Euro 96

Available for over a year

The European Championship of 1996 was the opportunity for English football to recapture some pride, after the failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. England were the hosts, and an extraordinarily hot summer set the stage. The tournament became poised as an important national moment - sales of St. Georges flags exploded and Skinner and Baddiel's Britpop infused tournament anthem Three Lions was inescapable. But as the start of the tournament approached, lead striker Alan Shearer was struggling for goals, coach Terry Venables had had little time to implement his strategy, and no-one knew if the unpredictable but brilliant midfielder Paul Gascoigne would be able to show the form for which he was famous. While excitement built at home, the players were in the headlines for the wrong reasons when a pre-season tour of the Far East combined failings on the pitch with drunken photographs of players in the tabloid newspapers. But once the tournament started, the team rode luck and individual brilliance to the semi-final. Sue is joined by Darren Anderton, who played all five games, and by Ted Buxton, who was the assistant to the manager and the Chief Scout. David Davies was in charge of the team's relationship with the press, Harry Harris was covering the tournament as Chief Football Writer for the Daily Mirror, and Barry Davies was commentating for the BBC. Producer: Robert Nicholson Series Producer: David Prest A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.