigward Andersson
Unfortunatley there was no danish or norwegian schedules for this date so I don´t know
if they had their usual highlights.

13/8 14:55-17:30 Österreichring SVT1 Jan Svanlund

´73 3/6 15:15-16:00 Monaco DR
no time Monaco NRK

´75 11/5 18:55-19:30 Monaco NRK

8/6 13:15-15:45 Anderstorp SVT1 Jan Svanlund
13:30-15:45 Anderstorp DR

3/8 16:20-17:00 Nürburgring DR
17:30-18:00 Nürburgring NRK


I´ll look through ´76-´80 another day.


Christer

Edited by ChrisJson, 14 June 2013 - 09:11.

Thank you very much for that, Christer. That is very informative!

I am looking for information about Brazillian TV commentators from 1970-1980 era.

I have most of the commentaries from 1975-1980 era, but a lot is still missing. Does anyone have such information?

Just a quick update: I added some new broadcasts to the list, mostly from Brazil and USA.

 

What I would love to know is which races were broadcasted in Japan in 1970s. I don't know how accurate in that matter was "Rush", but it would appear that Japanese TV showed almost whole 1976 season. I seem to recall seeing world feed footage from South African GP with Japanese commentary. Does anyone know about Japanese archival newspapers that would be available in English?

Today was another day!

 

And a quite depressing one at that.

 

Here are the races broadcasted in Scandinavia ´76-´80:

 

´76   30/5    17:30-18:00     Monaco                   NRK

 

´77    2/10   17:15-18:00     Motorlöb                  DR                motor race (can be almost anything)

 

´78     7/5    16:40-19:00     Motor Grand Prix     DR                most likely Monaco

 

         13/8   16:00-17:00      Österreichring         DR

 

         10/9   17:00-18:00      Monza                     DR

 

So no races shown in Sweden during these years.

 

Christer

Today was another day!

 

And a quite depressing one at that.

 

Here are the races broadcasted in Scandinavia ´76-´80:

...

 

´77    2/10   17:15-18:00     Motorlöb                  DR                motor race (can be almost anything)

 

October 2nd was the date of the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1977.

I remember live coverage by NOS (Dutch TV) of the 1972 Monaco GP - one quite easy to remember  

 

I don't think they showed the entire GP live but quite large parts of it.

Today was another day!

 

And a quite depressing one at that.

 

Here are the races broadcasted in Scandinavia ´76-´80:

 

´76   30/5    17:30-18:00     Monaco                   NRK

 

´77    2/10   17:15-18:00     Motorlöb                  DR                motor race (can be almost anything)

 

´78     7/5    16:40-19:00     Motor Grand Prix     DR                most likely Monaco

 

         13/8   16:00-17:00      Österreichring         DR

 

         10/9   17:00-18:00      Monza                     DR

 

So no races shown in Sweden during these years.

 

Christer

Very interesting information, Christer, thank you for that.

 

I spoke some time ago with a guy who's collecting information about broadcasts in Finland and he was sure that SVT showed F1 in 1978 due to gigantic pressure from Swedish fans. However, when you look at the 1978 Swedish GP footage, the on screen labels are mixed in French and English.

 

Also, at the end of the broadcast you can see "ITV": youtube.com/watch?v=3eFhDQlTQ5w - perhaps that's how ITV secured showing that race live when BBC had a deal to show F1 highlights from Monaco onwards. Perhaps it's ITV who supplied cameras and produced the whole coverage! Now that would probably put to sleep any suspicions that SVT showed that race.

 

Scheivlak - thanks for information, I will investigate it.

Edited by dweller23, 28 December 2013 - 12:41.

October 2nd was the date of the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1977.

 

That rules out the US GP as it would be later in the evening!

 

Christer

Scheivlak - I can confirm, 15:22 - 17:00 live broadcast of Monaco GP mixed with pre-Olympic Games basketball match on NED1. No idea how did I miss this one earlier.

 

Thinking more about ITV - perhaps the reason they showed South Africa that year is a similar case? But then Belgium 79 would make absolutely no sense in that matter, as RTBF produced that coverage.

My recollection is that the main reason ITV showed 1978 South Africa and Sweden live was that both these races were held on a Saturday and hence the coverage could be incorporated into the existing Saturday afternoon World of Sport programme.

 both these races were held on a Saturday

 

The Swedish GP was always held on a sunday!

 

Christer

 both these races were held on a Saturday

 

The Swedish GP was always held on a sunday!

 

Christer

Including 17th June 1978?

The 1978 race was definitely held on the Saturday and, as Dolomite said, shown on ITV's World of Sport programme. According to the preview in Motoring News, two 'slots' were scheduled: 13.23 to 13.47 and 14.40 to 15.15 (BST) with commentary by Andrew Marriott.

 

All the previous (World Championship F1) Swedish GPs had run on the Sunday. I wonder why they changed in 1978.

Including 17th June 1978?

Yes I did check the date to make sure my memory was correct before I posted!

 I wonder why they changed in 1978.

 

Probably because  17th of June was a "Sunday" (Midsummer´s day).

The 16th then became a "Saturday" (Midsummer´s eve).

 

In that case I was half right! 

 

Christer

I would go with the following explanation:

 

Sweden 78 is supposed to take place on Sunday. SVT announces few months before the event that they won't cover the race, so FOCA wants to find someone who will. They ask ITV if they would be interested. ITV says: "Sure, why not? Just move it to Saturday, so it will fit our TV scheduling". The race gets moved to Saturday. Then BBC comes along and buys the rights to show highlights of all races in 1978 from Monaco onwards. However, since ITV holds the rights for Sweden, BBC doesn't get this one (and announces it few days before Monaco GP that they would cover all remaining 1978 races - at least European rounds, apart from Sweden).

 

Here's the ultimate proof that ITV was the producer of broadcast:

 

At the beginning of ORFs broadcast of that race (youtube.com/watch?v=3eFhDQlTQ5w) in 0:00:44 we can see the following image:

 

Not sure what "SFP Paris" stands for (Société française de photographie?), but I'm sure it's the reason why some of the captions in that race were in French.

 

Well, I think the only way to improve this thesis would be to find out how 1978 calendar changed throughout the time, but without it I think it's the best we will ever get. The good thing about all of this is that ITV still may have WHOLE thing in their archives + they have the copyrights for it. So maybe it is possible to obtain it!

The Swedish GP ´78 was originally scheluded on Sunday the

18th of June but was later changed.

 

The change of dates was reported in Autosport on March 2nd.

The reason given was that 18th of June was the day of the

second round of the World Cup (soccer I presume) and the

networks were comitted to that.

 

The race was to be televised around the world including the US

by Societe Francais de Production.

 

ITV confimed one week later that London Weekend would show

the race live.

 

The midsummer weekend was 23-24th of June that year. 

 

Christer

Great stuff, however wouldn't ITV cooperate with SFP on producing the broadcast? Otherwise, how would ITV be captioned there in world feed? Also, interesting coincidence is that last broadcast before Sweden on ITV was South Africa 78, which happened on March 4th.

dweller23

 

I think the cooperation was decided after the announcement of

the changed dates. ITV was not aware of the change beforehand

according to Autosport.

 

As dolomite said both GP´s were held on a Saturday which fitted

in the London Weekend schedule.

 

Christer

 

PS Have you read my PM? DS

So the only thing now that there's to figure out, is who is the copyrights holder - is it ITV or SFP. Hopefully it will be possible to retrieve that gem from one of these places.

 

Christer: yes, I replied it.

You know that the full race (infact the complete 78 season) is/has been fairly widely avaliable in trading circles for a number of years ? The swedishrace, along with many of the others, are sourced from  the ORF tapes (Heine Prueller) , and are in excellent quality.

 

Peter

Yeah, I'm talking about the version with ITV commentary and/or high quality (straight from archives) picture.

 

I actually even posted screen from that race a few posts ago...

Edited by dweller23, 30 December 2013 - 19:14.

yes i thought that was where that screenshot came from, anyway, i just watched the complete ORF video and can confirm that the producers credit in the middle of that old style 'eurovision. box' , displayed right at the end, is to 'ITV'....

 

my copy has pretty good video quality - not too far away from 'archive' quality. i don't think the source material could have originated from very far away from the ORF archives...

yes i thought that was where that screenshot came from, anyway, i just watched the complete ORF video and can confirm that the producers credit in the middle of that old style 'eurovision. box' , displayed right at the end, is to 'ITV'....

 

my copy has pretty good video quality - not too far away from 'archive' quality. i don't think the source material could have originated from very far away from the ORF archives...

 

It probably does as the ORF archives do not make anything available unless it was hosted on Austrian soil. Home VCRs were available from 76/77-ish so most likely someone just taped them.