News about Dickie Davies

OLIVER HOLT: In the sea of lad-banter that is flooding back into football broadcasting, led by a couple of self-regarding BBC presenters whose goal is to see how loudly and often people can laugh at their own jokes, commentators like Martin Tyler and Peter Drury have risen from the flood like islands of luxury and erudition. That is not to say that there aren't already many talented football presenters around. Gary Lineker is a man whose screen presence acts as a welcome back to the halcyon days of Des Lynam, Dickie Davies, Frank Bough, and David Coleman.

Charles Foster, an actor turned ITV host, has died. Charles, who appeared on both Coronation Street and Emmerdale, was once a popular celebrity on television from the 1970s to the 1990s. Judge Rinder appeared on ITV, but he's also done voiceover for Catch and The Krypton Factor.

EXCLUSIVE: The broadcaster, who died in his sleep last night, posed for photographs with the 1989 Sutton United team (right), defeating Coventry City in one of the FA Cup's biggest surprises (right). Motty said the 'fairytale' match was one of the finest he had ever discussed and arranged the reunion and lunch himself, taking his wife of 45 years Anne with him to South London on February 4. Vernon Pratt (inset with Motty three weeks ago) played centre back for Sutton United that day and told MailOnline that Mr Motson, the face of British football for more than 50 years, had an enduring passion for the sport. In what would be his last public appearance, Motty said very recently arranged the reunion himself, out-of-blue. Mr Pratt said: 'His death is a complete surprise to me.' I can't believe he died when he was only seen three weeks ago. He was having a blast. It was wonderful to see him. I talked to him for ten to fifteen minutes and we sat at the same table for lunch.' Today, football is in mourning. 'Motty', the British prime minister, who was most well-known to his millions of followers, weighed in on more than 2,000 games on TV and radio, including 29 FA Cup finals, ten World Cups, and ten European Championships for the BBC. Generations of football supporters who are mourning his death today, just 96 hours after the passing of World of Sport anchor Dickie Davies, was a fixture of Match of the Day for 46 years. He was married to Anne for 45 years, with the couple having tied the knot in 1977. Fred, their one-year-old boy who was born in 1986, had them together. In a short statement from his family on Thursday morning, 'It is with great sadness that we learn that John Motson OBE died peacefully in his sleep today.'

On Saturday afternoon television in the late 1960s and early 1970s was a tumultuous affair; on the one hand, Frank Bough and the polish and gravitas of BBC's Grandstand came down to a single choice: on the one hand, or the quirkiness of Dickie Davies and ITV's World of Sport on the other. Both were excellent, but if the BBC were the more obvious crown jewels of sporting coverage, ITV would have opened windows into new worlds. Log-rolling and barrel-jumping were straight out of North American pioneer mythology, and cliff-diving had been something Elvis Presley liked doing in Fun in Acapulco and drag-racing featured futuristic vehicles with no parachutes derived from Apollo space mission splashdowns.

JIM ROSENTHAL: When the Davies family called me on Sunday to ask if I could help them with Dickie's death, I told them that it would be a heck of a reaction. With typical modesty they said: 'Do you really think so?' Well, there has been, and what a huge relief it has been to his dying relatives to learn of Dickie's sheer compassion that has flowed toward him in millions of tweets, both from those closely involved in sport and broadcasting, as well as those who grew up watching him make so much good television. We all know that social media can be a vile place at times, but every word has been so encouraging, affectionate, and loving. There's nobody saying, he's a horror and remember what he did! That is not the man he was, and that is saying a lot, considering that our industry can be gladiatorial.

JONATHAN McEVOY: Dickie Davies, with the famous white blade woven into his mane like Shergar's, was the face of an ITV show in an age long before the company diversified into the modern world we know today. He died on Sunday at the age of 94. Another now-veteran of those ITV years, Jim Rosenthal, was named as a junior, then a senior to the front-of-house actor. Rosenthal said on behalf of the Davies family: 'We're devastated to learn Dickie Davies died this morning.'

Dickie Davies, the Legendary World of Sport host, died at the age of 94, according to Jim Rosenthal, a former colleague. Davies was best known for his time as the host of the hit ITV sports show for 17 years up until it came to an end in 1985. The broadcaster also covered the 1988 Seoul Olympics with ITV before moving to Eurosport, as well as boxing, darts, and snooker. Davies recovered after suffering a stroke in 1995 and went on to front Dickie Davies' Sporting Heroes.