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Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Roger Black, athlete, was surprised by Michael Aspel during a photo shoot for BBC Sport at Heathrow Airport.

Roger, who was born in Portsmouth, attended the University of Southampton to study medicine but quit after three months to become an athlete. In 1985 he won the European Junior Championships 400m, and the following year he won two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

Despite illness and injury caused by a secret and rare heart condition, Roger became Britain's top 400m runner for over twelve years and anchor man for the highly successful and extremely popular relay team. He won individual silver medals in the 400m sprint at both the Olympic Games and World Championships, two individual gold medals at the European Championships, and 4 × 400m relay gold medals at both the World and European Championships.

programme details...

• Edition No: 1026
• Subject No: 1001
• Broadcast date: Mon 1 Nov 1999
• Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
• Recorded: Mon 30 Aug 1999
• Venue: Teddington Studios
• Series: 40
• Edition: 1
• Code name: Bambi

on the guest list...

• Paul McKenna
• Sir Eddie Kulukundis
• Susan Hampshire
• Elsa - wife
• Sally Gunnell
• Steve Cram
• Sebastian Coe
• Thelma - mother
• David - father
• Alastair - brother
• Nigel - brother
• Julia - sister
• Michael Marks
• Dr Neville Conway
• Fuzz Khan
• Kelvin Hackett
• Jim Brotherton
• Bob Pottell
• Andy Robling
• Mike Wedderburn
• Kriss Akabusi
• Todd Bennett
• Joe Picken
• Paul Jenkins
• Mike Whittingham
• John Regis
• Sven Nylander
• Jan Devassoigne - mother-in-law
• George Devassoigne - father-in-law
• John - brother-in-law
• Ella-Mary - niece
Filmed tributes:
• Michael Johnson
• Daley Thompson
• David Jenkins

related appearances...

• Elizabeth McColgan - Dec 1991
• Kriss Akabusi - May 1995
• Tanni Grey - Dec 1996
• Sally Gunnell - Sep 1997

production team...

• Researcher: Kate Greer
• Writer: Ian Brown
• 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

Going for Gold

celebrating the world's best

Sally Gunnell

Susan Hampshire

Screenshots of Roger Black This Is Your Life