Sport on Television

WELL FOLKS, just six days to go to the start of the greatest show on earth and, as it only comes round once every four years, you'd better be ready, writes Paul Trow.

The couch potatoes' 15-day marathon, otherwise known as the Olympic Games, begins on Saturday with the opening ceremony and BBC1 will, of course, provide live coverage from Barcelona at 5.15pm on Olympic Grandstand.

The full-colour splendour of the occasion is guaranteed although we must await its choreographic content. Will it be spacemen, doves or perhaps, given the Spanish context and the cut-throat nature of contemporary Olympic competition, a little bull-fighting number?

Certainly, for those who like their sport rare, there is some red meat lined up in the BBC's other major assignment of the week, the fourth Test at Headingley. The latest contest between England's bovine bowling attack and Pakistan's rapier-thrusting batsmen is likely to be as one-sided as this summer's previous encounters.

ITV's pre-Olympic coverage is confined to Thursday's edition of On the Line, presented by John Fashanu (7.40-8.30pm), which examines some of the issues surrounding the Games.