With negotiations for a new broadcast deal set to begin, we turn the clock back to 1976, when live rugby league was a Saturday afternoon staple and one of the key figures behind its television coverage was preparing to step away.

HE MIGHT not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but even his detractors would surely have accepted that Eddie Waring and rugby league went together like a hot drink and a chocolate biscuit.

As television brought the game into living rooms throughout the country, the legendary BBC commentator, with phrases like “up and under”, “poor lad” and “goin’ for an early bath”, became a household name. He was mimicked by Mike Yarwood and appeared alongside Morecambe and Wise, with both of those shows pulling in around 20 million viewers in the mid-1970s.

Whether seen as an evangelist spreading the word about the sport he loved or a negative northern stereotype who was damaging the brand, there is no doubt Waring was very well known.

Far fewer people will have heard of Ray Lakeland, but as a skilful, versatile and innovative producer, he too played a key role in the live coverage of rugby league matches as part of the flagship Saturday afternoon sports show Grandstand.

The idea of connecting various outside broadcasts from a central studio gained momentum following the BBC’s coverage of the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, where multiple sports took place at different venues on the same day.

The corporation, whose first live sport broadcast was a boxing match from London’s Alexandra Palace in 1937, already had a successful midweek magazine programme, Sportsview.

But Grandstand was a whole new ball game and, despite concerns over potential damage to attendances and gate receipts, rugby league soon became a regular feature, with the screening fees welcomed by the governing body.

While the 1948 Challenge Cup Final, in which Wigan beat Bradford, was the first rugby league match shown live, television was still in its infancy and it could only be seen in the London area.

The installation of the BBC’s Holme Moss transmitter on top of the Pennines near Huddersfield brought television to the north in 1951.

In November of that year, the second Great Britain versus New Zealand Test at Swinton, where the Lions edged a dramatic 20-19 victory, became the first rugby league match shown live across the country.

This was followed by a Wigan versus Wakefield league fixture in January 1952 and, slowly but surely, the game was gaining a foothold in the schedules.

Grandstand, launched in October 1958, made rugby league a staple and, like Waring, Lakeland — who retired 50 years ago and died aged 95 ten years ago — was a central figure in its coverage.

Born and bred in Preston, he studied history at Manchester University with the intention of becoming a teacher and, during the Second World War, served in the Royal Armoured Corps.

Lakeland joined the British Forces Network and, on demobilisation, transferred to BBC North, initially as a freelance reporter.

He moved into radio in Newcastle in 1947, then into television in 1956, where he found his natural creative home.

He went on to produce a wide range of programmes, including the first televised coverage of the launch of a liner — RMS Windsor Castle in 1959 — a broadcast from Blackpool Illuminations, the BBC’s first pop programme Six-Five Special, and the ballroom contest Come Dancing.

Lakeland became noted for his innovative coverage of the 1960 Grand National, for which he developed a system of attaching a camera to the top of a vehicle to keep pace with the runners and give viewers a greater sense of the speed and noise of the race.

He also worked on golf majors and the Ryder Cup, but his most regular role was rugby league.

A feature in the sport’s John Player Yearbook for 1976-77 reflected on his involvement:

“Ray is the man who initially persuaded the BBC hierarchy in London that rugby league was a good medium and worthy of more air time.

“Unlikely as it may seem, most of the action beamed to millions of people throughout Great Britain in the last 20 years was determined by a man who, during that time, saw only a handful of matches ‘live’ yet who knows the game inside out.

“Ray Lakeland’s ‘stadium’ was the dark green BBC mobile control unit that has become a familiar sight at sporting venues, his ‘pitch’ a battery of six monitors into which the cameras covering the game fed a continuous supply of pictures.

“In simple terms, he chose what he considered to be the best picture at a given moment and, at the touch of a button, sent it into the home.

“In having to select a picture with a split-second decision, he appeared to do so with consummate ease. He seemed to have a sixth sense which told him whether to put out a zoom shot of a scrum or tackling incident or transmit a broader, more objective view in anticipation of a passing phase involving many players.

“In fact, he showed an uncanny knack of being in at the start of a move and knowing almost exactly where it was going to end.

“Choosing the right picture to reflect the mood and progress of the match was what it was all about.

“And he developed a close rapport with Eddie Waring, who had to strive as far as possible to talk about the picture being transmitted.”

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 519 (April 2026)