Stunning footage on the wonderful 1952 show - I actually remember the excitement; no matter how times have changed that makes Usain Bolt look boring.

I remember Chris Chattaway (he went on to be an MP I think).

Yep, Rog woz BIG at Helsinki '52 'limp-pics, but May '54 at Oxford Iffley track woz where and when he broke the 4-min mile (3m 59.4) with pacemen including later London Marathon-man Brasher and later Tory M.P. Chatter-away. In the increasingly metric millenium is there stll an Imperial mile race?

We always thought true Brit gent Harrow-born Rog woz a bit like an athletic version of True-Brit gent Davie Atten-Borough Of Beeb.

Here's a wise take on the meeja-manipulation of the day then-as-now. "The claim that a 4-minute mile was once thought to be impossible by informed observers was and is a widely propagated myth created by sportswriters and debunked by Bannister himself in his memoir, 'The Four Minute Mile' (1955). The reason the myth took hold was that four minutes was a nice round number which was slightly better (1.4 seconds) than the world record for nine years, longer than it probably otherwise would have been because of the effect of World War II in interrupting athletic progress in the combatant countries."

Plus ce change.

I've been watching the 1952 Show this week. No school until after Easter. I've found it more fascinating than watching a normal documentary, and the host is really cool.

And of course he ran it just a few yards from where I spend my working days here in Oxford.