Lee Mack

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.

1994 World Cup

I was working at a posh hotel on the west coast of Scotland as a summer job with my wife, well she was my girlfriend then, we were students together, well I was a mature student. I was absolutely inept at serving people in the restaurant, so they gave me gardening duties. That meant I only worked nine until five, so I was watching the World Cup every night. Because England were not in it, it was quite nice as you were not setting your expectations too high.

1998 World Cup

I was supposed to do a gig in a pub on the night of the Argentina match, and luckily nobody turned up! Sol Campbell scored and it was disallowed. Everybody thought, 'that's it, we're through... hang on, how come they're still playing?' That realisation in a pub is even worse because you don't know what is going on, it's mayhem. With all due respect, when David Batty went up for his penalty, it was the same with Gareth Southgate at Euro 96, the phrase that you never want to hear, ever, is, 'it's his first penalty for his country'. I watch every World Cup match, but for some bizarre reason I missed the first half of the final between France and Brazil. I ended up watching Jerry Seinfeld in London. It was a one-off opportunity and tickets were like gold dust. My girlfriend worked on the show, so I had a ticket, watched the show and then absolutely raced to the pub to watch the second half.

2002 World Cup

I got up at the crack of dawn with another comedian called John Oliver and we were driving in my Nissan Figaro, they were very rare at the time, everybody has got one now! We had the top down and a big England flag at six o'clock in the morning going to watch the Brazil quarter-final. I had booked a plane and I had someone working on a ticket for the semis and the final. I had put a bet on England to reach the semis, so had we qualified it would have basically been a free trip to the World Cup as it would have worked out that I would have won enough money from the bet to pay for the flights and the match ticket. But we got knocked out 2-1. David Beckham jumped out of a tackle and that led to Brazil equalising before Ronaldinho scored that free-kick.

2006 World Cup

That was the first World Cup that I went to. I watched the first game against Paraguay and then I went back to watch the quarter-final against Portugal. My main memory is how hot it was. I might be wrong, but the stadium had a roof and they kept it closed! I had just started my sit-com, 'Not Going Out', and I went to Germany with Tim Vine, who is also in the show. It was so hot. I remember thinking in the penalties, 'we'll be alright now' but in the end it was awful. I did a TV interview and they told us that if we waited after the game they would give us a lift back. Tim, another mate and I ended up sat on the grass outside the stadium waiting for a lift home for hours with a horrible feeling that that was it for the World Cup for another four years.