Ski Sunday

Ski Sunday is the BBC Sports weekly magazine-style television show covering winter sports, broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sundays in a late afternoon or an early evening time-slot. It began in 1978, and is currently presented by Graham Bell and Ed Leigh.

History

Originally launched in 1978 on the back of the 1976 Winter Olympics, later forming part of Sunday Grandstand and presented and commentated on by British broadcasting luminaries such as Ron Pickering and David Vine (who presented the show for 20 years until he took semi-retirement in 1996), the show focused primarily on the blue riband events of downhill skiing and Special Slalom. Following the final edition of Grandstand in early 2007, Ski Sunday became one of the longest-running BBC Sports television programmes still being broadcast; the 2008 series was the 30th.

Format

As the British appetite for alpine skiing changed over time, the programme experimented with different formats and time-slots. In recent years the show has been presented by, amongst others, Hazel Irvine, Matt Chilton, former British Olympic skier Graham Bell and Ed Leigh. The 2008 season started on 20 January in an extended prime time slot (Sundays 7pm to 8pm GMT) and was broadcast weekly on BBC2 for eight weeks. The 2008 revised format covered most forms of competition skiing and snowboarding as well as covering travelogue and entertainment features. The series also offered interactive features via the BBC Red Button service.