The thermometer was doing a war dance. There was no breath left in anyone. The players came off arm in arm.

They knew they had fashioned something of which to be proud. Well, welcome to it was what it was with me, Rob Draper and with Jonathan Wilson.

That was Geoffrey Green in the Times on Arsenal 4, Manchester United 5, 1st of February, 1958.

The last game that the great Busby-Babe side played in England, the great Manchester

United side of

1958. I guess an indication of how brilliant they were before they obviously flew off to Europe

and would eventually several of them die in the Munich Air disaster of 1958. And we're beginning

a three-part series on that disaster because we think it's not only important to remember

because of the personal tragedy of the people involved

but also the shaping of Manchester United as a football club

and the modern European game

so much is imbued in this moment

and so much of what we know of football

and begins with this terrible tragedy.

And of course this is part one of the three-part history, but do go back and listen to the

introduction to this series, which Gary Neville did a couple of days ago, just an extraordinary

talk with Gary Neville about the history of resonance of this tragedy.

So Jonathan, perhaps you could just introduce us to the themes of who were the Buzzby Babes.

Why did people think they were so good?

And how does this disaster come to have such a magnified role in the history of football?

Yeah, I mean, this series, it's in three parts.

So today's part, we're really going to be talking about who were the babes. The second part, we're talking about the crash itself, and the third part, we're talking about the aftermath and legacy. So I think maybe the best place to start discussing who the babes were is to talk about that, that game at Highbury, Arsenal 4, Manchester United 5, which obviously is a ridiculous scoreline.

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