This is why I get annoyed when I see him getting grief in the comments as they don't realise how much this man has brought to the game, they just hear an old guy with catchphrases but we remember all this stuff, long live JV
I met JV in Bodmin Cornwall here during a Ronnie exhibition, it was like talking to ya mate after a game. Ronnie (On the other hand) was looking down on people like rubbish. Mechala Tabb was proper down to earth also, sat and had a half hour convo with me.
As you get older the more you look back with fondness...I remember the 1980s being a booming decade for the popularity of snooker,..it really was a mixture of authodox....Steve Davis, Thorburn, Griffiths , Reardon and Spencer.....the robust unpredictable.....Alex Higgins, Jimmy White .....and have snooker arguably its finest hour .....1985 world final,...Dennis Taylors dramatic final black decider against the seemingly invincible dominant force of the1980s Steve Davis..to win the title.......yes the 80s was a golden era in snooker ....and I look back with great fondness when snooker was the top dog on our tellys, and have us some great memories.
You forgot to mention probably the most significant upset in snooker when in 1982 Tony Knowles, in his first world championship knocked out the current champion Steve Davis, 10-1. We had characters in snooker.
Absolutely brilliant, remember this from when it happened. This was the golden era of snooker. Sad that these characters don't exist anymore, but far sadder is the fact we can't take the piss out of the foibles of anyone anymore.
Remember watching this live at the time. One of my most favourite TV moments ever and encapsulates a time when you could really have a laugh without offending, as seems the case today with today's fickle society. Times weren't always easy in the '80's but folk had a backbone and just got on with stuff and each other. I would love to take my grown up kids back to these days to show how warped today is. Thank you for posting .. made my day.
Snooker in the 80s was the golden age, it was full of characters. So many people watched it on TV. Many of us had black and white Tvs too. John reached top ten in the world which is incredible. For me, it will always be Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan as the most entertaining of all time.
If I remember, it was if a session finished early or if they never got to a final session if one player ran away with it, they'd send Virgo out to do trick shots and impressions, better than the actual snooker in most cases.
Lol I always love this performance, John Virgo very underrated guy , wasn’t the most magnificent player but he supported and promoted the game in a big way, his commentaries are great and he always made us smile 😊, so a big respect to you John and thanks 👍❤️👌
You mean when Barry Hearn was pushing the personalities thing down everyone's throats! Successfully, mind you. The game today is more fascinating than ever, and the level of talent is incredible.
Is that true? Never knew that. I can't recall him mentioning it in commentary and makes me more like him as a commentator; but I already thought he was the best of the current BBC commentators.
Absolutely superb. I remember it very well... they are all brilliant impressions but there's no denying the Alex Higgins is by far the most funny of them all.
Oh dear I remember watching this at the time as a teenager of 15. I can’t believe almost 40 years have gone by so quickly. I recall thinking John Virgo looked old but now when I watched it I thought he looked young! I’m getting old…
Haha, yes I thought the same when I was about 15, when I was watching him in that sort of co-host role he had on _Big Break_ in the mid-'90s; it's surreal that another 30 or so years have gone by and he hasn't really aged that much more. The fact that he had the beard and grey in his hair even back in 1984 is quite telling though -- he seems to have born aged about 45!
@@andrewmorton3344 You don’t want to think it’s true, John Virgin and Steve Dreary don’t want to think it’s true but we all, deep down, know it’s true.
@@BuyOneGetOneFree These guys have played snooker since the age of three, they should be able to knock anything in but it’s become the norm to play like a twat, even Ronnie can spend hours tipping a ball against the green in the balk end. Cricket was the same, pissing about for days, England have now decided to play like we all advocated forty years ago and guess what? It’s working, enjoy the sport win or lose and make it entertaining. Trouble is you’ve got idiots who can watch Selby re racking for an entire session and love it. We will all be laughing at this style of play in ten years time, get rid of the old Dinosaurs and bring in the new, your right!
JV, what a legend. And also what a golden age of truly amazing snooker characters…… unfortunately not like today, where the game is dominated by loud-mouth fans who can’t keep quiet at The Crucible and a good number of players who get done for cheating and corruption
30 years on - and this is still brilliant! I was privileged enough to see John in person in the late 1970's at the YMCA in Manchester [as he was just becoming really well-known]. He was coaching/supporting a young up-and-coming snooker star called Terry Fitzgerald - who everyone locally was tipping for the 'big time'. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald lost the 1-frame match when he missed a relatively simple blue. John took time out to chat with the audience, sign autographs and was a really friendly down-to-earth bloke. I don't know whatever happened to Terry Fitzgerald - he sort of disappeared off the snooker scene after that.
We have Allen Taylor now... he could do this for us... It's harder though because at least when virgo was doing it the players he was taking off had real personalities.
The first 20seconds of Higgins is a sheer textbook depiction of a bloke under the affluence of inchohol preparing for a gigantic/minor mission-but the hurricane wanged in a lot more unlikely pots than that black
What a sad sad day it will be when the crucible plays its last championship in the very near future,,.... this video is just a snippet of the memories I have from a boy to man,. There will never be better memories of snooker than these at the Crucible, Sheffield, S.Yorkshire......
