Originally Posted by casinoman13:
“Sorry to put this question on here rather than just start another thread but.....did the BBC cover the 1978 Derby in which Shirley Heights won in dramatic fashion?
Ive on ever heard John Penny's commentary for this race, the 1977 I heard Peter O'Sullevan's commentary but not 78.”
Despite what others may have claimed in this thread, the BBC did *not* show the 1978 Epsom Derby.
The Derby was televised as a one-off in 1948, when it was being run on Saturdays so as to maximise attendance at work during the austerity period. Subsequently, the Epsom authorities declared that commentary on the race would be sound-only, but relented in 1960. At that point, ITV signed a contract with the racecourse which gave it exclusive coverage of all other races at the Derby meeting and at other Epsom fixtures, but because the Derby was considered a "national event" which could not be exclusive to either channel, the BBC was allowed to show it as well, and provided coverage of the Derby alone every year from 1960 to 1974, with the rest of the meeting being on ITV only.
(The other "national events" in the pre-multichannel era were the FA Cup Final, which was live on both channels in 1956 and then every year from 1958 to 1988, Wimbledon, which ITV exercised its right to show until 1968 but then sensibly backed out of when Thames & LWT took over, the Test Matches, which ITV only ever showed once, when the launch of Yorkshire Television coincided with the last two days of the 1968 Headingley Test, the Grand National, which ITV *could* have simulcast with the BBC had it wanted to but never did, and the Boat Race, which ITV sensibly, no doubt in large part for class reasons, never bothered to simulcast with the BBC.)
In 1975, when the BBC had to make major financial cutbacks, it decided that the Derby could easily go as it would be live on another channel at the same time, and the BBC did not show the race in 1975 or 1976. The BBC showed it again in 1977, partially because its financial position had recovered somewhat and partially because it was associated with the Silver Jubilee. But it *did not* show the Derby in 1978, possibly in part because the World Cup was also being covered in tandem with ITV at the same point. You've never heard the Peter O'Sullevan commentary on this race because he quite simply didn't do one. Listings in the Glasgow Herald of 7th June 1978 (presumably available for free on Google News) should confirm this.
The BBC showed the Derby again in 1979, in part because it was the 200th running. In 1980, however, it again had to make severe cutbacks - which almost saw the abandonment of *all* its racing coverage - and the Derby was duly dropped. In 2001, after the course had been associated with ITV and Channel 4 for forty years, the BBC would sign a contract with Epsom - something it had never had before - and began to show all the other races at the meeting (the Oaks, Coronation Cup etc. had never been on the BBC before). That continued until 2012, as we know.