Frank Bough

Bough joined the BBC as a presenter and reporter, presenting a new Newcastle upon Tyne-based show called Home at Six, soon renamed North at Six and then in 1963 becoming BBC Look North. Between 1964 and 1968, he was the presenter of Sportsview and in 1964 became the presenter of the BBC Sports Review of the Year, which he would host for 18 years. Between 1968 and 1983, he was a regular host for 15 years of the BBC's flagship Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand.

Bough was one of the BBC's football commentators for the 1966 World Cup in England and covered the match at Ayresome Park in Middlesbrough where North Korea defeated Italy 1–0,[6] in a game regarded as one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.[7] Bough went on to present the early evening magazine programme Nationwide. This made him one of the most familiar faces on British television throughout the 1970s.

In 1977, Bough was a guest on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special, performing a song and dance routine in a sailor's outfit with other TV personalities, including film critic Barry Norman and rugby league commentator Eddie Waring. The programme's 21.3 million viewers remain a British record. Bough later said that he had to give Waring dancing lessons before the sketch, which was based on a comic version of the song "There is Nothing Like a Dame" from the musical South Pacific.[8]

Bough was the main presenter of the BBC's coverage of the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina.

His prominence increased in January 1983 when he became the first presenter of the BBC's inaugural breakfast television programme, Breakfast Time along with Selina Scott and Nick Ross. Bough was chosen by Ron Neil for his experience of presenting three hours of live television every week on Grandstand. As fellow presenter Nick Ross recounted:

None of us had remotely the experience of long, unscripted slabs of live TV that Frank had from his sports broadcasting. He brought a sense of serenity and reassurance. His unruffled composure made us feel this had all been done before, and on the first morning, as the last minutes ticked down to our opening transmission, when hearts were thumping and nerves were jangling, he clapped his hands and—addressing the producers and the technicians as much as Selina and me—gently and firmly said, "Calm down." We did.[9]

Scott later said that Bough would deliberately undermine her by interrupting mid-question and in other ways; when she attempted to complain she said that senior management simply wasn't interested: "they seemed to have no emotional intelligence, and they let men like Frank Bough roam the BBC without any check on them". She said that there was a very sexist atmosphere at the BBC, "this malevolence".[10][11] Presenter Fern Britton's period on the programme overlapped with Scotts and she found Bough equally difficult to work with. In her autobiography, published in 2008, Britton said early in their professional relationship, Bough asked her: "Well, young lady, I wonder how long it will be before I'm having an affair with you." He was dismissive of Britton at pre-programme briefings: "Oh, hers can wait. Now back to mine." Britton felt too junior to be able to complain.[12]

Bough left breakfast television at the end of 1987 to concentrate on the Holiday programme where, having been a roving holidaymaker, he took over as the main presenter when Cliff Michelmore left the series in 1986.

On 13 June 1988, Bough left[13] the BBC for a rest before being sacked, after the News of the World reported he had taken cocaine and worn lingerie at sex parties involving prostitutes.[14][15][16] The newspaper's former deputy editor Paul Connew later said of the scandal: "It caused a sensation at the time, given Bough's public image as the squeaky clean front man of breakfast and sports television."[17]

Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at City University London, said that Bough made a "terrible mistake" by agreeing to speak to newspapers prior to publication of personal allegations, worsening the story.[18]

In February 1989, Bough was hired by Sky News to present the Frank Bough Interview for Sky TV for two series. In September 1989 he also joined London Weekend Television where he fronted Six O'Clock Live until it was axed in Summer 1992. In between his news duties he presented ITV's coverage of that year's Rugby World Cup tournament.

In August 1992, Bough was reported to have been involved in a dungeon orgy.[19][20][21][22] The press published photographs of him leaving the flat of a prostitute who specialised in sadomasochism.[23] Bough later spoke of his regret over his actions, saying his behaviour had been "exceedingly stupid".[1] He said in a television interview: "everybody, when they have difficulties with their marriage or sexuality, surely has the right to sort out these things in the privacy of their own home."[24] His role as a rugby presenter ended after this second scandal.[1]

In 1993, after his activities were regularly ridiculed in monologues on Have I Got News for You by Angus Deayton (who himself would be dismissed from the show following cocaine and prostitute use) Bough agreed to appear as a guest on the programme. In the early 1990s he was a presenter on London's LBC radio,[25] staying on for the launch of London News Talk and moving to the News 97.3 service where he remained until 1996. He then presented Travel Live for the cable channel Travel.

In 2009, he contributed to a programme looking back on Nationwide, broadcast on BBC Four.