THE 2023 World Snooker Championship begins this weekend as players from nine different countries compete for snooker’s biggest prize at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

The tournament is now broadcast around the world, from East Asia to the Americas, but has always been most at home on the BBC.

It is one of those events that is almost bigger than the sport itself, like the World Darts Championship at Ally Pally or association football’s World Cup.

Viewers who would not watch the sport at any other time tune in for the drama, the storylines, and the skill. Its availability on the national broadcaster of the country in which it is held only adds to the sense of occasion as it builds up to the final on the May Day bank holiday.

The venue itself is part of the allure. Since it first hosted the event in 1977, the Crucible Theatre has become part of the sport. Its confined nature makes this already unique and difficult game all the more unique and difficult.

Some players thrive in the environment while others will find it difficult, almost claustrophobic, as attentive eyes loom from the pews and millions watch at the other end of the camera lenses that bear down on every shot.

And this is how the majority of snooker and sports fans will enjoy this tournament. Not at the Crucible Theatre itself, which only holds 980 spectators per session, but via the TV broadcasts.

The familiar relaxing green tablecloth that will dominate snooker fans’ screens from morning until late at night throughout the tournament was most notably brought to television by David Attenborough, when the famous natural historian was controller of BBC2 in the late 1960s.

Highlights of various tournaments had been shown in earlier years, but initial success came in the form of a tournament introduced to BBC by Attenborough called Pot Black. 

The programme featured the top snooker players of the day such as Ray Reardon, Fred Davies, Eddie Charlton and John Spencer. It was partly devised and presented by Ted Lowe, who later became known as “Whispering Ted” as he commentated on games quietly so as not to disturb the players.

It was during one Pot Black match that Lowe came out with the line: “Steve is going for the pink ball, and for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green.” This line, and the Pot Black tournament, encapsulated snooker’s aptness for colour TV but also its reliance on it.

During the ’60s and ’70s, the World Snooker Championship was still being played at different venues each year, mostly in the UK, but also at various venues in South Africa in the mid-60s and in Australia in 1975.

The success of Pot Black and the growing realisation of snooker’s natural fit for TV coincided with the World Championship finding a permanent home in Sheffield from 1977 onwards.

While Pot Black was almost game show-like in its format, the World Championship was altogether more serious. The duration of matches for the first two years at The Crucible ranged from best-of-25 frames in the early rounds to a best-of-49 frame final as opposed to Pot Black’s one or two-frame shootouts.

They might seem like marathon sessions, but even these were down from early editions of modern-era World Championships, the finals which were as long as best-of-73 frames and would continue until all frames were played even once a player had won.

The long format of the World Championship gives storylines a chance to breathe and means spectators can get to know the various characters, and there have been plenty of those over the years. 

Having occasionally shown highlights of pre-Crucible World Championships, the BBC began daily coverage in 1978 and by 1980 was showing live games on BBC2 during the day.

Just over half a century before Attenborough produced his Green Planet documentary series, he had contributed to creating the sporting equivalent.

Snooker’s green frame, broadcast via an overhead camera behind the black-spot end of the table, showcased the technicolour capacity of TV broadcasts, attracting equally colourful sponsors and characters, and indicating viewers’ desire for such a spectacle.

As many sports move towards shorter-form, more diluted versions of their games — cricket being the prime example — snooker’s marathon tournament, its test matches, remain its most popular and one of the most watched sports on TV.

The World Championship could also be seen as a form of sakte-TV — a Norwegian term meaning “slow television”. The genre became popular on Norway’s BBC equivalent, NRK, and sees the broadcast of prolonged events such as full train journeys, a day’s fishing, and live streams of tidal currents.

Snooker isn’t quite as slow as some of these programmes, but for the two weeks the World Championship takes place in Sheffield, if you turn on BBC2, or especially and more recently, Eurosport, you will be met with the familiar green baize and the eight different colours on it.

The sometimes sparse commentary is also a welcome contrast to other sports where there is constant talking over the action. At times during the snooker, it can be easy to forget the TV is still on. Then, a player will fire a long red that rattles the corner pocket, producing applause from the Knowledgeable Crucible Crowd, as commentator and former World Champion Dennis Taylor would call them, and it’s back in the room.

From the opening bars of “Drag Racer” by the Doug Wood Band (albeit an unfortunately remixed version) today, to the closing montage in May, the World Snooker Championship is a sporting serial like no other.