JACK RELILEVES OUR PAST GLORIES
COMEDIAN RECALLS THE NATION’S MEMORABLE SPORTING MOMENTS
‘THINK of me as Cliff Richard during a rain delay,” declares Jack Whitehall. “Here to entertain you until the covers come back off.”
During a summer of locked gates and empty stadiums, the comedian hosts this celebration of Britain’s finest sporting moments and achievements.
In a monologue that’s so sincere it’s unnerving, an earnest Jack says: “We are a nation of
sporting fanatics.
Sport runs in our blood, It’s our passion and our pastime, our future and our past. But sometimes it’s only when something is taken away that we realise how much we miss it.”
And so, as we mourn the loss of sport as we know it – for now
– with no European Championships, Olympic Games or Wimbledon, Jack is here with a ton of archive clips.
From the odd events of the 1908 London Olympics to the English triumph of World Cup 66, when Jack yells: “Thank God there was no VAR”, all the trials and tribulations are here.
He also looks back over Britain’s unforgettable Super Saturday at London 2012 when “the gold flowed like water” and asks why it is that when the United Kingdom hosts a major sports event the world watches.
Jack is not afraid to look back over some of the more gutting moments, too, including the brilliant show of Euro 1996, which ended badly after THAT Gareth Southgate penalty.
Overall, it’s a comedic love letter to British sport.
Jack concludes: “Someday soon the stands will fill and we’ll be home again.”
JACK WHITEHALL’S SPORTING NATION
BBC1, 8.30pm