The way to get good at something as a kid was to have no distractions

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2021.  

#36 : Gods Of Snooker

The US had The Last Dance, an all-out spectacular retracing a vital moment in time for a figure who once arguably counted as the biggest name in all of sport. In the UK, we got a documentary about snooker. The amazing thing, though, was that this might have actually been better.

At the time, I caught the end of episode 2 of this and found it surprisingly enjoyable - so, of course, I never bothered to watch any of the rest of it.  Until now...

And yeah, it was very enjoyable - particularly for those of us that lived through snooker's hey-day.  The first episode follows Alex Higgins as he drags snooker from the dark ages - when he won the 1972 world final, his prize money was £480 played in a British Legion club in Birmingham with the audience sat on beer crates, whereas in 1982 he got £25k in The Crucible (mind you, Ronnie O'Sullivan got £500k for his win last year).

The second episode covers Barry Hearn and his Matchroom Mob, including the 1985 World Championship final about which Steve Davis amusingly says "Why does everyone always want to talk about 1985?".  He knows perfectly well why we do though and the time they spend talking to him and Dennis Taylor about it is time very well spent.  18.5 million people watched that final,  including my parents - and I struggle to imagine two people less interested in snooker at the time.  And yes, they also talk about "Snooker Loopy" - but amusingly, the only time Steve Davis looks embarrassed in the whole episode is when they show footage of him at the Conservative party conference.

And the third episode covers Jimmy White - and it was Jimmy my heart really went out to, both at the time and watching this documentary.  He was DESPERATE to win the World Championship and lost the final six times - four in a row to Stephen Hendry, losing the last one in a deciding frame.  But Jimmy holds nothing back in his interview and he comes across very well and surprisingly lacking in bitterness, unlike a lot of the other players interviewed.  Stephen Hendry also comes across well - he seems very human compared to his image back in the day.  

What this series manages to do particularly well is find an ending (which is often a challenge for these things) - it finishes with footage of Alex Higgins' funeral whilst all the big names talk about how he revolutionised the sport.  And it then shows nice clips of all the talking heads as they stand up having finished their contributions - Steve Davis spent nine hours being interviewed for the thing!  All of the snooker-based contributors provide excellent input and you can tell that a lot of work went into planning it all out - someone who comes across as surprisingly eloquent is John Virgo as he makes sensible contributions and doesn't attempt to make it all about him.  I'm not entirely sure the thoughts of Richard Osman and Jay Blades on the game were quite so necessary though.

Overall, it's very much a documentary that has a story to tell and that's what it does.  But it does it well and it talks to all of the big names from the era - although amusingly Tony Meo appears in a lot of clips as a result of his association with the Matchroom Mob but it seems like no-one thought "let's find out what Tony thought about those days".  I'm not entirely sure any of the series would be of massive interest to anyone who didn't live through the times - but there were a lot of people who did, so I guess it found enough of an audience.  Personally, I was really glad I watched it - I really enjoyed it and found it brought back many memories, plus a fair few "oooh, look at him now" moments.  I was a bit disappointed though they couldn't find a way to include Bill Werbeniuk in there somewhere - if you fancy a giggle/absolute astonishment, check out the reports of his alcohol consumption.

Admit it though - you never expected a documentary on snooker to include the line "Crack (cocaine) is like sucking the devil's dick", did you?

#35 - You'll like this if you have kids
#37 - Hmmm.  A bit dull.