Sue Barker has admitted A Question of Sport was her “dream job” but that she wouldn’t return to the show if the opportunity ever arose.
The 68-year-old presenter was dropped from the BBC show three years ago as the quiz programme underwent a re-brand.
Last December, the BBC announced that after 50 years, A Question of Sport would no longer be in production.
The broadcaster cited “inflation and funding challenges” as the reason for the show’s axe, which came not long after the programme was re-launched with a new host and new captains.
As part of the 2021 new look, long-term host Barker and captains Matt Dawson, 51, and Phil Tufnell, 58, were replaced by Paddy McGuinness, Sam Quek and Ugo Monye.
Viewing figures slumped following the change, with the show officially cancelled last year.
Sue Barker and A Question of Sport co-star Phil Tufnell starred in the BBC show for years
PA
When asked recently about the show, Barker admitted that while she would be “tempted” to return if she was ever asked to, the “right decision is no”.
The former tennis pro explained the gig had been her “dream job” for 24 years, stating: “I would be amazingly tempted.
“I’d be tempted [with] A Question Of Sport, I’d be tempted to [also] go back to Wimbledon, but I know that the right decision is no,” she stated on the Monday Mile with Aimee Fuller podcast.
“The right decision for me is no and the right decision for the programme is no, but if I was 20-30 years younger, I’d jump at it, absolutely,” The Daily Express reported.
“I loved it, but everybody has their time, my time was then. It’s time for someone else to take the baton and really enjoy it. As much as I’d love to go back, I know that it’ll never happen.”
Sue Barker shared her thoughts on BBC’s A Question of Sport following its axe
BBC
She also admitted she was “disappointed” at the show’s ending because new athletes will miss out on the experience of appearing on the show.
However, she also teased a new project involving her former A Question Of Sport colleagues for a theatre tour.
“It’s early stages yet, but we’re hoping to do a theatre tour in a sports quiz next year in 2025,” she spilled.
“So we’re sort of hoping we’ll be able to do that. Fingers crossed, it’ll be good to get the gang back together.”
Detailing her closeness with her former co-stars, she gushed: “Matt and I go back so many years because he joined in like 2004, so we were together for 16 plus years.
Sue Barker reflected on her BBC A Question of Sport career
Getty
“And then Tuffers, at least 12 years, so there is an amazing bond there and we have our own little WhatsApp group, we keep in touch.”
Opening about her the shock replacements previously, Barker once admitted “the BBC could’ve handled it better”.
She explained on BBC Breakfast in 2022: “They [BBC] wanted to refresh the programme and that’s absolutely fine. So we knew it was going to happen and it was just the way in which it happened and the way it was handled, and the way I think the BBC wanted me to say that I was walking away from it.
“And yet, I’d never walk away from a job I loved. I didn’t mind being replaced. Absolutely fine. That happens. But it was just the way it was handled.”
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