Tyne Tees Television reporter Alister Harrison interviews a man about a new sports centre opened at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. The man talks about the new facilities available at the centre including a surgery where people can speak with a doctor about their sports requirements. The centre is unusual in that it is based on similar centres seen by the man while visiting Hungary in the Eastern Bloc. The report was transmitted on the 11 July 1973. Outside a concrete building, reporter Alister...

Tyne Tees Television reporter Alister Harrison interviews a man about a new sports centre opened at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. The man talks about the new facilities available at the centre including a surgery where people can speak with a doctor about their sports requirements. The centre is unusual in that it is based on similar centres seen by the man while visiting Hungary in the Eastern Bloc. The report was transmitted on the 11 July 1973. Outside a concrete building, reporter Alister Harrison interviews a man about a new sports centre at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. The centre, he says, has all the facilities required of a sports centre, which includes a surgery where people can get advice from a doctor about what sports are most appropriate for them. Initially he will be the one giving advice to users. He has gained knowledge from international athletics research in sport as well as working with Dr Williams, a leading authority on sports medicine in London.  However, he hopes to establish a team consisting of a doctor, a psychiatrist and an expert in recreation to give advice to all users. Reporter Harrison says that this is an unusual idea for a centre, the idea coming from ‘behind the Iron Curtain’. The man replies that in 1971 he won the Winston Churchill Fellowship which lead to a trip to Hungary to study recreational sport. This type of sports centre is well developed there, but also established in West Germany where sports doctors are available to advise on sports injuries. The interview ends with the man saying that he hopes to improve standards and would measure the success of the centre by the number of people who use it. He believes everyone has some interest in sport.