Ssb - bbc remembers higgins

[imy147]

Great watch, i was welling up at the end there. RIP Alex

[hotpot]

I really enjoyed it aswell , Alex certainly touched you in a way that no other player could .

[Dani_Spain]

I will start putting it up on YouTube hopefully tomorrow.

thanks!
i cant wait to watch it

[spike]

Anyone else rather surprised not to see contributions from John Virgo, Ken Doherty or even Willie Thorne?? To be honest I wasn't expecting Higgins biographer Bill Borrows to appear on the programme, and if I was being picky would have preferred one of the above to give there thoughts on Alex instead..

[Cyril]

I thought they did a good job of selecting the right people. Ken would have been good I agree, but not Willie!! I thought they all spoke well, and really nice to see Reardon looking so well. If there was one man I felt perhaps was out of place on the documentary, it'd be Barry Hearn.

[CueAntW147]

Anyone else rather surprised not to see contributions from John Virgo, Ken Doherty or even Willie Thorne?? To be honest I wasn't expecting Higgins biographer Bill Borrows to appear on the programme, and if I was being picky would have preferred one of the above to give there thoughts on Alex instead..

Seems like they probably did the best they could as quick as they could so it could be put together in time, may have been difficult as to who was available.

Not sure about John Virgo's health looking at him at Alex's funeral he somehow doesn't look quite right to me has anyone else noticed this ?

Ken loved Alex so he would have been good as he always has a story to tell about him, not sure about Willie Thorne though i know he went to Alex's funeral, but over the years it was clear he was quite jealous of Alex as a player and for his popularity, and often talked about Alex being over rated as a player.

Bill Borrows was an interesting choice as I think he & Alex fell out quite a few times during the writing of the book " The Hurricane " he did, i've also seen Alex refuse to sign this version quite a few times, as it ended up being unofficial autobiography.

Regardless though i'm just pleased the BBC did something & it was good for the time they had to put it together not to mention how difficult it must have been for Alex's friends & family to comment so soon after there loss.

I'm sure over time more things will be released a film, maybe more programmes etc as the interest in Alex & his life will no doubt remain for many many years to come, afterall he is & always will be " The Peoples Champion "

[Nellie]

I agree about Virgo's health. He was at the charity exhibition match with Jimmy and Ronnie on Monday but left after he'd done his trick shots. He would usually stay around to sign autographs and as this was all for charity I was quite surprised that he didn't stay till the end.

[Mr Snooker]

Did anyone manage to record the tribute i did record it but something went wrong with my sky box and i was out, I would be veery aprecciated if someone could do me a copy of the tribute on a DVD

yours Hopefully Mr Snooker (Phil)

[gmg]

Very nice tribute and a surprisingly calming programme given its subject. Whilst there was clearly some sadness and regret amongst the contributors, there was also a sense of relief that Alex had found peace and that his life could finally be celebrated again after years of turmoil. I actually thought that Clive Everton and Barry Hearn were both good value. Everton was certainly a lot more balanced than he's getting credit for - very admiring of Higgins' performances in the 1968 British Team Championship ("brilliant"), 1972 World Championship ("virtuoso performance) and 1982 World Championship ("extraordinary", "I just don't know how he got that much spin on the ball") - and I always like Hearn's 'tell it as it is' attitude. My only criticisms was that both replicated quite a bit of what they'd said in previous Alex documentaries. But then that's no surprise - surely everything that needs to be said about Alex has already been said. Even so Steve Davis and Ray Reardon contributed enthusuastically with some originality, in spite of both also featuring in previous doc's. Also touching stuff from Jimmy, Ronnie, Taylor and the Higgins family. The only person that I felt was superflous was Tony Drago who strangely only contributed once. I'd imagine the likes of Doherty, Virgo, and Thorne were sought out but it can't have been easy to gather everyone together during snooker's closed season. As it happens, Doherty does contribute in the 'Blood, Sweat and Tears' doc, which is coming your way soon.
G.

p.s have been trying to remember the players that contributed in the 2001 BBC doc on Alex. Can anyone refresh my memory as I don't currently have a copy of this one.

[KashifK]

I did record it on my Sky box. Interested.

[simplysnookeryt]

Go to my YouTube, link is in my sig. The first part is now up. More parts up later hopefully.

[spike]

p.s have been trying to remember the players that contributed in the 2001 BBC doc on Alex. Can anyone refresh my memory as I don't currently have a copy of this one.

Steve Davis, Ray Reardon, Jim Meadowcroft, John Spencer. Tommy McCaughran, Dennis Taylor and Ken Doherty..

[adrift]

Well done the BBC. This was a great tribute to one of the sports legends.

[BarryH]

Archive video please

Good effort from the BBC.

What would be really great next would be a trawl through the archives by the BBC to unearth decent quality video of Higgins actually playing snooker and let us see what the fuss was really all about, eg releasing/broadcasting/making available for download the whole of his 1982 World Championship SF with Jimmy White.

We've been rewatching the same few scraps on Youtube for too long!

(Not that I'm ungrateful, or anything )

[gmg]

Good effort from the BBC.

What would be really great next would be a trawl through the archives by the BBC to unearth decent quality video of Higgins actually playing snooker and let us see what the fuss was really all about, eg releasing/broadcasting/making available for download the whole of his 1982 World Championship SF with Jimmy White.

We've been rewatching the same few scraps on Youtube for too long!

(Not that I'm ungrateful, or anything )

Yes, I agree w/this. Enough documentaries have been made on Alex. Now lets see some footage of from the vaults - a 4 DVD set of his greatest frames/ matches would be great. I still long for the day when the TV companies make their snooker archives available for public download. Don't hold out much hope for the likes of ITV, Sky, RTE sadly since they are all commercial channels but the BBC might do so one day.