Jump to content

Peter Thomson, BBC


bmccoll

Recommended Posts

Anyone have any info on Peter Thomson, who was a football radio commentator on the BBC until around 1971. His grandson wants to put something together for his dad's 60th and would like anything at all on his career, old recordings etc. I've appended part of Alan's email below...

I've got some more specific dates and facts about Peter Thomson.

Peter Thomson commentated on the Celtic v Rangers game on Jan 1st, 1967

He commentated on Scotland world cup games of 1958

His program was probably on 6.25pm on the 'Home Service' on Saturdays.

He seemed to start at the BBC in 1944 and finished his career in 1971. There is a chance he was briefly on Sportscene which was the TV version of the programme..

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone have any info on Peter Thomson, who was a football radio commentator on the BBC until around 1971. His grandson wants to put something together for his dad's 60th and would like anything at all on his career, old recordings etc. I've appended part of Alan's email below...

I've got some more specific dates and facts about Peter Thomson.

Peter Thomson commentated on the Celtic v Rangers game on Jan 1st, 1967

He commentated on Scotland world cup games of 1958

His program was probably on 6.25pm on the 'Home Service' on Saturdays.

He seemed to start at the BBC in 1944 and finished his career in 1971. There is a chance he was briefly on Sportscene which was the TV version of the programme..

Thanks.

I believe he was a Rangers fan. Maybe young Alan can confirm. There was a story about missing film footage from Celtic beating Rangers 7-1 in the league cup final when Peter was the commentator.

I think he was the BBC main football commentator in Scotland. Sportsreel in the sixties?

All the best with this. I think it will be really interesting with the old footage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archie Macpherson writes at length about him in his book Action Replays which is out of print but can be bought second-hand on Amazon. He was the main commentator on Sportsreel and I don't think it was much of a secret he was a Rangers fan. He didn't like/feared Jock Stein.

I think the book is well worth getting if you want a sense of the man and his career/personality traits. He was a big influence on Macpherson.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone have any info on Peter Thomson, who was a football radio commentator on the BBC until around 1971. His grandson wants to put something together for his dad's 60th and would like anything at all on his career, old recordings etc. I've appended part of Alan's email below...

I've got some more specific dates and facts about Peter Thomson.

Peter Thomson commentated on the Celtic v Rangers game on Jan 1st, 1967

He commentated on Scotland world cup games of 1958

His program was probably on 6.25pm on the 'Home Service' on Saturdays.

He seemed to start at the BBC in 1944 and finished his career in 1971. There is a chance he was briefly on Sportscene which was the TV version of the programme..

Thanks.

He was definitely on the telly. He introduced a Saturday night programme , it may well have been Sportscene. Looked for a pic of him without success , I remember he usually wore specs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He was definitely on the telly. He introduced a Saturday night programme , it may well have been Sportscene. Looked for a pic of him without success , I remember he usually wore specs.

Yes he did, he always seemed half-cut, too, but maybe that was just the way he spoke.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
  • 6 years later...

Found a couple of newspaper articles.  

One from the Stage on 10th March 1977 about his death and one from the P&J on 26th July 1974 about his retirement.

Worth looking at the BBC's archive of the Radio Times which you can find here:- https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/

By searching '"Peter Thomson" football you'll find listing such as the second half of a floodlight match between Falkirk and Newcastle on 20th October 1953 where he co-commentated with Kenneth Wolstenholm.

pthomson pj260774.PNG

pthomson1.PNG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...