Ski Sunday

History of Ski Sunday

Since its inception in 1978, Ski Sunday was introduced as part of the Sunday Grandstand. Ron Pickering and David Vine originally presented the iconic show. Viewers have always been captivated by the programme’s magnificent scenery and perilous exploits of the downhill skiers.

The show has not always followed the same structure, creatively experimenting with varied formats and timeslots. The early versions covered more general winter sports content. Following the mixed reviews of the 2008 season, with the BBC acknowledging that ‘ski racing fans wanted more of the action and our new viewers wanted more adventure’. Therefore, the subsequent 2009 season was divided into two programmes: Ski Sunday and High Altitude, with Ski Sunday covering the ski racing and High Altitude covering mountain adventure.

From 2010, High Altitude was dropped, and Ski Sunday became a standalone programme for half an hour each week. The show has continued with this format since these changes, featuring alpine ski racing season combined with occasionally featured segments on alternative winter sports such as Crashed Ice Downhill Skating and snowboard events.

Ski Sunday has showcased some big names in the winter sports industry, such as Jenny Jones (who has done some presenting on Ski Sunday), Chemmy Alcott, Dave Ryding, Mikaela Shiffrin and Billy Morgan. Chemmy Alcott took over from Graham Bell for the 2020/21 series while he appeared on Dancing On Ice.

Ski Sunday theme tune

The distinctive theme tune of Ski Sunday is called Pop Looks Bach by the late English composer-pianist, Sam Fonteyn. The memorable music has also been used as a theme tune for BBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics until the 2006 Games. The theme music was recorded in 1970. In 2018 to celebrate Ski Sunday turning 40 years old, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra put on a special performance of the iconic theme tune.

BBC Philharmonic perform the Ski Sunday theme

Ski Sunday Presenters

Graham Bell

Former Winter Olympian skier, Graham Bell. Highlights of Bell’s career include taking on the Arctic Circle Race; a 260km cross-country skiing race in Greenland; and surviving a night in a snow-hole without food, water or sleeping bag. He has presented Ski Sunday since 2002 and was part of the team when Ski Sunday won a Royal Television Society award in 2002.

Ed Leigh

Ed got his first taste of snowboarding working in a snowboard shop names Noah’s Ark, before spending five years snowboarding in Val d’Isere. Leigh has had a long-running career in the media, focussing mainly on winter sport. Leigh became co-presenter of Ski Sunday alongside Graham Bell, following his vivacious commentary of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Jenny Jones

Jenny Jones is the most prolific professional snowboarder in the UK. In 2014 she won the Bronze medal at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, making her the first Brit to win an Olympic medal in a snow event. Throughout 2016 and 2017, Jones landed a role guest presenting Ski Sunday on BBC2.