What’s the Final Score ?

In 1958 Grandstand on the BBC began to display the football scores one character at a time on a teleprinter. The format was a huge success. Families would all gather around their TV’s at 4-45pm looking for news on their team asking ” What’s the Final Score ?”. It was a TV show that became synonymous with Saturday afternoon TV. A TV show and format though updated is still used today.

The early days of Final Score would be very basic. A presenter would literally stand next to the teleprinter pointing at results as they came in. The results were relayed by the Press Association (PA) who would have a reporter at every game. The PA would then send score updates to the BBC to display via the teleprinter.

The Advent of Technology

Over time technology improved to the point where a computer took over displaying the results from the teleprinter. It was in the 1980’s that the teleprinter was replaced by it’s computer-based successor the vidiprinter. It was during this time too that presenters would indicate changes in league tables based on the results. The advent of technology had also changed the role of the presenter.

Suddenly the role of the vidiprinter and the presenters footballing knowledge made Final Score a “must-see” show on Saturday afternoons.

What’s the Final Score ?

After the majority of results had come in on the vidiprinter Final Score moved onto it’s next segment. The Classified Football Results.

These were read league by league in alphabetical order. No details were given aside from the results. However, if a team did happen to score eight goals it would often lead to the result being re-read.

It’s not all about Football

Whilst football was always the mainstay of Final Score, news and results from other sports, such as rugby union and racing were also included.

A 10-minute version was aired during the summer when football was out of season, as well as during bank holidays.

The classified results once completed were followed by the pool’s news , score draws and the potential jackpot payout. Following this segment, the last part of the results process was to show the league tables.

However, the modern-day vidiprinter used by the programme still emulates the original typing system. There are now Goal-flashes throughout the afternoon for every match played in the English, Scottish , Welsh and Northern Irish Leagues.

The Presenters

Remarkably there have only ever been 3 presenters who have had the privilege of reading the Final Scores on Grandstand. Len Martin, Tim Gudgin and Mike West have been the only people since 1958 to deliver the results on BBC.

Len Martin read the scores for 37 years from its first show in 1958 till 1995 when Tim Gudgin took over. Gudgin continued until 2011 and since then Mike West has delivered the scores to the BBC viewers.

The show still runs today. It’s been updated since the 1950’s like most of football has. However, it still attracts huge audiences due to it’s simple delivery of the goals as they come in and the final scores.