This Is Your Life: Reg Gutteridge

Reg GUTTERIDGE (1924-2009)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Reg Gutteridge, boxing journalist and commentator, was surprised by Michael Aspel - with the help of Henry Cooper and Frank Bruno - at Thames Television's Teddington Studios, having been led to believe he is there to record a voice-over.

Reg was born into a boxing family in Islington, London, and won several amateur flyweight boxing titles as a young man, before losing a leg in the D-Day campaign while serving with the King's Royal Rifle Corps during the Second World War.

After the war he became a journalist and reported on boxing for the London Evening News for more than 30 years. He became better known as a commentator, in particular the voice of ITV's boxing coverage, a job he performed from 1962. He won many awards, including Excellence in Broadcast Journalism and Presenter of the Year.

"I've seen this so many times, and I don't believe this! I wouldn't have put my hat on if I had known!"

programme details...

Edition No: 884
Subject No: 871
Broadcast date: Wed 25 May 1994
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 10 Nov 1993
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 34
Edition: 18
Code name: Ring

on the guest list...

Connie - wife
Susan - daughter
Sally - daughter
John - son-in-law
Dickie O'Sullivan
Ron Barton
Terry Downes
John Conteh
Barry McGuigan
Frank Bruno
Henry Cooper
Jackie Pallo - cousin
Bill Griffiths
Alice Griffiths
Leslie Thomas
Terry Spinks
John Bromley
Jim Watt
Jarvis Astaire
Gary Newbon
Dickie Davies
message from Muhammad Ali
Mavis Airey
Michael Buffer
George Sewell
Norman Wisdom
Jack - grandson
Sugar Ray Leonard
Thomas Hearns
Ingemar Johansson
Lennox Lewis
Harry Carpenter
Howard Bingham

production team...

Researcher: Mark Linnane
Writer: Norman Giller
Director: Brian Klein
Associate Producer: John Graham
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Life In The Ring

from flyweight to heavyweight

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

Screenshots of Reg Gutteridge This Is Your Life

Reg Gutteridge recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, Uppercuts and Dazes...

When Michael Aspel thrust his red book in front of my face and said: 'Reg Gutteridge, this is your life', the first thought to flash through my mind was: 'I could'a been somebody. I could'a been a contender'.

That line was, of course, the classic delivered by Marlon Brando when he played a failed boxer in my favourite film On The Waterfront which was written by my old mate Budd Schulberg.

I wondered what my old dad would have thought if he could have seen his only son's story being shown to millions. He probably would have said something like: 'Blimey, I breed a boxer and I wind up with a luvvie, instead.' But he would have been proud. I know that I was proud of him.

I was utterly gobsmacked when I realised what was happening to me... I was set up by the show's scriptwriter, Norman Giller, who telephoned and asked whether I could rescue him with a 'voice-over' job at Teddington Studios (where the show was being recorded) for a sports production he was involved with at the time. I should have twigged when he asked me to wear a collar and tie, but even that hint went over my head.

On the evening in question, I was already booked to commentate for ITV at York Hall, Bethnal Green, and politely told Norman so. Norman then promised to lay on a car to take me to the boxing and then on to Teddington afterwards.

What he neglected to tell me was that I was being hijacked and taken straight to Teddington and that colleague Jim Rosenthal had been switched to York Hall to stand in for me.

It so happened that the only thing on my mind that evening was our lovely half-Persian cat, Tom. He had recently been run over outside our house and, that afternoon, he had managed, for the first time since the accident, to climb the stairs to the bedroom on his heavily plastered leg.

I was still celebrating Tom's recovery and was just deciding that he could stay in the bedroom to surprise Connie, who was due home within the hour. Instead, this bloody car turned up. It was a lousy journey, with the driver going in fits and starts and constantly answering the phone. This, I later discovered, was because some guests were late and the driver was being given instructions to slow down.

All this messing about had put me in such a bad mood that when I saw Norman standing in the foyer, I was just about to swear at him. Fortunately, Henry Cooper and Frank Bruno suddenly appeared to lift me off my feet. I still thought it was some kind of Giller gag until I saw the Red Book and then heard Las Vegas Master of Ceremonies, Michael Buffer, on a big screen and heard him shout his famous catchphrase 'Let's get ready to rumble! Reggie Gutteridge, this is your life.'

When Connie was introduced to me as the first guest, I was so nervous that all I could think of to say was: 'The cat is in the bedroom.'

Series 34 subjects