Beautiful game in black and white...
ADRIAN CHILES turns 50 next year, a fact he finds “ridiculous”.
“I just don’t like the idea at all, so I’m not celebrating,” quips the broadcaster and father-oftwo (he has two daughters with ex-wife, radio presenter Jane Garvey).
“I find parties unbelievably stressful, and I think West Brom are playing Arsenal at home that weekend, so I’m just going to go to that and be a grump.”
A lifelong supporter of the “Baggies” (the nickname for West Bromwich Albion), Adrian has dedicated much of his time to the beautiful game, both personally as an avid season ticket holder and professionally.
Highlights from his sporting CV include presenting Match Of The Day 2 and covering late-night World Cup highlights for the BBC; fronting ITV’s football coverage; hosting an award-winning show for Radio 5 Live, and penning a West Brom-inspired book.
But it’s his latest venture, he insists, that’s been staring him in the face his whole life.
Whites vs Blacks: How Football Changed A Nation, part of the BBC’s Black And British Season, tells the story of an iconic benefit match in 1979.
Set up by West Brom for one of its longest serving players, Len Cantello, the testimonial pitted black players against white.
Adrian, who was born in Birmingham and moved to nearby Hagley as a boy, was 12 at the time and says he can remember the match.
The documentary sees him reunite players from both teams, including Ally Robertson, Bob Hazell and George Berry – plus Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson, who, along with the late Laurie Cunningham, were dubbed “The Three Degrees” (West Brom was the first British club to field three black players at once).
“To actually talk to them and really get a feeling of what it was like to be them... I’d forgotten how awful it was and I felt a bit ashamed,” admits Adrian, who also presented The One Show from 2006-2010.
“I didn’t want it to be just another documentary about what it was like to be a black footballer back in the Seventies, but now I’m glad it partly is that, because you can never stop reminding people how ghastly it was,” he adds.
Admittedly choked by their tales – haunting anecdotes of bananas being thrown onto the pitch and vile chanting – Adrian says he feels like dedicating the film to the players who weren’t mentally strong enough to get through such abuse.
“They had to let it go over their heads, or channel it into skill and do their talking on the pitch – the eloquent way of showing two fingers,” he elaborates.
Not one to shy away from an opinion, Adrian agrees he’s cut out for making documentaries, even if he confesses to finding the process incredibly stressful.
“In the past, I’d always do live stuff, so you go in, do it, cock it up and you go home. It’s done and you live to fight another day.
“Whereas with this, it’s constantly on your mind,” he explains, chuckling.
“It’s a very creative and combative process, but it’s incredibly fulfilling.
“Those I’ve done in the last three years (Whites Vs Blacks, My Mediterranean With Adrian Chiles and a Brexit-fuelled Panorama called Why We Voted to Leave: Britain Speaks) are three of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s just to find the next one now.”
Whites Vs Blacks: How Football Changed A Nation