Seven-time snooker world champion Stephen Hendry
Although snooker continues to be popular today, for a remarkable period during the 1980s, sporting superstardom was embodied by a handful of men in tight-fitting suits, chasing after multi-coloured balls on a green table.
At its peak, the World Championship final at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre drew in an audience of 20 million people, and the sport became a national obsession even greater than football, loved by women and men, young and old.
Over the past three weeks, this fascinating series, executively produced by award-winning filmmaker Louis Theroux, has brought snooker’s golden age back to life.
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Yes, yes, I know I said I was done with these stripped-through-the-week, seemingly factory-made thrillers, having been finished off by that one we agreed never to speak of again. (Viewpoint!)
But I’m always lured back. Partly, it’s paranoia. What if this one turns out to be the new Bodyguard or Undoing? If I miss it, will I be fired, and if I’m fired, how easy will it be to find another job where I’m paid to watch the television I’d probably watch anyhow?
Not that easy, I imagine. Plus, I’m a sucker for a known name, particularly if it’s Chris Lang, who wrote Unforgotten, or Katherine Kelly, an actor I adore. (She has whatever quality Suranne Jones has, which not many do.)
AFTER a dearth of drama during the pandemic viewers can feel spoiled this week with at least two offerings sure to be in the running for awards and acclaim when the time comes. Fargo (Channel 4, Sunday, 10pm) returns to the badlands of Kansas City for a 1950-set series. Noah Hawley’s whip-smart and delightfully cynical crime drama, now on its fourth outing, has distinguished itself down the years with big name, sometimes surprising, casting. This time, it is Chris Rock adding his name to a list that includes Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Ted Danson and Ewan McGregor. The stand-up superstar plays Loy Cannon, part of a band of African-American gangsters who want to take the Italian-American mob on at their own game. Wonder how that works out. As added treats, also showing up are Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose), Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore), Ben Whishaw (voice of Paddington) and Timothy Olyphant (Justified).
Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and snooker s dizzying whirlwind of drink, drugs and gambling Mirror 7 hrs ago Hector Nunns
There are no white supremacist groups, prisoners on Death Row, or religious zealots in Louis Theroux’s latest venture into TV documentary.
The presenter with a taste for the esoteric is off screen and executive producer for the ‘Gods of Snooker’ three-parter starting next Sunday night on BBC2, which deals with the explosion of the game into UK popular culture in the 1980s, and the huge celebrities and controversies it created.
So what were the origins for this new species? Some might point back all the way to naturalist David Attenborough, who as a Controller of Programming for the BBC first commissioned the short-format ‘Pot Black’ show in 1969.