Bob Burrows, the man who opened door for Living with Lions

BOB Burrows joined the BBC from Fleet Street via the Yorkshire Post during the heady days of late summer 1966 over England’s footballers winning the World Cup. One of the first decisions he made as a broadcaster was to give an audition to a likely lad from Radio Sheffield.

While John Motson went on to do for the sheepskin what the Labour leader of the time, Michael Foot, did for the duffel coat, Bob kept climbing to the top of the executive route, succeeding Cliff Morgan as head of outside broadcasts.

Bob then became controller of sport for the entire ITV operation which meant taking overall responsibility for major international events, including the 1991 and 1995 Rugby World Cups.

When he couldn’t go any higher, Bob plunged into the weird and whacky world of the newest professional sport. When Frank Warren asked him to find a suitable club, the boxing promoter and the ex-television guru joined forces at Bedford, briefly, as owner and chief executive respectively.

The following year, 1997, Bob reinvented himself as part of Fran Cotton’s Lions on safari in South Africa as ‘media liaison officer’ for the last of the fun tours. Four years later in Australia the unrelenting intensity of an over-loaded coaching team guaranteed there would be none.

The ’97 tour broke new ground, a small production company having paid £30,000 for access to hitherto no-go areas, like the dressing-room. With his easy, unflappable nature, Bob ensured enough doors were open for Living with Lions to become a smash hit.

Five days after John Motson died aged 77, Bob Burrows passed away in Swansea at the age of 83. He is survived by his wife, Leigh, daughters Charlotte and Elizabeth, stepsons Adrian and Gavin and seven grand-children. The funeral takes place at the Wesley Methodist Church in Taibach, Port Talbot on Monday, April 3.