Princes Gate 5th May 1980

[Trevatanus]

Remember this very well, seeing it on tv, 5th May 1980 the secretive SAS were suddenly not so secret anymore.
https://youtu.be/_p4DmuGyehc

[V8fan]

I remember they interrupted the Cliff Thorburn v Alex Higgins World Snooker Final to cover it live! It was dramatic stuff.

[bloomen]

I'm the one in the balaclava but I really, really, really don't like to talk about it.

[Eric Mc]

My favourite quote from this event was Clive James' review of the news coverage in his Observer TV review column. In those days , The World Snooker Championship was sponsored by Embassy cigarettes - and quite a few of the players were often seen smoking their way through the product as they played on TV.

James made the comment that we were interrupted in watching live images of snooker players demolishing an Embassy so that we could watch live images of the SAS demolishing another.

[Tyre Smoke]

Typical dry wit of James there.

[williamp]

bloomen said:

I'm the one in the balaclava but I really, really, really don't like to talk about it.

I drove the Helicopter for Martin Shaw but hush hush, you know how it is...



This is my earliest TV memory.

[GreatGranny]

Went for a weekend in London a few weeks after it happened.

Obviously dragged my family there for a look.
The windows were boarded up and all the stonework was black above them because of the subsequent fire.

Hundreds were stood just looking at it.
Quite surreal.

[66mpg]

I made a throwaway comment on Facebook three years ago:

Snooker on the telly was interrupted to show this dramatic end to the siege. This gave rise to the line "The SAS smokes more embassies than Hurricane Higgins"

Today it got another “like”. It was quite a blast from the past.

[Eric Mc]

66mpg said:

I made a throwaway comment on Facebook three years ago:

Snooker on the telly was interrupted to show this dramatic end to the siege. This gave rise to the line "The SAS smokes more embassies than Hurricane Higgins"

Today it got another “like”. It was quite a blast from the past.

Clive James was ahead of you by 37 years.