This episode is the first in a three-part series examining the lasting importance of the 1986 Tour de France, 40 years on.

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In 1986, Channel 4 – a relatively new station – broadcast nightly highlights of the Tour de France for the first time in Britain.

From the opening refrain of Pete Shelley's brilliant theme tune, the studio set with its view of a Soho street in central London, the Tour coverage left a huge impression on anyone who saw it. The half-hour show took viewers on the perfect summer road trip around France. The commentary sounded like it was coming to us from the future. It ushered us in, night after night, explaining this strange sport's history, customs and etiquette gradually before leaving us bereft on the Champs-Élysées until the next summer.

In this episode, Graham Willgoss speaks to Phil Liggett, the commentator when the Tour first hit British screens. And Lionel Birnie talks to James Venner, the son of Brian Venner, who was responsible for putting cycling on TV in the UK. James later spent more than two decades working as a producer on the ITV coverage of the Tour.

We hear how the Tour captured our hearts in '86, created the first great cycling boom in Britain, led eventually to live coverage of not just the Tour but many other races and also inspired a generation of journalists and writers, including, in many ways our KM0 episodes.

This episode was produced by Adam Bowie. Artwork by Lionel Birnie, featuring the old Channel 4 title imagery.

Join Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss for a three-week adventure taking them from Barcelona to Paris, following the 2026 Tour de France.

The Cycling Podcast has covered the Tour with daily episodes recorded at the heart of the world’s biggest race. Our nightly episodes recap the stage action with analysis, interviews and plenty of French flavour.

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In episode four of our series taking you behind the scenes of Paul Seixas’s début Tour, we begin with a trip down memory lane, to 1987, when another young Frenchman carried the hopes of the nation. Jean-François Bernard was his name, and we meet him in the fourth instalment of Ça Revient.

Other interviewees in this episode include Tour boss Christian Prudhomme, Seixas’s coach Alexandre Pacot, his all-terrain bodyguard Tiesj Benoot – and of course Seixas himself.