Voices of Football: Kenneth Wolstenholme, The First Voice of Football

Britain's first true voice of football found himself halfway to the scrapheap by the time he was just over 50 years old.

The use of received pronunciation in broadcasting is as old as broadcasting itself. When the BBC was granted its royal charter to become a corporation in 1926, it established an Advisory Committee on Spoken English to advise on the correct pronunciation and other aspects of broadcast language, and this would stay in place until the late 1940s. Its legacy of idiosyncrasies, however, would remain a central part of its house style for a further four decades, and this extended into all corners of its output, including sport.

You would never believe that Kenneth Wolstenholme was born in Salford and grew up supporting Bolton Wanderers from the clipped tones that would become so familiar to audiences as the game expanded into television schedules throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Such was the style of the time. Wolstenholme, however, would go on to become Britain’s first true voice of football, commentating on five World Cups and dozens of FA Cup finals. For many, though, his entire career could be reduced to three sentences, probably the most famous ever uttered during a football match in this country, but we’ll come back to that.