Lee Mack
Wednesday 19 May 2010 10:44, UK
BAFTA award-winning comedian Lee Mack gives skysports.com his favourite memories from World Cup history.
Lee Mack remembers some iconic memories from World Cup history
Comedian Lee Mack is currently in the middle of his sold-out 'Going Out' stand-up tour and, due to incredible popularity, additional dates have been added. Tickets are available for shows at the famous Hammersmith Apollo on 11th and 12th May, while extra shows have also been scheduled in June and November. BAFTA-winner Mack also has a popular sitcom, 'Not Going Out', which is available to buy on DVD and he is one of the stars of the panel show, 'Would I Lie To You?'World Cup memories
1978 World Cup final - Holland v Argentina
I was in Spain and it is the first time I remember watching the World Cup. Everyone was supporting Argentina in Spain because of the Latin link, but I supported Holland to be different. Argentina won 3-1 and Mario Kempes scored twice.
1982 World Cup
It was a weird tournament where you played in two groups, with the second stage like a round robin with three teams in each group. We needed to beat Spain in the last match of the second group, but drew 0-0. Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking came on in the second half and I remember thinking it was all too late. That tournament was also when we first started having parties at my house. We were having a party during Scotland's match against Brazil. Scotland were winning for a while and we were trying to turn the music off and watch the television, but everybody was saying, 'you can't do that, this is supposed to be a party!'
1986 World Cup
It was probably the loudest I ever cheered for a goal when Gary Lineker pulled one back to make it 2-1 against Argentina in the quarter-final. Just for a few minutes, we had a chance. John Barnes changed the game after coming on as a substitute and set up the goal before doing exactly the same a few minutes later and Lineker missed. People say now that Diego Maradona's Hand of God was a complete miscarriage of justice, but I don't remember anyone at the time saying immediately, 'that was handball'. I just thought, 'Shilton'. Peter Shilton should have got to it!
1990 World Cup
That is probably my most memorable World Cup in terms of picturing myself watching it. When Lineker scored the equaliser against West Germany in the semi-finals, I just wanted to go and jump in the swimming pool. I was working at a holiday camp in Wales and my job was to organise the entertainment. They told me that we were not showing the World Cup anywhere, but once it got past the group stages, I said, 'what about one TV for the Belgium game?' Then I said, 'what about two tellies for the Cameroon match?' By the time we got to the semi-finals there were tellies everywhere.
