40 years ago on Valentine’s Day, if you were to tune into the Winter Olympics on TV in Sarajevo to see Torvill & Dean skate their Bolero, depending on where you lived, you’d either be watching the American coverage, the British coverage, or this, the coverage for the rest of the world (with your own commentator) via the feed of the Yugoslavian host broadcaster JRT.

The BBC had chosen to use this feed for their coverage of the compulsories and the Original Set Pattern, as well as the majority of the Free Dance. However, when it came to Torvill and Dean, they made the special choice to use their own handheld camera to broadcast the event, supposedly out of fear that the JRT coverage might falter. Ironically, this would happen a month later at the World Championships in Ottawa when a fire in the stadium delayed the event.

This represents the best quality footage of this "rest of the world" coverage that I’ve found so far, and to top it all off, there’s no commentary. Hearing the roar of the crowd naturally at the sight of 9 6.0s is such a delight.

Unfortunately this can’t go onto YouTube because the IOC block it. They have uploaded their own version however, albeit trimmed down, in low quality, and with a yellow hue that makes Jayne & Chris look like they’re skating with jaundice.

Things to look out for: Karen Barber & Nicky Slater signing autographs and the man with the microphone announcing the scores.

https://youtube.com/@dorvilltean