Superstars

The programme which mixed an all-round sporting test with one the all-time great theme tunes.

Kevin Keegan leads the field in a steeplechase

About the show

"So Geoff Capes, you might be the world's strongest man, but how good are you at clay pigeon shooting?". A staple of BBC light entertainment in the 1970s, Superstars is just as famous for a theme tune still used today by American TV to introduce NFL games.

The idea was simple - take several sports stars and challenge them not only in their specialist sport, but also in ones that they might not have taken part in... Which gave the insurance companies a hell of a fright once they saw Kevin Keegan's attempts at cycling on a cinder track (think you can guess what happens!).

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Our featured presentation

By the end of the 1970s, Superstars had grown so popular that it had developed a team event. In a radical - and daring - development, the tiebreaker of this intense battle between a team of star footballers and Britain's best athletes ends with a tug of war.

Spoiler alert - Geoff Capes is on the athletes side... Almost as iconic as Tom Stoltman saving a penalty at Soccer Aid last year.

Sadly, by the mid 1980s, getting the top stars to take part proved more and more difficult, and the appeal of watching someone who'd come third in the Surrey county show jumping at Hickstead in 1977 attempt water skiing faded rather quickly. But it was great while it lasted.

Superteams (1979)