YES, GREAVSIE AND I USED TO MAKE IT UP!

IN 1985 the head of ITV, John Bromley, commissioned Saint and Greavsie after Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves had collaborated on World of Sport for a couple of years.

Saint and Greavsie went out on a Saturday lunchtime and quickly established itself as part of matchdays. It was so successful that St John and Greaves were turned into Spitting Image puppets (above), an indication of their national profile. The pair first met when playing internationally. In 1961 England beat Scotland 9-3 at Wembley, Greaves scoring a hat-trick. St John says: ‘All three were offside’. The programme was focused on humour rather than tactical analysis. But as St John says: ‘Our playing careers gave us credibility, especially Jimmy’s. Jimmy — and George Best — was the only player I think Shanks ever mentioned specifically in team talks. “Don’t sell yourself,” he’d tell defenders. Jimmy was so good, swift, jinky. Jimmy was an incredible player. ‘We’d meet socially after internationals, those were quite social days. Then with Liverpool and Tottenham. We had big Bob Patience producing the programme, he was great. ‘But Jimmy wouldn’t wear an earpiece and never read the script. I did. People thought we were making it up. And we were.’ The show ended in 1992, but the pair stayed in touch. Greaves, 78, suffered a severe stroke in 2015.