When Ali Came to Britain

This one hour documentary on ITV1 marks the 70th birthday of the world's most famous living sportsman - Muhammad Ali - by looking at his five-decade relationship with Britain. It hears from the people who met Ali during his many visits to the country he came to love and which came to love him...from the 17 year old boxer who found himself sparring against the World Champion live on TV to the superfan who became a close friend of the superstar after campaigning for Ali when he was banned from boxing in the 1960’s. The programme also hears from Angelo Dundee, Ali’s trainer, who was in his corner for all of his UK fights, from British boxers Brian London and Richard Dunn who faced Ali in the ring, and from the children of his first British opponent - and later close friend - Henry Cooper. The documentary calls upon rare footage of Ali’s visits to Britain as well as previously unseen home movie footage of the former Heavyweight Champion in this country. Muhammad Ali first visited Britain in 1963 to take on British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper. We hear how 'Henry’s Hammer' felled Ali in the fourth round and find out about the great controversies of this fight – from the 'fixed' weigh-in to Ali's split glove and the final word on whether Angelo Dundee used banned smelling salts to help his man recover from that famous knock down. Ali was to fight two more bouts in Britain – a second fight against Henry Cooper and a mismatch against Brian London who speaks of his regret at not having a go at the World Champion, “I thought 'don’t get hurt, Brian' so I didn’t try - which was wrong, totally wrong. I wish I could live my life again” Meanwhile, Yorkshireman Richard Dunn tells us what it was like to face Ali at his peak – and of the hero’s welcome he received back in Bradford after he had been soundly beaten. We hear of the support Britain provided when Ali faced jail in the US for refusing conscription and of the lifelong friendship that formed with fan Paddy Monaghan as a consequence. Ali went on to make more than a dozen visits to Paddy’s home on an ordinary Oxfordshire estate – visits we see on never before broadcast home video. In the 1970’s Ali became a superstar in the UK. TV presenter Dickie Davies recalls the prime time television show he hosted with the champion and we hear from the young man who was plucked from the audience for a sparring session. In 1977 Ali visited Newcastle on a charity trip. Leslie Close was a teenager at the time and he tells us about how he put Ali on the back foot in the boxing ring during his time on Tyneside. Mohamed Hussein talks about trying to guard the door when Ali and his wife had their marriage blessed at his South Shields mosque and thousands of people turned up to see the most famous man on the planet. As Ali’s health worsened his visits to Britain became less frequent. Muhammad Ali made his last trip here in 2009 and we hear from Ricky Hatton about what it was like to meet him at his gym in Hyde.