Few programmes can boast a 100 per cent increase in their viewing audience since first going on air. But Match of the Day, which celebrates its 30th birthday this week, proudly makes that claim.

It was in August 1964 that Kenneth Wolstenholme introduced highlights of the game between league champions Liverpool and Arsenal. The programme went out at 6.30pm on BBC2 and attracted just 50,000 viewers. Tonight, when highlights of the Premiership match between reigning champions Manchester United and, coincidentally, Arsenal is screened, it is estimated that the audience will be in excess of five million.

Desmond Lynam introduces action from this and another top match, the goals from all the other Premiership games and details of the league debuts of players like Jurgen Klinsmann with Tottenham and Chris Sutton at Blackburn. Alan Hansen and Trevor Brooking provide the expert analysis, with commentary by John Motson and Clive Tyldesley.

And no birthday is complete without nostalgia - in this case great moments and characters from the last 30 years.

Alan Hansen remembers 30 years of Match of the Day
See Feature page 32