This Is Your Life: Eddie Jordan

Eddie JORDAN (1948-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Eddie Jordan, founder of Jordan Grand Prix, was surprised by Michael Aspel at the unveiling of a new Formula One car at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.

Eddie, who was born in Dublin, initially considered becoming a priest due to his religious background and later a dentist before getting a job with the Bank of Ireland. He discovered go-kart racing on a working holiday in Jersey, and he later entered and won the Irish Kart Championship in 1971. By 1974 Eddie had moved up to Formula Ford and then Formula Three the following year. Finally, he switched to Formula Atlantic, winning three races in 1977 and the Irish Formula Atlantic Championship in 1978.

He founded his first team, Eddie Jordan Racing, in 1979 and entered motor races across the United Kingdom before moving into Formula 3000. His new team, Jordan Grand Prix, established in 1991, quickly gained respect in Formula One motor racing, achieving its best-ever result with first and second place at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1998.

"Whoever is responsible is instantly sacked!"

programme details...

Edition No: 1038
Subject No: 1013
Broadcast date: Mon 7 Feb 2000
Broadcast time: 8.30-9.00pm
Recorded: Mon 31 Jan 2000
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 40
Edition: 13
Code name: Pit

on the guest list...

Hirotoshi Honda
Jarno Trulli
Eileen - mother
Helen - sister
Neil - brother-in-law
Marie - wife
Zoe - daughter
Miki - daughter
Zak - son
Kyle - son
Chris Rea
Mike Rutherford
Nick Mason
Aiden Boland
Margaret Finnan
Jim Woods
Martin McCarthy
Michael Tanny
Liam Nevin
David Meek
Martin Donnelly
Des Large
Derek McMahon
Eddie Irvine
John Watson
Ian Phillips
Darren Clarke
Lee Westwood
David O'Leary
Richard Dunwoody
Brian Hurley
Liam O'Connor
John Saunders
Murray Walker
Nigel Mansell
Johnny Herbert
Heinz-Harald Frentzen

production team...

Researcher: Jo Grant
Writer: Joe Steeples
Director: John Gorman
Associate Producer: Helen Gordon-Smith
Executive Producer: John Longley
Series Producer: Jack Crawshaw
Producer: Sue Green

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Life at Full Throttle

the lovers of speed

Richard Dunwoody

Mike Rutherford

Murray Walker

Photographs and screenshots of Eddie Jordan This Is Your Life

Eddie Jordan recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, An Independent Man...

The EJ10 was launched at London's Drury Lane Theatre, another first for Jordan and one that involved theatrics that I knew nothing about. Something I was aware of was the inclusion in our launch of an act by Jean Butler from Dancing on Dangerous Ground. Jean, principal dancer with Riverdance, was hugely popular, not just in her native Ireland but globally, so when Michael Aspel suddenly appeared on stage carrying his big red book, I thought Jean was his target. I had it in my mind that This Is Your Life tended to focus on entertainers rather than sports personalities, although I was rarely at home to see it on TV. I also believed that the programme tended to select British subjects, mainly from the point of view of convenience of research, finding guests and arranging travel and accommodation and so on. When Michael presented the book to me, I was thrown completely.

Marie and Lindsay had been hard at work behind the scenes but, with the launch coming up, I had not noticed. I did not have the time to sit down and realise that two plus two made four. That is where the programme makers and my people at Jordan were so clever. It was the perfect chance to spring the surprise because everyone – friends, sponsors, family, team members – was in place. It really was a fantastically slick piece of organisation.

The usual procedure is to go straight into the show. However, we had a launch to complete and the plan was to go to the television studio and record the programme there. My initial reaction was that I did not want to go through with it. In fact, I seemed to recall that there had only ever been one refusal and that was from an Irishman, international footballer Danny Blanchflower. Then I realised that the show was more or less ready to roll and there would be many very disappointed people if it did not go ahead. As time went on, I began to look forward to it, although I was a little nervous about what might happen, and whom they would dig out from my past.

A chauffeur-driven car was waiting to whisk me I knew not where, but turned out to be Teddington. They did not tell me anything. Marie was taken away and the only person I had with me in the special room at the studio was Mark Gallagher, our head of marketing, and he would not give anything away. Unknown to me, the guests were having a great time drinking and chatting in another room and, for once, knowing far more than I did.

They started the show by having me walk on to the stage through sliding doors. A number of familiar faces were already there – the oldest members of the team, others from my racing past whom I had not seen for years, right up to the present, including Jarno. I really did not expect to see him, having said goodbye at Drury Lane.

My Mum, of course, and my family were on the front row. It was a fantastic experience for them. This Is Your Life is a huge programme in Ireland, mainly because the great Eamonn Andrews was the original host. He was a wonderful TV personality – perhaps one of the first. We always viewed him as a total professional.

The show started with a filmed tribute from Murray Walker. I thought he was absolutely fantastic and was very touched by what he said. Then came a stream of guests. I may not have looked it, but I was relaxed all the way through. Of course, I was apprehensive. It is daunting to have to sit there not knowing whose voice you are going to hear next – and what they might say. I likened it to being a passenger on a bobsleigh, which I once was. You are not in control. Someone else is in charge – and I don't like that. Being on This Is Your Life was a kind of verbal equivalent.

The surprises came thick and fast, not least the appearance of Margaret Nevin and her brother Liam, 'Big D' Derek McMahon, George Mackin, Brian 'Red' Hurley, Eddie Irvine, David O'Leary, the then manager of Leeds United, and Richard Dunwoody, the then champion jockey, having won more races than anyone else at that time, followed by Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, heroes of the Ryder Cup. When Mike Rutherford of Genesis, Chris Rea and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd suddenly appeared together, it backed up the feeling that the choice of guests was perfect. When you look back on your life, there are so many crossroads that didn't seem that important at the time but, on reflection, were absolutely crucial. The nice thing about the programme was that all the people who had been standing at those various crossroads were present in the studio. I could not think of a better way of saying thanks.

When the recording had finished, we adjourned to the studio bar and restaurant and then moved on to the Soho House club, followed by early morning coffee in Bar Italia – a Ferrari stronghold in the West End. I remember falling out of there at about 3 a.m. All told, it was a fantastic experience.

Atlas F1 News Service 31 January 2000

Eddie Jordan Left Speechless

By Alan Baldwin

One of the rarest and least-expected occurrences in Formula One took place on a brightly-lit London theatre stage on Monday.

Eddie Jordan, the ebullient and talkative team owner, was lost for words.

As the Irishman was preparing to present his new yellow EJ10 car, named to mark his 10 years in Formula One, a presenter carrying a red-bound book appeared from the wings leading a television crew behind him.

"Eddie Jordan, this is your life," presenter Michael Aspel intoned, familiar words to generations of British television viewers as the name of a show charting the lives of celebrities and bringing them face to face with old friends.

"It just shows you, there is a way," the surprised Jordan said when asked later what it felt like to be speechless.

"We'll have to have a major sift through the personnel in Jordan because too many things are going as a joke. The EJ thing I could live with but it (the car) was named when I wasn't there."

The irrepressible Irishman is one of Formula One's true characters, a man with a sense of humour who can always be counted on for a quote or an opinion and who has been responsible for starting the careers of some great drivers.

But he is also totally serious about his racing, an entrepreneur whose rise to the level of the major players came only after the most unpromising of beginnings.

Hundreds of journalists crowded the plush Theatre Royal in London's Drury Lane for Monday's launch - a fact that allowed Jordan to remind observers just how much mileage had been covered since his first season in 1991.

"In that first launch we had 11 people, we had no sponsor and we had no driver. We looked a disaster," he said.

"It prompted one particular journalist at that particular launch to ask 'why do they bother?'"

"That has never left my mind. Because it was something that inspired me to create that passion that is inside Jordan."

In fact, Jordan finished fifth in their first season after giving Michael Schumacher his grand prix debut in Belgium as a replacement for the jailed Bertrand Gachot.

Schumacher was promptly seized by Benetton and Jordan were 11th overall in 1992, their lowest ebb.

Since I995, it has been a steady progression from sixth place to fifth, fourth and third last season.

Not bad for a team run by a private entrepreneur, whose sense of fun initially led to him not being treated as a serious contender, and without a major manufacturer behind him.

This season, still with a Mugen Honda engine, they aim to move further up the ladder and give constructors' champions Ferrari and McLaren even more of a run for their money.

Jordan said that, despite several offers for his team in recent years, he would not be selling out or retiring.

"There is nothing quite like singing your national anthem on the podium when you've won a race," he said.

"It is something that is desperately important for me and we intend to hear a lot more of the anthem in the future."

The Irishman also poked gentle fun at his own image, divulging that recent market research into the public perception of the team had asked a range of questions including "have you ever heard of Eddie Jordan?"

"One person answered 'yeah, he's that Irish guy who talks too much,'" Jordan told the audience.

"Dodgy git, but he always lands on his feet."

Oxford Mail 1 February 2000

Big red book shock as Eddie unveils new F1 car

GRAND Prix team owner Eddie Jordan was left speechless as he unveiled his new Formula 1 car at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London.

The 51-year-old Irishman, who lives in Oxford, had just unveiled the EJ10, signifying his team's tenth year in F1, when he was stunned by the appearance of Michael Aspel and his big red book.

Jordan discovered he was the latest subject of BBC Television's This Is Your Life programme.

The team chief, who wants to improve on last season's third place in the manufacturers' championship, is confident that the Silverstone-based Jordan team can lead the challenge to McLaren and Ferrari this season.

"We are going to give the top two a run for their money," said Jordan, whose wife Marie and four children were in the audience.

Jordan has rubbished talk about him quitting motor racing by insisting he still has a Formula 1 dream to fulfil. He said he had no plans on following Jackie Stewart into retirement.

Former three-time world drivers champion Stewart announced he was stepping down as chairman of Jaguar Racing last week.

But multi-millionaire Jordan, whose F1 race career was confined to a test drive with McLaren in the late 1970s, has no intention of giving up.

"I still thrive on the pressure. If I retired I would probably be divorced at the same time because I wouldn't be easy to live with."

"I still have a lot of unfinished goals, but I believe I am very close to achieving them."

Jordan paid tribute to Damon Hill, who retired last season and will be replaced by Italian Jarno Trulli, 25, to partner Germany's Heinz-Harald Frentzen this year.

The Mirror 1 February 2000

CAUGHT BY RED BOOK

EDDIE Jordan is not the only Irish hero to get the Red Book treatment.

This Is Your Life paid tribute to the sporting achievements of George Best, Alex Higgins and Barry McGuigan.

The late tenor Joseph Locke also received the special accolade as did Danny La Rue.

But equally memorable was a failure by the TIYL team. International footballer Danny Blanchflower made a hasty departure to avoid being the star of the show, just as the famous words were being said to him.

Another fine moment was when Michael Aspel took original host Eamonn Andrews down memory lane. [Bigredbook.info editor: Michael didn't surprise Eamonn. It was Ralph Edwards in 1955 and David Nixon in 1974]

Series 40 subjects