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00:00He's having a go now. He's having a go.
00:10Well, chaps, the current events over the last few weeks
00:16have not been very, very good in this way or the other.
00:22So I would like to announce my retirement from professional soccer.
00:29I've finished listening. Alex, when did you take...?
00:32Excuse me, I haven't finished.
00:35I have not finished.
00:40Look on. Talk.
00:44I was supposed to be the stalwart of the game,
00:47the guy that took all the brunt,
00:49or the kid that took all the brunt,
00:51was absolutely sick up to here and further
00:56about taking all the shit.
00:58And I'm not prepared to take it any longer.
01:01So you can shove your snooker up your jacks,
01:04and say, I'm not playing, no more.
01:07This is the story of how, for a remarkable period in the 80s,
01:17the game of snooker became a national obsession.
01:20Women were into it, youngsters were into it, old people were into it,
01:27and everyone was watching it.
01:30People became addicted following the storyline.
01:33It was Dallas with balls, it was Coronation Street with cues.
01:37It's unlikely heroes, a golden generation of players,
01:40the likes of which the world had never seen.
01:44Danger, genius at work.
01:47Well, that really is wizardry.
01:50Their almost supernatural talent,
01:52outmatched only by the intensity of their rivalry.
01:55He said, the next time you go back to Northern Ireland,
01:58I'll have your shot.
02:00And a kamikaze willingness to test their own limits.
02:03Was he drinking?
02:05Do bears go in the woods?
02:07Kirk Stevens confessed to being a cocaine addict.
02:10Well, let's say they represented a well-known Birmingham escort agency.
02:15I got fined for bringing the game into disrepute.
02:18The police came around trying to find Alex,
02:21and he pulled a gun.
02:23they pulled a gun.
02:34The Space Force
02:38Steaming gently at first but with gathering force,
02:41HMS Invincible was the first to put to sea.
02:45In 1982, Britain went to war in the South Atlantic.
02:50When you see the Argentines invading the Falklanders, I feel so deeply and strongly that we have
02:56to regain the Falklands for British sovereignty.
03:05At the same time, back home, millions of viewers were transfixed by hostilities at the snooker
03:11world championships.
03:13This year, without any doubt, we've had more shocks and surprises than ever before.
03:18The Embassy World Champion has been defeated.
03:23Steve Davis, the champion, number one seed, out, beaten 10-1 by Tony Norris.
03:29I think he was a bit upset after that game, yeah.
03:32He wouldn't have remembered it for quite a long time.
03:36Everybody kept telling me I was fantastic and I was the best player and then all of a sudden
03:40it collapsed, like that.
03:46With 32 players chasing a share of the £110,000 prize money, the tournament is regarded as
03:53one of the most exciting ever.
03:54And today, Cliff Thorburn, the 1980 champion, number two seed, out, beaten 10-4 by Jimmy White.
04:04I mean, that was one hell of a match that we had there.
04:08He would just hammer the crap out of everybody.
04:13After 17 days of thrilling match play, just two men were left standing.
04:19And now tonight, the two contenders for the 1982 Embassy Trophy, the £25,000 cheque and
04:26the 12 months of glory that go with the victory here are waiting to receive the applause they
04:31deserve.
04:32And they present a contrast in play and in person that a scriptwriter would be proud to invent.
04:38That's Ray Raiden and Alex Higgins.
04:45Eight years before threatening to quit the game, the sport's biggest rebel, then at the height
04:49of his powers, was pitted against a pillar of the snooker establishment.
04:53A match that would divide the nation and change the game forever.
04:58My father, he loved the elegance of Ray Raiden, of the gentleman's style.
05:04Always immaculately dressed, always behaved himself, you know, always spoke very, very well.
05:09Higgins was, like, completely different.
05:13You know, he'd be short to open, no dicky bow.
05:16He'd be twitching and he'd be sort of like a cat and sort of on hot bricks.
05:20That's what I loved about him.
05:22And as the cameras click, the two finalists, Reardon and Higgins, shake hands.
05:30They were so different, not only in their lifestyle and their manners, but actually on the table as well.
05:36And then I think during that period, you decided whether you were a Reardon man or you were a Higgins man.
05:42What I was going through in the 70s and the 80s was trying to find my own feet and being pushed back by the establishment.
05:49And someone like Alex just gave you that kind of sense of hope to say, like, yeah, you can do it.
05:54Forget that old school Ray Reardon and stuff. And I mean, this is the way we're going to do it now.
05:57Well, how do you do today? How are you?
06:01I'm good, thanks. Thanks for coming down.
06:03Fantastic. Pleasure.
06:05Can I just ask you about Alex Higgins?
06:07No, no, you're constantly on Alex Higgins.
06:10There's something wrong here. Something wrong here. You're pushing the wrong guy.
06:15Well, everybody thinks I'm gone or something.
06:18They don't even mention me these days. They go back as far as he does, but they don't go any further than that.
06:24I mean, if I won it six times, he won it twice.
06:33In the years leading up to the 1982 final, no one else had had the impact of Alex Higgins.
06:41Higgins, probably more than any other player, has put snooker where it is today. And along with the trophies, he collects the headlines. Some good, some bad.
06:50Before, Alex Higgins, it was all these old men in bow ties. It's like an establishment, and he broke that.
06:57Higgins has captured the imagination in the way that Best and Muhammad Ali could. We may think he's the best. He simply knows it.
07:06Alex was born to play snooker, and he was born down to ten people.
07:13Oh, and that's a beautiful shot. And that's the goal.
07:19When he got out of his seat, that was his stage. That table was his stage. He was like an artist.
07:27Oh, no, he's taking it.
07:30Before people really liked snooker, they liked Alex Higgins. He was a gateway drug for so many people to get into it.
07:36But he's like all geniuses, I think. When they come into the room, there's like an aura. There's a fascination with them.
07:43In a similar way to Gazza, of their obvious similarities in their genius and perhaps their frailties as well.
07:54Growing up in a working class part of Belfast in the 60s, Alex would gamble his school dinner money against grown men in his local snooker club, which was called the Jam Pot.
08:04I think kids, that is, they're very daring. And they like to do things that they're not allowed to do. And in my case, you weren't allowed to go into the Jam Pot, dreaded Jam Pot.
08:18And I think perhaps in the beginning, that was the attraction. Probably one of the reasons why I played the game so fast, and I'm so quick around the table, is because in the Jam Pot, when you played with no money and you got beat, you usually got a cure over the head.
08:34He was playing grown men, and they would take his pocket money out of his fingers if he lost. No mercy.
08:43No mercy.
08:45I think some people who have had very tough beginnings, they need to be someone. And Alex needed to be someone.
08:55Alex won the Northern Ireland amateur snooker title when he was 18.
09:03But at the time, snooker was still a niche sport.
09:07Playing snooker with the one hand has many advantages.
09:11There were only eight professionals making a living from the game, and its on-screen profile was rather odd.
09:18How about playing for a fiver?
09:20Yes, okay with me.
09:21All right then? Okay. I'll break.
09:26But in 1969, something happened which would change the course of snooker history.
09:31It's a television. It's in colour!
09:39On July the 1st, we start colour launching.
09:43And they will be our documentary films, Wicca's World, for example, Man Alive, The Virginian.
09:50And also, most importantly, outside broadcasts.
09:53Commissioned to promote the sale of colour televisions, Pot Black featured the game's few professionals playing off in a bespoke tournament of one-frame matches.
10:06John Spencer.
10:08Pot Black is such an important part of snooker's history. You just can't believe how big it was.
10:13He took it into people's homes.
10:16People who have never seen a game of snooker.
10:18I mean, Pot Black has seen all the way around the world. And I'm in Australia.
10:25And a woman came up to me, she said, you're Ray Raider.
10:28I'm in Wagga Wagga in Australia. How does she know? Fantastic.
10:35And what has he done?
10:38Oh, what bad luck.
10:40Well, that's the way the game goes.
10:43The series was recorded at Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham, and faced some cosmic competition.
10:54We're in Tranquility Base here.
10:58The first programme was scheduled on the same day as the moon landing.
11:04An electric atmosphere.
11:05So the prediction was, the programme was going to be buried.
11:11That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
11:18A great pleasure.
11:20Thank you, sir.
11:21And thank you for many hours of superplaying.
11:24Thank you. That's lovely.
11:26Contrary to all expectations, it pulled in a reasonable audience.
11:30So I had a feeling that we were onto a winner here.
11:34And it's there.
11:37The show would be a regular fixture in the schedules for more than two decades.
11:42Williams congratulating Eddie Charlton.
11:46Three things made the game popular.
11:49And that was Pot Black, colour television and Alex Higgins.
11:53The BBC series triggered a snooker boom, prompting Alex to swap Belfast for Lancashire, home to world champion John Spencer and a hotbed for aspiring talent.
12:07They call him Hurricane.
12:10Hurricane Higgins.
12:12A quiet man.
12:14A confident man.
12:16You'd never notice him in a crowd.
12:19But in his own twilight world, Hurricane Higgins is almost a god.
12:23And that is Alex Higgins.
12:29Alex had acquired his nickname after going professional and was turning heads across the north with his cavalier style.
12:35They call him Hurricane because he can break a frame and pocket every ball inside four minutes.
12:45A feat that used to take that great snooker immortal Joe Davis more than twice as long.
12:48And you'd be getting fun.
12:51Oh, apparently Alex Higgins, that young lad from Ireland, made a century break in three and a half minutes last night.
12:57You know, and it was, you're thinking, well, who ever timed a century break?
13:01You only had to see him play once to realise this was different.
13:17You know, you've been consistently beating men who are many years your senior and who should have had far more experience than you've had.
13:26What do you think you've got that makes you special?
13:28I think God gave me a gift and I've dedicated myself to that gift which is given me and practised every day.
13:37When you play well, when you feel well in yourself, you can do anything.
13:43Well, I find I can, you know. I can play a shot five or six different ways. It all depends how I feel.
13:49Come on then, it's your shot.
13:58Alex entered the 1972 World Championships, which were played around the country over the course of a year.
14:07After storming all the way to the final, he was up against his local rival John Spencer for the world title and the £480 prize money.
14:19Spencer was a great player, tremendous potter, great queue power and also great break builder.
14:26So Alex was up against it.
14:31Despite the success of Pop Black, the event was still largely ignored by the British public.
14:38I saw every ball of the 72 final.
14:41It was held in a down-at-heel British Legion on the outskirts of Birmingham.
14:47The tiered seating was on beer crates.
14:52There was a power cut on the second evening.
14:55And play proceeded by means of a mobile generator.
15:00The final was so low-key it was not even televised.
15:05Settle down, please, gentlemen.
15:07This footage was filmed around the same time.
15:09It was a week's match. The score was 21-all going into the Thursday evening session.
15:17And Higgins won that session 6-0.
15:21He seemed to sense that Spencer was weakening.
15:24After six days of fierce competition, Alex ran out the winner by 37 frames to 32.
15:32At 22, he was the youngest ever world champion.
15:44A record which would last for almost two decades.
15:46Alexander the Great was a person in his history.
15:51And I wanted to be sort of remembered, you know, because there's no doubt I am the greatest at present.
15:58Alex Higgins has shaken up the suave, professional snooker world.
16:02And for that reason, many of the 20 or so other professionals don't care too much for him.
16:11I think the 70s was quite possibly one of the most awful decades of the century.
16:17Just in terms of what you could and couldn't do.
16:21Britain was very rule-bound.
16:24Come, just a place right before curl.
16:26And here was Alex. And you had a sense that here was a man who was going to rampage through all that.
16:32There was loads of things going on with the police.
16:34There was loads of things going on with strikes.
16:36And I think he represented this like, I'm not going to conform to what you guys want.
16:40I'm going to do it my way. And you're going to like it or lump it.
16:43I don't give a damn.
16:45Yeah, that's my kind of guy.
16:49How does your approach differ from the other players approach?
16:52Well, look at me. Look at me now.
16:54Well, I'm entirely different. I'm like from a different sphere.
17:01Alex's brash approach was bringing a new generation of fans to the game.
17:07But it went down less well with the sport's ruling body.
17:10And the following year, when he was defending champion Alex,
17:15I always remember him arriving at the City Hall in Manchester.
17:19And he's got a green suit on.
17:22He's got a couple of girls on his arms, you know, and this, that and the other.
17:25Real rock and roll.
17:27But of course, because he's wore a green suit, they fined him £2,000.
17:31A lot of people of the hierarchy, a lot of people disapproved of Alex.
17:37You had to.
17:39I mean, I thought I got on well with Rex Williams, who was the chairman of the WPBSA at that time.
17:45Yeah, thank you.
17:46Is that all right?
17:47Yeah.
17:49But he didn't like Alex.
17:51You know, he was just, he was anathema to them, wasn't he?
17:55We're here now.
17:57Alex had come here, he could cause a riot in 30 seconds.
18:02He was just sort of a complete loose cannon.
18:12Alex failed to retain the title in 1973 and would face fines throughout the decade for offences ranging from hurling his cue at a spectator to having a fist fight with a fellow professional.
18:23It was a clash of personalities. It got under my skin, the way he was performing. It was just a rush of blood to the head, I think. I never ever wanted to happen again.
18:36He could be physical, you know, he literally would go off the deep end and throw a punch. Alex was dangerous, but that's what made him so exciting.
18:44I was born with a very fast approach to snooter. Equally, I was also born with a short fuse.
18:51You didn't know if he was going to punch somebody in the crowd or punch the referee or whatever.
18:59You never knew what you were going to get at any time.
19:05We went to Australia once and after I left, apparently, the police came round in the early hours of the morning.
19:13He'd pulled a gun. Where'd he got a gun from? I don't know. Pulled a gun on two girls in the bedroom.
19:17It was just crazy, crazy times, you know. But you kept the game on the sports pages, you know. I mean, that's the bottom line about what Alex did.
19:27Prior to that, you'd be lucky to see a little column like that. Now we're getting headlines. For good or for bad.
19:34Alex was winning column inches, but little else. And the sport was beginning to be dominated by a player who could hardly have been more different.
19:47My first guest tonight, the world snooker champion, Ray Reardon.
19:54Former policeman Ray Reardon learned to play in the Welsh Valleys and was the ideal front man for the sports establishment.
20:01Did it in any way do you think you're training as a policeman and what happened to you as a policeman? Did it in any way prepare you for being a world snooker champion?
20:11I think it would still be in good stead, actually. It keeps you a cool head, able to see a situation, evaluate it immediately and get on with it.
20:23Ray was a representative of the old guard, that's for sure, and he did things in a certain way.
20:28You can't just have someone like Higgins, you know, destroying all the rules if you don't have somebody else sticking to the rules. Otherwise, you've got chaos.
20:35When I walked into a room, I'm in charge. And that's how you're going to be at the snooker tank.
20:50Ray had a lot of class about him, you know, he was a very distinguished type of guy, Prince of Darkness, you know, as they used to call him, Dracula.
20:58He was intimidating around the table. He used to walk around and he'd touch the table on the way around and look at the crowd and have little smiles.
21:07He was a tough competitor to play against.
21:11And that's the one.
21:14I was strong in all departments. I didn't have a weakness.
21:19Ray's uncompromising style saw him win the BBC's Pop Black twice.
21:25We have Alex Higgins.
21:29But it was a different story when the bad boy of snooker appeared on the show.
21:40I don't think Pot Black was his forte.
21:43The certain things we asked of the players, like where to stand and so on and so forth, I think he was irked by that. He didn't seem to go along with it at all.
21:51Well, again, the attacking Higgins had a go.
21:57People pay money to see spectacular things. They don't like to see things that are very slow and what have you. They like action. And I try to provide action.
22:04On one of the recording nights, three young ladies showed up at reception and said they were Alex's guests. Let's say they represented a well-known Birmingham escort agency, or at least that's what they told me.
22:21You don't expect to be presented with situations like that. So it was a little tricky.
22:28He played in Pop Black. He upset everybody. And they didn't want him in it again. In those days, if you didn't tell the line, you were out.
22:37It's been suggested that he was red card and we didn't have him back. I don't recall that at all.
22:44And this time, the pink has gone off the table. It's a false joke.
22:50People close to him made it clear that he wasn't going to play, which is a great shame because he had a lot of talent.
22:58Four years after his first world title, Alex kept out of trouble long enough to mount his first serious challenge to Ray Reardon's dominance.
23:15He had a different attitude. He's come up playing in Ireland, in the snooker clubs, you know, in pubs, where everything goes.
23:29He was always up to the neck in whiskey or drink or whatever he did, whatever his favourite table was.
23:36He always treated Alex like a little school kid, you know. And Alex always treated him like an old man.
23:49No, he's attempted a red along the top and it's a brilliant shot.
23:54The final was played over four days. And early on, Alex's flair was a match for Ray.
24:00He was like a matador. He would go for impossible shots positionally. They were miracles.
24:11Nobody would be foolish enough to do that in an important match.
24:20Now he's moving that difficult red off the side cushion.
24:24Higgins loved the adulation of the crowds. That's why he used to take on those extravagant sort of shots.
24:30That was just the way he played.
24:36Steady red into the middle. No. He's played safe.
24:42It was all square after 20 frames. But then Ray's shrewd tactical skills began to tell.
24:51He was a crafty old boy, was Ray. He'd leave a tempter out.
24:55He'd think, well, there's a good chance he'll miss this and leave me in.
25:00If he had a choice between a safety or a tough pot, he'd go for the tough pot.
25:06So Ray knew that.
25:08And he attempted a very difficult red into the centre there. And he's left a chance for Ray.
25:14He knew that Alex would go for it and he'd be like reeling him in like, like an angler really.
25:19There are tempters, yeah. But I'd only leave it if I knew that if he missed it, he'd be in trouble.
25:27If you can find a weakness, then exploit it.
25:32Alex was still in the match. But the night before the final session, things were about to go seriously awry.
25:38Somebody told him that there was a hotel booked for him and it was all three booze.
25:47So that was him, he'd gone.
25:52Well, I phoned the hotel in the morning.
25:55He'd been boozing till about seven o'clock in the morning.
25:58I met him at the forum.
26:02And it was still shaking then.
26:05So no, he didn't get the best preparation.
26:12Oh, very nearly enough, but not quite. But he has done some damage I feel.
26:18He was pissed.
26:20Absolutely.
26:21Alex taking a sip of a glass of sarsaparilla.
26:28He was in another planet.
26:30But he couldn't see the balls anymore.
26:33He was missing the easy shots.
26:35He'd gone, he'd gone, gone.
26:37This must be the last chance for Higgins.
26:40The last red over the centre pocket.
26:47And he's missed it.
26:51Now what's he done?
26:53He has conceded.
26:55What an extraordinary situation for young Higgins.
26:58He lost for the session to go, actually.
27:01Yeah, I wasn't very happy.
27:03Although I'm going to win it.
27:05I want to win it fair and square.
27:07Not playing somebody who's got too much hailed on it.
27:12And Higgins, smoking a cigarette, sat in a chair and supping a glass of gin.
27:21With Ray sweeping up the World Championship prize money, Alex was forced to make a living playing paid exhibition matches up and down the country.
27:32Was he drinking? Do bears go in the woods?
27:36He was always a degree of drunk.
27:40I think while he was playing, the adrenaline would burn it off.
27:46But then as soon as he stopped playing and that excitement had gone, then the drink would hit him.
27:53And I've seen him a few times struggling to stand up after he played a match.
27:58Could you ever talk to him about it?
28:01That was the same.
28:03I mean, I was drunk for 30 years.
28:06So, you know, I can't call Alex for doing that when...
28:11Because I was doing it myself.
28:13Snooker's a very, very strange game. You don't have teammates to rely on.
28:23They used to chug around on trains and taxis and, you know, living out of a suitcase.
28:32He was very lonely, I always felt, at times.
28:36And I think he needed somebody. I think everybody needs somebody.
28:39Until now, Alex's love life had been a somewhat chequered affair.
28:45I like all the things that a fella likes, including my wine, women and song.
28:51And I don't think I should be deprived of that sort of thing, just because I play snooker.
29:00But on a rainy night in Manchester in 1977, things were about to change.
29:05Good evening. Welcome to Dino's. Now, ladies and gentlemen, and those who aren't quite sure...
29:11Ooh, good to see you here.
29:15Me and Alex walked into a club in Manchester.
29:18He was absolutely dead.
29:19And these two women were in there.
29:22And we got chatting to them, and one thing led to another.
29:26And Alex got a phone number.
29:30And the next day, he brought Lyn in the club, and he was playing snookering.
29:35This was his new girlfriend, and that's how he started.
29:38Lyn was a very attractive girl, and they just hit it off.
29:43We're a good combination together, really.
29:46He's the fiery one, and I'm the placid one, so we go well together.
29:52Alex and Lyn were married in Cheshire.
29:56His manager, Geoff, was the best man.
29:59She was a really well-voted girl, you know.
30:02She was the opposite to what Alex was used to, really.
30:05I remember getting, arriving at the church, and thinking, am I doing the right thing?
30:14As I got out of the car.
30:16And there was press men everywhere, and it was like bedlam.
30:20I don't think I really had time to think about it.
30:22I just stood at the altar and thought, what am I letting myself in for?
30:26You know, I really did.
30:28The thing is, when you get married, you can't do an awful lot of things that you could do beforehand.
30:33I mean, you can't go out to clubs, and you can't have the freedom that most single men do have.
30:40And even then, I couldn't go and practice.
30:43I mean, I found that I'd be expected to come home and what have you.
30:48And it's taken a bit of time to get used to the very fact that I had a wife.
30:54In the same year Alex met Lyn, Snuka took a decision which would herald the dawn of the game's new age.
31:00Time has come when we must decide how we can meet our future growth plan.
31:07I believe it will be simple.
31:09Create our ideal elsewhere.
31:12Relocate.
31:14Timbuktu, Jeffrey.
31:16Sheffield.
31:17Oh, come on.
31:18It's like the inside of a chimney. That's common knowledge.
31:22For years, the World Championships had been played at different venues around the country.
31:27But now the event was about to discover its spiritual home.
31:31When I went up, I saw a completely different city to the one we've heard about in those old stories.
31:37Has it really changed that much?
31:38You would be amazed, Marjorie.
31:41And it was all down to a local businessman and avid snooker fan called Mike Watterson.
31:47I was working for the morning telegraph in Sheffield.
31:51My sports editor got the phone call from Mike Watterson to say,
31:55I'm going to bring the World Championship to Sheffield.
31:58When I went round to their house, his wife Carol, she told me she'd been to the Crucible to see a normal theatre production with some friends.
32:08She came back home and she said, I've just seen the perfect place for snooker.
32:12I could see tremendous potential. It's a game where there is tremendous tension and it's non-violent.
32:19Players don't run around the table and kiss each other each time they knock a ball in, or they don't swear at each other.
32:23At least not visually anyway.
32:25The Crucible Theatre has been literally taken over by the BBC's outside broadcast operation,
32:32plumbing in the miles of cable for lighting, sound and cameras.
32:36Mike convinced the BBC to show extended coverage of the tournament for the first time.
32:42And the stage was quite literally set.
32:55Snooker is theatre. And it was the perfect venue. And I think everybody fell in love with it. Theatre in the round. That's Snooker. Made for it.
33:04It used to really, it used to get my stomach rumbling every time just when I'd hear the music because I knew it was only, you know, five or ten minutes until we were going out there.
33:13You could say it was Snooker's Wembley. You know, it's the home of the sport and perhaps Snooker needed that.
33:23With lucrative tobacco sponsorship, the prize money increased, and a new generation of exciting players from home and abroad began pulling in the viewers.
33:32There were so many characters in the game. Terry Griffiths, you know, used to have the hair quiffed back.
33:42I'm in the final now, you know. Terry Griffiths.
33:46Tony Knowles, you know, where the film star lurks from Bolton.
33:50He's just giving you hair a brush.
33:53Oh, talking murder. And the more, and he's cutting. Badly. See how it's flicking out on me, isn't it?
34:01This was sort of a new breed of players coming through.
34:05These characters had come from different backgrounds, different countries.
34:10Here's the exciting player from Canada, Kirk Stevens.
34:14Kirk Stevens, good-looking, young fella. Dresses nicely, that wide suit.
34:18Got a bit of flair about him.
34:24The grinder, Cliff Thorburn, looked a bit like Omar Sharif.
34:28All the ladies loved watching Cliff Thorburn.
34:31I had a fan club. It was nice.
34:33Being Housewives' favourite has got trouble written all over it.
34:41Well, I was just thinking, wouldn't it be nice to be champion of the world?
34:44You see? And that's why the globe's there.
34:48Because I think, I've even got the drinks there to celebrate.
34:51After I win it.
34:53I think it's the year of the hurricane.
34:55Eight years after winning his last world title, Alex was ready to take on the fresh crop of stars at Snooker's new Coliseum.
35:09And he was determined to do it in style.
35:11The hat that he's been wearing all the week puts it on his head.
35:16When he'd come out with the purple fedora, you know, he'd give a wink to the camera or the crowd and the crowd loved him for it, you know.
35:24Alex progressed to the quarter-final, where he would face Snooker's new rising star.
35:31Tomorrow in the championship quarter-finals, a 22-year-old Londoner, Steve Davis, meets one of the game's giants, Alex Hurricane Higgins.
35:40A week in Sheffield has seen Davis emerge as one of several young players breaking into the relatively exclusive world of the top snooker player.
35:53My biggest breakthrough was beating Terry Griffiths, who was the defending champion.
36:03And the next minute, I had a film crew following me down to the dry cleaners to get my shirt dry cleaned.
36:11Everybody keeps on saying I'm going to be the world champion, if not this year, then in years to come.
36:15I certainly agree with that, but you've still got to do it.
36:19My name is Steve Davis.
36:23The quarter-final marked the beginning of one of the sport's most enduring rivalries.
36:29Alex Harden Higgins.
36:33Alex was everything that Steve wasn't, you know.
36:37He lived on the edge. Davis never lived on the edge.
36:41That wasn't in line with our plan for global domination.
36:49Steve looked like a bit of a snooker robot.
36:53He had this sort of perfect technique. He didn't play any risky shots.
36:57That created the perfect sort of rivalry. I mean, it was like, it was like a Borg McEnroe thing, and I loved watching those matches.
37:05A magnificent break there that won three sets by Steve Davis, which has thrilled the audience here.
37:15As the game continued, it became clear Alex had learned from the defeat to Ray Reardon four years earlier.
37:23I think he realised that playing this attacking game was leaving himself open to get beat by anybody.
37:34He wasn't going to beat Steve Davis by outscoring him and outpotting him.
37:39He had to compete with Steve on the safety.
37:41So he wasn't so much of a hurricane there. He was more like a soft breeze.
37:48He could make the white ball talk, and he knew exactly what it was doing.
37:54And that shows up in safety play as much as it does in potting and positional play.
37:58And Alex Higgins, I realised very quickly, was one of the few players, he felt the only player where I really felt like I was the underdog tactically.
38:11Four.
38:13Four.
38:14That's four points away, so that can count as one snooker.
38:18I can snooker, snooker me, snooker me, snooker me.
38:20I get out of the snooker, put me in another snooker, and eventually you miss, and then he clears up.
38:24Well, Steve Davis had a go there, and I am afraid he's going to be very costly for him.
38:36When you're sitting in your chair and the other guy's reeling off frame after frame, that's quite hard to deal with.
38:46When you know that the vast majority of the crowd are rooting for the other person,
38:49it's quite an interesting thing to be involved in, because you've got to fight against all of those emotions that are flying around.
39:02And Steve Davis comes across to congratulate Alex.
39:06Steve's time would come, but for now, after winning 39, it was Alex who'd go all the way to the final.
39:16I've got all the ability, and it's just to sort of put myself together and say,
39:21well, you've got to stop playing to the crowd, you've got to play for yourself.
39:25In front of a record 15 million viewers, Alex met Cliff Thorburn in the final.
39:38And he took an early lead.
39:41I think when he's winning that final, I think he's 9-5 up, Higgins, then you can see the entertainer kick back in.
39:53He's not doing it because he's self-destructive.
39:56He's doing it because he's thinking, listen, I was born with these gifts, so I'm going to have a bit of fun.
40:01He chose the wrong person to do that against, because Thorburn takes no nonsense from anybody.
40:04I really wanted to win.
40:07It got to be 16-15 for me, and then I came out, and I don't think that I missed the ball in the last two frames.
40:19But Alex took it quite well, and you've got to hand him credit for that, because that must have been devastating.
40:26The thing is, I lost the match, really, the third session, when I was 7-3 in front.
40:31My old crowd-pleasing bit come back again.
40:35Yes.
40:36But it's hard to live with, but I mean, I do, but I'll bounce.
40:41As far as him changing his game plan and going for these silly shots, he might have thrown his cue at a few shots, but he was in trouble then.
40:50But he was a very calculating player.
40:53I mean, he wouldn't give you anything.
40:56I beat him.
40:58The champion of the world, Mr. Cliff Thorburn.
41:01Not long after Alex lost to Cliff, writer Angela Patmore was commissioned to help with a book about his life.
41:10I've done books with three world champions in different sports.
41:19Alex was the most difficult.
41:21My two predecessors, I think he hit one on the head with a whiskey bottle,
41:25and the second one he tried to get her, that brang up her newspaper and tried to get her the sack.
41:32While Angela was working on the book, Lynn gave birth to their first child, Lauren.
41:43He said, come along, we're going to the maternity hospital to see Lynn.
41:46He lifted up the incubator lid, and he got out this little rugby ball living thing, and he had her in his arms.
41:56He loved Lauren, he was so proud of her.
42:00Is the family making a lot of difference to you?
42:03Well, I mean, I've always been used to late nights, but now I've got late nights with a purpose.
42:05Because I have to change nappies and feed the baby in winter and things like that.
42:15Is the responsibility helping?
42:18Not really, I'm ecstatic.
42:21People thought he was conceited.
42:24He wasn't.
42:26He was actually very underconfident.
42:29He found some stability with Lynn, and she was very patient with him.
42:35It meant the world to him, because it showed people, look, I'm a human being.
42:39This is me.
42:40People love me.
42:42You've got a family.
42:44And that really meant something.
42:54Now, with a family to support, Alex signed with super agent Harvey Lisberg, who handled a string of rock stars.
43:01Executive plane trips are rare.
43:05It's more likely change at Doncaster for Hull, and an hour's wait in a British Rail buffet.
43:09We had this sports world company set up, and he joined us, and he was more than a handful.
43:18Money was flowing into the game, and there were now several major tournaments.
43:28But a gruelling schedule travelling around Britain saw Alex slip back into old habits.
43:35He wasn't reliable.
43:37He'd turn up late or whatever, and he'd demand the most ridiculous things, you know, in the dressing room and drinks, and God knows what had to be there.
43:47I mean, treating the referees badly, you know what I mean, is some gamesmanship and, you know, just unnecessary behaviour.
44:06This John Shirley is a situation showing the nerves and reactions of Alex Higgins.
44:15If you sign on problems, you normally create a monster. Here I had the monster to start with.
44:20With the 1982 World Championships approaching, Alex's form had completely abandoned him.
44:30He was struggling to beat amateur players.
44:33Have you ever played against a man?
44:35Yeah, I've played Higgins, Mount Joy.
44:38Have you really?
44:39Yes.
44:40I bet they beat you though, didn't they?
44:41No, I beat Alex Higgins.
44:42Did you really?
44:43Yep.
44:44I thrashed him.
44:45You can play just as good as a man.
44:47Look at the concentration on this chap's face.
44:50Well, you're pretty good one-handed, aren't you?
44:52You've beaten one or two of the professional.
44:54Yes, one or two, yeah.
44:55Like who?
44:56Er, Alex Higgins.
44:58Well, you've thrashed him twice.
45:00Twice, yes.
45:01Have you really? Twice.
45:02This man is an embarrassment to Hurricane Higgins.
45:06He couldn't pot a ball.
45:08I thought, well, I've got to get his confidence back.
45:12So I was paying people, and don't take this the wrong way.
45:15I wasn't fixing matches or anything like that.
45:19I was paying friends to lose to him.
45:24I'm probably suffering from nervous exhaustion,
45:26because I'm a hyper-nervous person anyway.
45:30And coupled with the pressure and the travel,
45:33and it's just from pillar to post all the time.
45:36And at the moment, I'm getting sick of it,
45:38because my game's suffering so badly.
45:41Now, to get him ready for the World Championships in April,
45:45we decided we wanted to clean him up.
45:47So we put him in this hospital, this nursing home,
45:51to dry him out.
45:53And God knows what happened there,
45:55but apparently people used to come and bring him vodka
45:58and God knows what, and he tried to get off with the nurses.
46:01What the hell went on?
46:03It was...
46:05All I could say is the chief doctor of the nursing home just said,
46:10what a horrid little man.
46:12You know, sir.
46:14That was just about summed up what went on in that hospital.
46:17The good news was, Alex came out at least 80% improved.
46:22The 20% was bad enough for anybody else in England,
46:26but at least he had a chance.
46:34By the time the 1982 World Championships began,
46:37Alex had already split from Harvey after their relationship collapsed.
46:41Instead, he brought Lynn and one-year-old Lauren to the tournament for moral support.
46:50The baby was up last weekend,
46:52and I thought what better than to have the personal contact with the baby's dummy.
46:57It might say in childhood, whatever, but I don't care.
47:00You know, she's a part of me, and that's like a little bond between us.
47:05A great chance for the Irishman.
47:07Under the hot lights of the crucible, Alex suddenly found some form.
47:17Oh, what a shot!
47:19I think the fact that Lynn and Lauren were there was a big, big help to Alex.
47:24He had a life to go home to. He had something else.
47:29It took some of the intensity off.
47:31But in the semi-final, his run faltered against Jimmy the whirlwind white,
47:38a dynamic young player who'd looked up to the hurricane since he was a boy.
47:43Oh, and what a marvellous shot, John.
47:47Watching Alex Higgins growing up was just magical.
47:50You know, he could just do things with the cue wall that, to this day,
47:54I've not seen anyone else do. From then on, he was my hero.
48:00And Alex finding it hard to bear, I think, at the moment.
48:04Needing just one more frame to win and 59 points ahead,
48:09Jimmy appeared to be closing in on a place in the final.
48:11So, Alex breathes again.
48:18And still enough points on the table for Alex.
48:23What happened next has gone down in sporting folklore.
48:27It's impossible for Alex to clear the colours in that final frame.
48:31But it was possible. I mean, it was 25, 33 to one shot.
48:35Well, what would you do here, John?
48:39When the balls were situated, the black was at one end of the table.
48:45The first three or four shots, his cue ball was not in the right place.
48:51The black was by the yellow, and he could have snookered me.
48:56And he rolled the black into the pocket.
49:00And that's a tremendous shot in the pressure.
49:04Alex, pots a ball, and then you can see him just smiling.
49:08And that's when he knows he's back.
49:11He's like, yeah, I'm with you, let's go, let's do this.
49:14And now another difficult red into the centre pocket.
49:18When he was on fire, there was nobody like him.
49:20You sit down and watch him play,
49:23and the hairs on the back of your neck standing.
49:27Just unbelievable.
49:28And Alex not able to afford any mistakes, or else it could be the end of the match.
49:35I think the famous shot is the blue to the green pocket.
49:40You had to screw the cue ball past the middle pocket and then bring it actually back the way.
49:45So the action that you had to get on the cue ball, the way you had to hit it, it was just a phenomenal shot.
49:53Another tremendous shot.
49:56I'm feeling nervous for him, Jack.
49:59I think if he clears this, this would be the break of the tournament.
50:05Oh, and that's a beautiful shot.
50:07I was sitting in my seat a couple of times, I think, you know, oh, you know, I'm going to come back to the table here.
50:14But they just pulled out them balusterous type shots, one after the other. Phenomenal.
50:22And Jimmy looking rather sad, but at least he has the consolation of being just a young lad of 20 and he'll come again.
50:30Oh, marvellous.
50:32Only Alex Higgins could have made that clearance.
50:42Every time I go and do an exhibition throughout the world, they put that 69 clearance, Alex Higgins, and they put it on the screen.
50:50You know, and I'm playing the exhibition, it's supposed to be about me doing the show that night.
50:57Looking back at that now, obviously I wanted to win the match,
51:00but there was a part of me that wanted him to pot the balls because, you know, he was my hero.
51:09One frame later, it was all over.
51:1231, Paul, Jimmy White took the ball.
51:14So Jimmy White concedes.
51:15So the people's player now has a chance to really be the people's champion.
51:30I've watched that frame over and over and over again for 30 years.
51:35Impossible clearance. The greatest clearance I've ever seen in my life.
51:40APPLAUSE
51:42Alex was through to the final, where a familiar foe lay in wait.
51:47APPLAUSE
51:48We've played each other many, many times over the years and I respect his game and I'd like to think he's got a bit of respect for me somewhere.
52:01Let's hope the best man wins. We'll have a great match and let's hope that we make some lovely viewing for our spectators.
52:08Ray, you would have to say, was the dominant player throughout the 70s and probably prevented Alex from lifting maybe another one or two world titles.
52:19He was the one that everybody had to beat.
52:21Alex won it in 72. He thought maybe he was going to go on and dominate the game, which he possibly should have done if he had kept himself right.
52:32But it never happened for him. It was almost like his last chance to learn.
52:36That's it.
52:42Whenever I entered the championship, I was going to win it. And I trained for it and I prepared for it.
52:48So what a final we have to look forward to.
52:52Alex Higgin was not going to be any problem to me, I tell you now.
53:01I thought, if he's ever going to win this again, it's now.
53:05I wanted him to win. My heart was going pit-a-pat, like everybody else's.
53:11But of course, with Alex, he could always blow it.
53:19It took over the whole weekend of TV.
53:24We were all sitting around watching it, shouting and screaming.
53:29Good heavens, that really is unbelievable.
53:33Terrific battle going on here.
53:36These boys want to win the world championship so badly.
53:39You could recognise that his brain was firing.
53:50You could see he was turning base metal into gold again.
53:57Fantastic.
53:59And a true battle of wits going on in this final session.
54:02Alex was 15-12 ahead.
54:06But drawing upon years of experience, Ray somehow managed to win three frames in a row on the final evening.
54:15And what a campaigner this man is. Ray Redden, who's been in this final on six occasions, draws level 15 frames each.
54:28Higgins is 15-12 up. You think, oh, early nights. But that's it. It's never in the bag until it's won.
54:37And, you know, 15-12, you thought he had it. A 15-0, anyone's game.
54:41The first to 18 frames would win. And Alex took the next two, leaving him needing just one more frame for victory.
54:56And that's for them.
54:58And Ray Redden will be suffering in his seat.
55:01And his seat.
55:03At 15-0, the guy who left that table was a loser.
55:08But the guy who came out wasn't the guy who went in.
55:12The 33-year-old Irishman making hay while the sun shines.
55:18Going out in a complete blaze of glory here.
55:20Fantastic.
55:35And the Embassy World Snooker Champion for 1982 is Alex Periclin-Higgins.
55:42My form was good. Nothing wrong with mine, no. He won fair and square. He beat me, well, 18-15 at the end.
55:52Completely exhausted is Higgins. Congratulations from every side for this extraordinary young Irishman who has done so much for the world of snooker since he came on the scene just ten years ago.
56:06When I saw him win that World Championship in 1982 and the tears rolling down his face and he picked up the trophy, I wanted to be a snooker player.
56:17He was signalling to Lin, you know, my baby. Bring my baby. It was just spontaneous.
56:23Everyone was saying, look at him, the man's asking for his baby. For God's sake, give him the baby.
56:30It was a piece of sporting folklore moment, wasn't it?
56:34Men don't cry. Or they didn't back then. To see a man crying tears of joy is just quite something. It really is. It was one of the most moving moments of television I've seen.
56:54I'm just a very, very happy man. I probably will die happy. And thank yous all very, very much indeed. Cheers.
57:02We see lots of people celebrating with their families now, whether it be football or any other sport, but back then you didn't really see that and it was like, wow, he's got his little baby there. This is amazing.
57:16That moment was so monumental and one of the stepping stones in snooker, one of the genuine moments that takes it from here to here to here, you know, and that was Higgins. He had absolutely put his stamp on history.
57:34Things started to unravel for him after that and that emotion which had made him cry those tears of joy. That was the seed of his destruction really as well.
57:46You saw the ultimate triumph and the beginning of the end at the same time when he won that world championship.
58:02He's a very, very good personal snooker player, but personally I hit Steve Davis.
58:08The final frame, the final black.
58:12I took ages on that shot. You think it's on Free's frame. They reckon 18 and a half million watched it.
58:18Why do we have to keep talking about 85? You've got to keep being made to talk about 85.
58:23The final frame.
58:41The final frame.
58:45The final frame.