The world's greatest bike race as seen from the air. "How beautiful France is, viewed from the air! France with its countryside and its cities. France with its magnificent monuments and its hidden treasures, its churches, and its old villages. The Tour de France was created in 1903 and popularised through the radio, but television without doubt was what gave it real prominence. Today, the spectacular scenery of the event is filmed using the latest camera technology, capturing the beauty of the surroundings in which the world s greatest bike race is set. In 1948 the first live outside broadcast took place, the arrival at the Parque des Princes filmed using simple fixed camera positions. Then cars were introduced, swiftly followed by mobile cameras and helicopters, which capture the wonderful pictures which we admire every July. Finally, the introduction of high definition in 2007 allowed superb quality pictures to be beamed around the world.
Eddie Izzard takes on the challenge of his life for Sport Relief. As a personal homage to the 27 years that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, Eddie Izzard is going to run 27 marathons across South Africa in 27 days. Starting out in Mandela's birthplace, the remote Eastern Cape, Eddie is going to tell the story of the great man’s life by running to the key places that shaped and made him one of the greatest figures of our time. From humble villages to rural university towns, and on to Cape Town and the fearsome Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned for so many years, Eddie will follow Mandela's life all the way to the Parliament Building in Pretoria where he became the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
Roger Willoughby is considered to be a leading expert on sports fishing. He's written books on the subject and is loved by his customers in the sporting goods department at Abercrombie and Fitch, where he works. There's only one problem however: he's never been fishing in his life. When the store owner enters him in a fishing contest, mayhem ensues.