This Is Your Life: Bobby Charlton

Bobby CHARLTON OBE (1937-2023)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Bobby Charlton, footballer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews - with the help of broadcaster Jimmy Hill - as he became the first recipient of an award for 'great moments in sport' at The Sportsman's Club in London, from where the programme was then broadcast.

Bobby, who was born in Ashington into a family with a footballing tradition, signed with Manchester United as a 15-year-old in 1953. As one of the Busby Babes, he made his first team debut in October 1956. He played regularly until the Munich air disaster of 1958, when eight players and three club officials were among the 23 killed as the team returned from a European Cup match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Bobby recovered from the crash and played a significant role in rebuilding the team, most notably in 1968 when he captained the team that won the European Cup, scoring two goals in the final to help them become the first English club to win the competition. He made his debut for England in 1958 and was a member of the England team that won the FIFA World Cup in 1966, the same year he was named European Footballer of the Year.

"I said before there were too many here!"

programme details...

Edition No: 258
Subject No: 258
Broadcast live: Wed 26 Nov 1969
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Venue: The Sportsman's Club, London
Series: 10
Edition: 2

on the guest list...

Matt Busby
Norman McGuinness
Bob - father
Cissie - mother
Joe Armstrong
Tommy - brother
Gordon - brother
unnamed family doctor
Norma - wife
George Best
Shay Brennan
Alex Stepney
Tony Dunne
Bill Foulkes
Pat Crerand
David Sadler
Brian Kidd
Johnny Aston
Jimmy Murphy
Wilf McGuinness
Jackie Milburn
Jackie Charlton - brother
Eusebio ds Silva Ferreira

production team...

Researchers: Jack Crawshaw, John Stapleton, Mary McAnally
Writers: Tom Brennand, Roy Bottomley
Director: Margery Baker
Producer: Robert Tyrrell

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Match of the Day

tackling football's top names

The Theatre of Dreams

Manchester United's finest

Family Life

keeping it in the family

The Big Red Book

the programme's icon

Michael Aspel

a career review

Producing Life

the producers who steered the programme's success

The secret life of Eamonn Andrews

Weekend Magazine feature on the show's popularity

Photographs and screenshots of Bobby Charlton This Is Your Life

Bobby Charlton recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his book, My Life in Football...

I thought I was in London for the opening of the Sportsman's Club one evening in November 1969 when I became the latest victim of Eamonn Andrews brandishing a distinctive red book for the television programme This Is Your Life.

The other players were off to Blackpool for training and I was fed up because I was going to miss out on the trip to the Norbreck Hydro, one which I always enjoyed, instead having to head south along with Sir Matt Busby. As it turned out the lads weren't going to Blackpool at all, and they popped out to greet me after Eamonn had sprung his surprise.

I was pretty dumbfounded at first, then a little embarrassed at being the sole centre of attention, but it was wonderful to see so many people who were close to me, including my younger brothers Tom and Gordon.

Of course, Norma was there, too, and she had known about it all along without giving me the faintest clue.

In the end I did enjoy it, though I have to admit I would rather have been playing football.

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

Viewing figures prove that people never tire of stories of sporting achievement, particularly when someone wins against all the odds.

Opening the programme with soccer, Manchester United's Bobby Charlton was celebrating being Player of the Year, European Footballer of the Year, and receiving an OBE for services to the game when we surprised him at London's Sportsman's Club on 26 November 1969 – just three years after he had won a World Cup Winners' medal with an England team captained by Bobby Moore, whom we surprised a couple of years later. The programme, broadcast live from the club, was the second of Thames Television's Life transmissions.

Bobby had had a miraculous escape in the Munich air disaster twelve years before, escaping with hardly a scratch. He had just established a regular first team place and Sir Matt Busby said it must have taken 'a terrific effort of will' to go back on the field at Old Trafford 'with just about every familiar face now missing'.

In April 1958, two months after Munich, Bobby pulled on an England shirt for the first time and scored from a cross from legendary winger Tom Finney, also a Life subject.

Soccer ran in the Charlton family – his mother's cousin was Newcastle United and England star Jackie Milburn (who was himself surprised with the Big Red Book at the studios of Tyne Tees Television in Newcastle).

By the time we surprised Bobby's big brother, Jackie, Leeds United and England centre half, on 13 April 1973, they had become the first brothers to play together in an England side since Nottingham Forest's Frank and Fred Foreman back in 1899.

In 1967 Jackie had been voted Footballer of the Year, taking the title from Bobby. Leeds and Scotland star Billy Bremner said the only reason he got the Leeds captaincy was that Big Jack did not want to lead the team on to the pitch. He had a superstition that if he came out last he would play better.

Series 10 subjects