Television companies keep a “vault” of shows that were never broadcast due to censorship or concerns about quality. Perhaps the BBC’s archive will now include the pre-production papers for last weekend’s Match of the Day shows, which would have been prepared before Gary Lineker was taken off air and his colleagues refused to appear.
Those shows don’t strictly belong in a history of unseen TV as they did go out, more or less (mainly less). The nearest equivalent is the live MotD from 1977 in which the great commentator John Motson, who died last month, got his big chance – a debut FA Cup Final commentary – because David Coleman, the Lineker of his day, had been taken off air in a dispute with BBC Sport over his contract.
