Des Lynam on his World Cup memories - from Pavarotti to Paris via a tricky night in Naples

Perhaps we should have sensed all would not be quite as comfortable as those of us watching from England were expecting it to be.

There in the heat of Naples was the usually cool and composed Des Lynam losing his chain of thought as he introduced the quarter-final against Cameroon.

It was the World Cup of 1990 and Des and England were enjoying the time of their lives.

Des tripped up for about five seconds but recovered smoothly.

England did likewise after trailing 2-1, eventually winning 3-2 thanks to the man who would replace Des on the BBC mic, Gary Lineker.

It is one of the first things Des tells you about when you ask the Brighton broadcasting legend about the World Cup.

He had done World Cups before. He commentated from northern Spain in 1982 as back-up to the A team of John Motson and Barry Davies.

He was in the London studio for Mexico ’86 and generally still at base for Italia ’90.

But the present day norm of programmes being presented from the host nation was just catching on.

Des told The Argus: “I went to Rome for Ireland against Italy and then to Naples and had a bit of a disaster “They moved our position just before we went live on air.

“The I got a word in my ear from our producer and that upset me again.

“I was thrown for ten seconds. It seemed like a lifetime.

“I think if I watched it back I’d watch it from behind the sofa.

“I was shaking for a bit, I can tell you!”

Which is news in itself because we thought Des was never shaken.

But he was as stirred to delight or despair as anyone else as he watched the big matches alongside the studio pundits.

He might have looked composed but he said: “I was as emotionally involved as everybody.

“After we lost to West Germany in 1990, I was bitterly disappointed and I said something at the end of the broadcast which reflected that as far as the public were concerned.”

Des is known for his classic opening and closing lines.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” when England played a daytime match at France ’98.

Or “Half the country are watching tonight, what are the other half doing?”

And the simple “Cue Luciano”, to end the 1990 coverage and go into a set of images you can still find on YouTube, featuring Gazza’s tears, Big Jack, Roger Milla, Jim Leighton kicking the goalpost – the lot.

Luciano was, of course, Pavarotti. The BBC’s choice of his Nessun Dorma as their title music set the tone for the Italian summer.

Des said: “My girlfriend Rose, now my wife, came up with the idea of using Pavarotti. We were listening to it at home.

“We had never used a vocal before. The BBC told us you couldn’t use a vocal.

“But the difference with this was no one could understand it.

“They were totally unreceptive but they eventually realised it had something.

“It was only after we had used it for a while that we realised it meant None Shall Sleep, which was appropriate.

“I thought it sounded pretty good but I actually favoured O Sole Mio at first. But Nessun Dorma just fitted.

“Decca, who were in charge of his recordings in the UK at the time, sent me a tape with the song on it but the tape broke the first time I put it on in the car.

“But I got to a Three Tenors concert in LA four years later during the 1994 World Cup.”

But what of Italia 90? In many ways it wasn’t a great World Cup.

The final was a shocker and negative football that summer led in part to the advent of the backpass rule two years later.

But, for the English, it was special and Des was part of it.

He said: “Because England were doing so well and we had so many stories I just remember it as a wonderful time. We had a good panel and I was pretty relaxed and was performing pretty well so I enjoyed it.

“For me, 1990 stands out because England did well and 1998 because we presented from Paris.

“Nowadays they present the whole thing from on site.

“We started that in 1998. We had a great view of the centre of Paris.

“It was a joy to be there and we had a great panel - Hansen and McCoist and people like that.

“We had David Ginola on our panel and he was piqued by the fact he had been dropped from the French squad.

“He actually dropped off to sleep during one of the France matches.

“But he was a joy be with. A charming guy and a lovely fella.

“What you gain by being there is the fact the pundits don’t just do studio work. They go to a match one day and do the studio the next.

“They get the feel of it more than they would sitting in London and I don’t think the cost is much different.”

Des didn’t cue Luciano or anyone else to close that World Cup.

Instead, his own reading of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If, over strong images including the young Michael Owen, brought down the curtain.

“It was my idea to do it. We had always used a piece of music but it’s one of my favourite poems.

“It occurred to me that it was appropriate because of the Owen goal (against Argentina) and David Beckham’s little kick.

“We got some actors to do it and they were very theatrical.

“Niall Sloane was the editor at the time. He’s now head of sport at ITV.

“He said: ‘We need a more common voice. You’re common Des, you do it’. They put some pictures to it and it worked.

“There was a good response to it, so much so that the poetry and music department asked me to record it.

“I recorded that and 19 other poems, one of which I wrote myself, and it sold very well. I’m very proud of it.”

Another string was thus added to the bow of the man who started out on BBC Radio Brighton.

All that was missing was the wise choice of words for an England win in a major final.

The closest they got were semi-finals in 1990 and Euro ‘96 (the night of Des’s ‘You’ve obviously heard there’s a football match on’ line).

He never allowed himself to think of what his glorious pay-off line might have been.

“I’d have thought about it if it had ever happened,” he said. “I would have tried to underplay it with words and yet underlining it at the same time.

“That’s what I liked to do.”