Tony Green
Current revision as of 19:17, 7 March 2024
Shows
Gameshow Marathon (Bullseye episodes)
Let's Play Darts (commentator)
Showbiz Darts (commentator)
Biography
Born in Hull in 1939, Tony was a darts player and referee before the BBC invited him to be a commentator in the late 1970s. He shared commentating duties with Sid Waddell until the mid-1990s, when the sport's acrimonious split saw Sid move to Sky to commentate on Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, while Tony remained loyal to the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and thus stayed with the BBC. He effectively retired in 2016 after the Beeb lost the rights to the BDO World Championship.
He appeared in the first series of Bullseye in 1981 as a charity thrower, and proved so much better than Jim Bowen at keeping the score that he was hired as the show's scorer from the second series onwards. By the end of the show's original run in 1995, he and Jim had formed their own double act, and his catchphrases had become just as memorable as Jim's ("Iiiiiiin one!", "Take yer time", etc.). He reprised his role for the 2006 Challenge revival, and for the Gameshow Marathon one-offs in 2005 and 2007.
He died on 4 March 2024, aged 85.