This Is Your Life: Garfield Sobers

Sir Garfield SOBERS (1936-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Garfield Sobers, cricketer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while attending a reception in honour of his recent knighthood at the Barbados High Commission in London.

Gary, who was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, showed great skill at sports from an early age, particularly cricket, football and basketball. After playing for two local cricket teams from age 13, he was invited to join the Barbados cricket team. He made his first-class debut at 16 in 1953 and test debut for the West Indies the following year.

Gary scored his maiden Test century against Pakistan in 1958, progressing to 365 not out and establishing a new record for the highest individual score in an innings. He was made captain of the West Indies in 1965, a role he held until 1972, playing 93 tests in total and scoring over 8,000 runs. In his 383 first-class matches, he scored over 28,000 runs before retiring in 1974.

programme details...

Edition No: 414
Subject No: 411
Broadcast date: Wed 7 May 1975
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Tue 29 Apr 1975
Venue: Euston Road Studios
Series: 15
Edition: 27
Code name: Bat

on the guest list...

Prudence - wife
Thelma - mother
Greta - sister
George - brother
Gerry - brother
Cecil - brother
Garnett Ashby
Elise - sister
Colin Cowdrey
Denis Compton
Fred Titmus
Ted Dexter
Trevor Bailey
John Murray
Everton Barrow
Capt Wilfred Farmer
Sonny Ramadhin
Alf Valentine
Matthew - son
Daniel - son

production team...

Researcher: unknown
Writer: unknown
Director: Robert Reed
Producer: Jack Crawshaw

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Life Before Wicket

bowling up the cricketers

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

Producing Life

the producers who steered the programme's success

This is the secret life

Jack Crawshaw reviews his time on This Is Your Life

Denis Compton

Photographs of Garfield Sobers This Is Your Life

Presenter Eamonn Andrews and producer Jack Crawshaw recall this edition of This Is Your Life in their book, Surprise Of Your Life...

The proud mum was, of course, Mrs Thelma Sobers. Her epic flight was the first time in her life that she had left the sunny shores of her native Barbados in the West Indies. And by making that nine-hour journey across the Atlantic she ended what for us had been a six-year quest.

From the very first series of This Is Your Life on ITV we had wanted to tell the story of the unknown youngster from Bridgetown who became the best player in the history of cricket. A brilliant all-rounder who went on to play in a record 93 Test matches, captain his country a record 39 times, score 8,032 Test runs, take 235 Test wickets and notch up the world record for the highest Test innings... 365 not out in Sabina Park, Jamaica, in 1957.

It was frustrating that our seasons on air never coincided with his in this country. When we wanted him he was always in the air travelling the world, breaking all those records. We had almost given up hope. Then in April 1975, as we neared the end of our own series, we heard that the newly-honoured Sir Garfield was coming to London, and that on his itinerary was a reception at the Barbados High Commission to celebrate his knighthood.

After contacting Gary's Australian-born wife, Prudence, for the go ahead, we went to see Mr Cameron Tudor, the High Commissioner for Barbados, at his office in Belgravia.

We knew that Mr Tudor had invited a number of Gary's friends to toast his health in champagne and asked if, in the nicest possible way, we could gatecrash the party to pay our own tribute. Without a moment's hesitation the affable Mr Tudor agreed with delight. But there was still a long way to go – for all of us.

The next step was to have more detailed talks with Lady Sobers. She was in the West Indies with Gary. The difficulty was getting to her without Gary knowing. But luck was on our side.

In a talk with Geoffrey Irvine, a young director of the Bagenal Harvey Organisation which handles Gary's business affairs in London, we discovered that Trevor Bailey, the former Essex and England all-rounder, was planning to visit Gary in the West Indies to discuss a book about his former rival.

Once in the West Indies, Trevor – Gary's first victim as a 17-year-old Test match bowler – helped us "catch him out" by keeping him busy while we talked to his wife and Mum. And it was the first talks with Mrs Sobers Senior that we were most nervous about because Mr Irvine had told us that when, in the past, Gary had asked his mother to come to England she had always refused. She didn't like flying. And, anyway, she just didn't want to travel to "that cold country".

Would she change her mind after all these years? Just this once? For her son? The answer of course was yes. But it was with some butterflies in her tummy that, a few weeks later, she took a forty-minute car ride from her home in St Michael, driving close to the spot where she had so recently seen her son knighted, and on to the airport.

Shortly before 6.30 in the evening she stepped aboard a British West Indian Airways Boening 707 bound for London. The plane taxied along the runway of the airport that is flanked on one side by sugar cane plantations and on the other by a pink cast, palm-fringed beach. Then it soared out over a white coral reef in a clear blue ocean, taking Mrs Sobers on her first ever trip from her native shores. Nine hours later we met her as she stepped on to the tarmac at Heathrow in the early light of an April morning. She was smiling – a warm smile that was to stay with her for the next few days. Certainly it was a smile that gave me some confidence and comfort as we chatted together in the minutes before I left the studios to head for the High Commission.

She told me that she had made the journey because she felt that this was going to be the biggest night of her son's Life. As I pulled up outside the High Commission in Upper Belgravia Street I could only hope she was going to be right.

But as I hurried in through the door on to what is technically foreign soil I was given the shock of my life... I was told that Gary and Prue had arrived fifteen minutes earlier than planned and had left. Nearly six years of waiting and we had lost him.

Then we got good news. When Sir Garfield arrived, the quick-thinking Mr Tudor had brilliantly improvised and told him Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret was expected at the reception and that it would be absolutely wrong for Sir Garfield to arrive before her.

The situation was saved – at least temporarily. Now I had to hide before he returned. And I'll never forget my hiding place: an open balcony high above Belgravia outside the room where now scores of guests were milling.

When Sir Garfield and Lady Sobers arrived – minutes later at the door below – I was crouching down behind a balustrade so that he couldn't see me. And within minutes of his entering the adjoining room I was out there with him.

As I handed him the book I couldn't help thinking of the wonderful surprise he was going to get when he discovered that his mother had made the trip.

In front of me was this mammoth figure, Sir Garfield Sobers. A sporting giant. A man of teak. And just by meeting his mother, and subsequently his brothers and sisters, I discovered about Gary what one constantly discovers about famous men. He was just another boy in another family. If they were proud of his success, fair enough. He was their boy first and a hero second.

Back at the studio Gary, to use one of his own terms, was absolutely bowled over when he saw Thelma, followed by his three brothers and two sisters. Last on was his sister Elise who we flew from the United States where she lives with her American-born husband.

And I can tell you that since that programme Elise has had a very special first-time visitor to her home in Kansas City. Yes, Thelma Sobers took another trip from Barbados... by plane.

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...

Another proud cricketing parent was the mother of the world's greatest all-rounder of his time, Sir Garfield Sobers. She was at the Garrison Racecourse in Bridgetown, Barbados, to see her son knighted by the Queen in 1975. It was the first ceremony of its kind to be held outside the British Isles.

Gary was celebrating his knighthood at the Barbados High Commission in London when we surprised him, and got an even bigger surprise when his mother, Thelma, walked in. She had boarded a plane for the first time in her life to take the nine-hour flight to London. She had always said, 'I don't want to travel to that cold country.'

Trevor Bailey recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, Sir Gary...

When I was in Barbados gathering material on Gary's life, I called to see her (his mother) with Gary and later went back with Gary's wife, Pru. This visit had to be done with considerable secrecy and without Gary's knowledge. ITV had asked me to do some research for their programme, This Is Your Life, in which they intended to feature Gary. It was vital for his mother to come to England. Pru was worried that she might not be willing to make the journey, because she had never been out of Barbados in her life, and had never flown. Although Gary had often asked her to come to stay with him in England, she had always declined. Fortunately she agreed to our request – Pru is very persuasive – and she also managed to keep quiet about the whole project. This cannot have been easy for a normally chatty individual who was about to embark on what was a real adventure into the unknown. One wrong word and the whole story would have spread through that little island with the speed of a bush-fire. A remarkable woman.

Gordon Bell recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, Sir Garfield Sobers...

On the evening of Tuesday, 29 April 1975 he was the guest of honour at a reception hosted by the Barbados High Commissioner in London, Mr I. Cameron Tudor, when he was invited by Eamonn Andrews of Thames Television to come over to the studios, 'to meet a few of your old cricketing friends'. With the permission of his host he consented, not suspecting that an elaborate surprise party was in store for him.

In the studio were many of Garfield's old Test cricket friends waiting to greet him. Among them were Colin Cowdrey, Denis Compton, Fred Titmus, Ted Dexter, Trevor Bailey and John Murray.

Hardly were the greetings over than there appeared on a screen in the studio a motion picture of the Queen knighting Garfield on the garrison Savannah. When it was over a door opened, and to Garfield's surprise in came his sister Greta and his 'kid' brother Cecil, both of whom he firmly believed were still in Barbados where he had left them only a couple of weeks before. But more surprises, a lot more, were to follow. The television show THIS IS YOUR LIFE had begun, with Garfield as its subject.

As viewers watched their TV screens (and the programme was later telecast in Barbados, as well as in many other countries) they saw Garfield's mouth and eyes open wide in surprise, as, in response to an invitation from Eamonn Andrews, he watched the screen in the studio and saw his mother alighting from a B.W.I.A. plane at London Airport. It was the first time she had ever left Barbados.

Before the programme ended all the members of Garfield's family had been brought together in the studio practically from the four corners of the world. These included his brothers George and Gerry, and his sister Elise who was specially flown in from the United States.

Present too by special delivery were the men who had played an important part in Garfield's rise to fame - his early schoolteacher Mr Everton Barrow, Captain Wilfred Farmer, Mr Garnet Ashby. Brought together too, for the first time in 14 years, were the old members of the Radcliffe Club cricket team with whom Garfield had first played when he turned professional in 1958. That alone was a wonderful moment. Sonny Ramadhin came in too: he was one half of the terrible spin twins who, like a West Indian hurricane, left a trail of devastation behind them on the cricket fields of England on that glorious tour of 1950. The other half was of course Alf Valentine. Sonny and Garfield had first toured England together in 1957 and had remained firm friends after that.

There isn't enough space to list all the guests who were brought together in this fantastic reunion. Of course, Garfield's wife Pru was there; their two sons four year old Matthew and one year old Daniel 'stole the show,' especially Daniel with his innocent prattle and capers.

This particular edition of THIS IS YOUR LIFE was hailed far and wide as one of the very best in the series and a well-deserved compliment to a fine cricketer and a fine sportsman.

Series 15 subjects