wrestling with my mother and my aunt, going to speedway. i supported west ham speedway. football, i went to charlton athletic ground at the end of the 40s. would you describe yourself as a working class lad? 0h, absolutely. totally, yeah. i mean, your interests were just the interests of ordinary people? yeah, iwas. my life wouldn t have been about culture at all. but what intrigues me is that you saw the potential for turning your passions and your interests, which were, you know, ordinary folks passions and interests, turning them into art. and on these walls, you know, we ve got the subjects that really turned you on, like elvis presley, like wrestling, with this wonderful piece behind you, in a sense, a sort of homage to the stars of the professional wrestling circuit. what made you think
so, what we can do is one, two, three. it s simple. one, two, three. and you are sort of feeding it with that hand a little bit? i m just letting it run through itself. if you get enough energy into it, the line itself will extend and shoot out all by itself. i guess it s my turn now. just go for it. one, two. oh, it s up in the tree! well, the good news is you re not dropping your back cast. how did.? i mean, because you grew up in derry in northern ireland, didn t you? yep. and you were a working class lad. yeah. how did a working class punk from derry end up.? this is considered the gentleman s sport! it s a long time since anybody called me that, i have to tell you. well, ironically enough, if you want to get into fly fishing, there is no finer place than northern ireland. a, it s not considered elitist because lots of people do it.
how did.? i mean, because you grew up in derry in northern ireland, didn t you? yep. and you were a working class lad. yeah. how did a working class punk from derry end up.? this is considered the gentleman s sport! it s a long time since anybody called me that, i have to tell you. well, ironically enough, if you want to get into fly fishing, there is no finer place than northern ireland. a, it s not considered elitist because lots of people do it. it s cheap, it s easily accessible and it s open to all. so, by way of example, when i was growing up in derry i could go to the middle of town, get on a bus and, 20 minutes later, be standing on the banks of a river on the edge of derry called the faughan. and, to this day, it s still got salmon running up the river faughan. and i think, at the time, membership of the faughan anglers association was, like, 15, 20 quid or something.
responsibilities to staff, but to the thousands of sportsmen and women who rely on events to make their living. so it was a huge time of pressure which, through a mixture of hard work and creativeness, we ended up getting through it quite well, in as far as behind closed doors events, more creative events, like darts at home filmed on your iphone. broadcasters loved us because there wasn t very much else on. and we actually, dare i say it, we ve actually done more sporting events and more hours of broadcast than we would do in a normal year. and we ve learned a lot of lessons in that period. you were brought up a working class lad in the north east as a young man, spotting of the most unglamorous sports you can think of and i m thinking now of snooker and darts as well you saw the potential to turn those from, sort of, the indoor sports played
on events to make their living. so, it was a huge time of pressure which, through a mixture of hard work and creativeness, we ended up getting through it quite well, in as far as behind closed doors events, more creative events, like darts at home, filmed on your iphone. broadcasters loved us because there wasn t very much else on and we actually, dare i say it, we ve actually done more sporting events and more hours of broadcast than we would do in a normal year. and we ve learned a lot of lessons in that period. you were brought up a working class lad in the north east fringes of london, and your genius in a way, was as a young man spotting the potential for some of the most unglamorous sports you can think of and i m thinking now of snooker and darts, as well. you saw the potential to turn those from, sort of, the indoor sports played in smoky clubs to something that could truly become mass audience, television based