Billy Bremner of Leeds United

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe, chooses the life of infamous Leeds United Captain, Billy Bremner. Billy Bremner played for Leeds as a midfielder from 1959 until 1976. He scored 115 goals for the team and captained them for 11 years during the most successful period in their history. 5’5”, with a mop of red hair, he was known as “ten stone of barbed wire” "Wee Billy and “Midfield Terrier”. He grew up near Stirling in a working class family, moving to Leeds at 16 to where he returned in the 80s as manager. At the time, Anand was a schoolboy in Wakefield. Before he became a Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs, he was first and foremost a Leeds fan. Anand was also at school with Telegraph journalist Rob Bagchi - author of the forthcoming biography of the club. Growing up in West Yorkshire instilled a lifelong devotion to Billy and the club in both of them - in spite of their "Dirty Leeds" reputation and the ups and downs of a team often destined to narrowly miss out on chances. "If being a Leeds fan has taught me anything, it's that anything which can go wrong, will go wrong." But there is another side to this story, both Anand and Rob are children of Indian parents. Elland Road was well known for the presence of the National Front on the terraces as they were growing up, and so Anand only saw Billy in the flesh a few times. But when Billy returned as manager in the 1980s, he went to great lengths to turn the culture of the terraces around. Presented by Matthew Parris Produced by Polly Weston

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know I also know that comedy is really
0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.2	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:41.6	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:45.0	In December 1997, hundreds of people packed into a church for a funeral,
0:51.0	which was broadcast live on the radio while speakers projected the
0:56.6	event and the commentary to thousands of mourners lining the streets
1:00.8	outside. So many people inside the church,
1:04.0	that is a process that you would expect would probably take quite some time,
1:10.0	listening to this now, it almost feels like a royal occasion or state event but it wasn't it was the funeral of former Leeds captain Billy Bremer after his sudden death from a heart attack two days before his 55th birthday.
1:27.0	The entire event was broadcast on radio leads to Billy's legions of fans while the church was full of some of
1:35.1	the greatest names in football. And now we have a short tribute to the life
1:41.8	and memory of Billy Bremer.
1:45.3	Billy Bremer has been nominated for great lives by my guest today, Professor Anand Menon, director of the Academic Think Tank, the UK in a changing Europe.
1:55.6	Do you remember where you were, Annand when you first heard about Billy's death?
1:59.4	I do, because it happens to be on the day I got married.
	...

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