Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 281,705 playable programmes from the BBC

What's So Great About ...?

Series 3

Episode 1: Snooker

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Lenny Henry returns to the fray with the first of three further attempts to get to grips with things that he's always found mystifying. This week, he travels to the Crucible in Sheffield to meet the stars of the game of Snooker. With the 2011 World Championships as his introduction to the reality of the green baize table, Lenny poses the question What's So Great About...Snooker? to Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, Dennis Taylor, John Virgo, John Parrott and Terry Griffiths... What is the lure of this sport that back in 1985 it held 18 million TV viewers captivated past midnight when an emotional Taylor overcame the legendary Davis to win the World Championships on the last black?

Stephen Hendry gives Lenny a quick masterclass in the mystique of cue action and John Virgo unpicks some of the sport's arcane and sometimes incomprehensible language ("that thick kiss on the pink has got him needing snookers...") So can this glittering line-up manage to convince Lenny out of his lifelong aversion to the game of coloured balls...?

Producer: Simon Elmes. Show less

About this data

This data is drawn from the data stream that informs BBC's iPlayer and Sounds. The information shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was/is subject to change and may not be accurate. More