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The Grand Knockout Tournament was undoubtedly the highest profile entry in
the later years of It's A Knockout. Staged at Alton Towers on Monday
15th June 1987 and transmitted on BBC1 on Friday of the same week, the event
was, bar one further edition a year later, the last hurrah for It's A
Knockout. It is fitting therefore that it was recorded for posterity (in
the absence of a home video!) in a large-format hardcover book from Collins.
No other IAK event could claim likewise!
The
book, Knockout: The Grand Charity Tournament, edited and with an
introduction by HRH The Prince Edward, is certainly a lavish production: 128
glossy pages in full colour throughout, containing reports on each game,
running scores, some beautiful colour photography and lengthy quotes from the
Royal and celebrity competitors. And it can do no harm to the profile of It's A Knockout to mention one or two: John Cleese, Christopher Reeve,
Nigel Mansell and John Travolta!
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 The
behind-the-scenes book is so detailed that it almost seems churlish to wonder why an
official home video
release of the event was not made available at the time. You find out how the
typical English weather nearly washed the whole tournament out, how the
location was chosen and how the dress rehearsal had to go ahead without the
costumes!
If you don't have this beautiful book in your collection already, it
is not difficult to track down. It turns
up from time to time on eBay and other such online auction and marketplace sites. It genuinely makes for a fascinating read,
is well illustrated, colourful, and gives a superb insight
into the making of an epic outside broadcast.
It is also worth noting that the Grand Knockout Tournament
spawned not one but two books (three if you count the Souvenir Programme,
which can be
downloaded from JSFnetGB) - and you can
read about the other here too -
The
Grand Knockout Tournament.
by Alan Hayes |
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