KM0: The Revolution Will Be Televised

This episode is the first in a three-part series examining the lasting importance of the 1986 Tour de France, 40 years on.

It's available here for a limited time, as well as ad-free for our Friends of the Podcast subscribers. Sign up at thecyclingpodcast.com

In 1986, Channel 4 – a relatively new station – broadcast nightly highlights of the Tour de France for the first time in Britain.

From the opening refrain of Pete Shelley's brilliant theme tune, the studio set with its view of a Soho street in central London, the Tour coverage left a huge impression on anyone who saw it. The half-hour show took viewers on the perfect summer road trip around France. The commentary sounded like it was coming to us from the future. It ushered us in, night after night, explaining this strange sport's history, customs and etiquette gradually before leaving us bereft on the Champs-Élysées until the next summer.

In this episode, Graham Willgoss speaks to Phil Liggett, the commentator when the Tour first hit British screens. And Lionel Birnie talks to James Venner, the son of Brian Venner, who was responsible for putting cycling on TV in the UK. James later spent more than two decades working as a producer on the ITV coverage of the Tour.

We hear how the Tour captured our hearts in '86, created the first great cycling boom in Britain, led eventually to live coverage of not just the Tour but many other races and also inspired a generation of journalists and writers, including, in many ways our KM0 episodes.

This episode was produced by Adam Bowie. Artwork by Lionel Birnie, featuring the old Channel 4 title imagery.