In May 1985, three disasters at football stadiums – St Andrew’s, Valley Parade, and Heysel – resulted in the deaths of nearly 100 fans, sending shockwaves through the British game and wider society; covering these tragic events were broadcasters John Helm, Peter Jones, Barry Davies and Mike Ingham, who were commended for their sensitivity…
The moment when a car ploughed into crowds of people at Liverpool’s Premier League trophy parade meant journalists who had come to cover a football event once again found themselves chronicling terrifying news instead.
For many, Monday’s shocking scenes on Merseyside evoked emotions felt during the darkest days of English football 40 years ago this month, when a series of tragic events completely overshadowed memories of sporting triumph.
The way journalists responded then remains an example to all today.
On Saturday, 11 May, 1985 – the final day of the domestic league season – Birmingham had been promoted from Division Two to the top flight. They defeated Leeds, but fans clashed on the pitch.
The front-page headline in the Birmingham Sports Argus was “Riot at Blues”. The paper included a photograph of a police horse on the field at St Andrews during the crowd trouble.
Ian Hambridge, a 15-year-old spectator, died when a wall collapsed during the trouble, but this was not known when the paper went to press.
Similarly, The Argus reported that 30 people had been “hurt” in a fire at Bradford on the same day.
It fell to broadcasters to tell the full story of what was another terrible tragedy.
Commentator John Helm and Yorkshire Television’s cameras were at Valley Parade because Bradford City were champions of Division Three. Highlights of the trophy presentation and their match against Lincoln City were to be screened the following night.
There was no score as half-time approached. Then Helm said very calmly: “We’ve actually got a fire in the stand on the far side of the ground and that looks very nasty indeed.”
Within moments, the fire had escalated and Helm was reporting live on ITV’s Saturday afternoon programme World of Sport.
“That is a catastrophic sight,” Helm told viewers.
Meanwhile, Pennine Radio commentator Tony Delahunty was in the stand where the fire had started. “We can see flames going up into the air. People are running all around us.
Let’s get all those people out of there, take your time, don’t rush!” Delahunty pleaded on air as flames spread with terrifying ferocity before he was forced to leave the stand for safety.
As the city remembered the tragedy earlier this month with a special church service, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus carried an interview with Helm.
“It was an event where I like to think I was sensitive to what was going on,” he reflected.
“I was very grateful that I’d had a lot of training by then. I dread the thought, if I’d just come into the profession and been thrown into that.”
Helm’s work that weekend was remarkable, conducting interviews in the aftermath, contributing to local and national news programmes, and fielding requests from across the world.
He even presented a speedway programme from Odsal Stadium the following day at the insistence of his bosses.
“He did something that was full of integrity and full of journalistic professionalism,” said match producer Robert Charles, in an award-winning ITV documentary on the fire and its aftermath titled, “Never Forget.”
A week after the Bradford fire, collections were taken before the FA Cup Final for the victims’ families and players. Spectators stood in silence.
Today we remember the 56 football fans who lost their lives 40 years ago in the Bradford City Stadium Fire. As a former player & Manager of the football club it is still heartbreaking that this disaster happened in its history. My thoughts are with all the families & fans who are… pic.twitter.com/bYoFKxV0I9
— Chris Kamara (@chris_kammy) May 11, 2025
The domestic season was over, but the European Cup Final between holders Liverpool and a star-studded Juventus was keenly anticipated. The match was to be played at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels on Wednesday, 29 May.
Eyewitnesses reported little hint of the trouble to come earlier in the day, but events had taken a chilling turn by the time BBC presenter Jimmy Hill introduced coverage from London after a light-hearted handover from the preceding programme, hosted by Terry Wogan with guest Bruce Forsyth. This was probably pre-recorded earlier before the trouble escalated.
Even so, it seemed strange that this sequence wasn’t jettisoned when the extent of the trouble in Brussels had become apparent. “It left Jimmy in the most awkward position,” reflected match commentator Barry Davies.
Instead, presenter Hill reappeared after the opening titles.
“Well, after a moment of hilarity there with Terry and Bruce, the news is very bad from Brussels. Hooliganism has struck again and the scenes are as bad as anything we have seen for a long, long time.”
The first live report by Davies from the stadium followed. “For the last 50 minutes, the Heysel Stadium has been a sickening and bewildering sight. As a result, there is serious injury and maybe worse.”
The host broadcaster showed recorded images of the fighting and the crumpled “safety” barriers on the terraces. Davies spoke of “faces of fear, frightened people who just don’t understand what has happened.”
Alongside, match summariser Bobby Charlton admitted: “I still felt very, very frightened indeed to see such scenes.”
Back in London, studio guests Terry Venables and Graeme Souness struggled to make sense of what they saw.
The television broadcast was punctuated by news bulletins. “The worst incident of its kind that has been seen in European football,” said newsreader John Humphrys.
On BBC Radio, senior commentator Peter Jones kept talking for an hour and a half with former Liverpool captain Emlyn Hughes alongside him. They described how Liverpool boss Joe Fagan, destined to retire after the match, went out to appeal for calm.
“I’ve been talking to Italian journalists who are weeping, they are so distressed, certainly there have been lives lost,“ fellow commentator Mike Ingham reported.
Many criticised UEFA for allowing the final to go ahead, while others condemned the BBC’s decision to show it.
When Jones handed to Ingham to begin radio commentary on the match, he said: “Let’s just try for you to now report on the European Cup.”
Details of the match itself are now largely forgotten. Juventus won 1-0 with a Michel Platini penalty, but as The Guardian’s David Lacey wrote, “the result seems irrelevant, the details meaningless.”
The following day, Jones reflected on Radio Four’s PM. “We’ve got to the bottom of the barrel.
“It is now evil. It was a battlefield that had nothing to do with sport. We were actually seeing people being carried out below us on stretchers.”
Jones was amongst journalistic eyewitnesses summoned to Downing Street to give their account to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The Daily Mail’s Jeff Powell was also at Number 10. On the night, he “ad libbed” copy to fill seven pages in his paper which deliberately carried no report of the actual match.
Powell described it as a “a grotesque, macabre and dehumanising experience.”
The Football Association withdrew English clubs from European competitions and two days later, UEFA announced a ban of five years.
To read, listen to or watch the coverage from 1985 is no easy task. Yet there are valuable lessons for any aspiring sports reporter on how to report such events with dignity, sensitivity and professionalism.
They are lessons which as a sports reporter, you hope will never need to be used.
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