A CLASSY NEW ERA OF DARTS ON ITV

COMMENT by Phil Lanning.

ALMOST 54 years ago, Dave Lanning walked into a pub in Exeter holding an old reel-to-reel tape recorder. 

ITV bosses had asked him to become the first-ever regular darts presenter and commentator and to do a test run at a local league event.

A few weeks later on April 29, 1972, the News of the World Championship was shown on ITV’s World of Sport in The Great Hall at the Ally Pally in front of 12,000 fans.

A whopping SEVEN MILLION watched it on the box. 

It was the moment darts became a fixture on our TV screens.

On that day Lanning was the lone commentator and reporter for the entire broadcast, lasting six hours in total. 

Fast forward to Thursday, January 28, 2026 and a new era for ITV’s darts coverage began at Arena MK with the Winmau World Masters. 

In stark contrast to those salad days of the early 70s, under the new umbrella of a Matchroom production, it was a huge team taking to the stage. 

Peter Graves fronted the show along with Dan Dawson and reporter Polly James plus pundits Wayne Mardle, Mark Webster and Chris Mason. Dawson and Mark Wilson were in the commentary positions. 

It was a big success. 

This new chapter saw darts coverage on television move up a level.

The pressure was on Matchroom to deliver. To take the reins of the ITV coverage and lose the professional class and presentation skills of Jacqui Oatley, was a massive call. 

But the acquisition of Graves is clearly a winner. He has the hallmarks of following in the footsteps of Sky’s legendary anchorman Dave Clark, with the same dulcet tones and composed authority over proceedings. 

Darts is in very safe hands with the outstanding Emma Paton on Sky Sports and Graves leading the charge at ITV.

It’s fair to say that TV viewers notoriously hate change and technical wizardry. But the introduction of the huge TV wall was genius. Dawson has slowly blossomed into becoming the voice of the sport, a real class act. His chatty magazine-style recap on play and talking points, punctuated the coverage perfectly. 

There was a strong segment on the length of points with Dawson and Mardle explaining why Luke Humphries was in the process of tweaking his darts set-up. 

With any chat actually on darts, this old cynical journalist would normally reach for the mute button. 

But it was genuinely very informative and well executed. 

The pundits were excellent. Mardle is the best in the sport, hands down. But Webster and Mason were expressive and engaging thanks to Graves moving the conversations intelligently and the use of the big TV wall. 

It was interesting that the subject of the punditry was to not just talk about the game just played but move the story on, giving the likes of Mardle, Webster and Mason the chance to explain why things were happening with players, using proper inside knowledge. 

Polly James has become the No1 reporter in the sport. Her sassy approach undoubtedly gets the best out of players who are clearly comfortable with her style and questioning. She provides the lights and shades with real aplomb.

The new MC Lewis Jones is finding his feet and doing a stern job. It’s always tough to follow a legend. Fans will get used to him in time. 

There were other nice touches. The elevated walk-on and graphics looked very cool and bringing the dancers and pyrotechnics into the Masters occasion felt like it upped the importance of the event with a gigantic leap. 

It was even noticeable that the dancers went off with two either side of the stage prior to the match starting, so they didn’t walk across the camera shot and players as they were warming up. That’s clever attention to detail. 

There was the odd blip here and there. Perhaps the only stand-out issue is the in-play scoreboard. It’s hard to read, especially to see the graphic dart that depicts who’s throw it is. But it’s a minor gripe at that. 

A lot of credit should go to Matchroom and the Head of Broadcasting Jamie Banks for making it very modern. Mardle is also a huge influence behind the scenes, he has become a real broadcasting visionary for the sport.

The coverage was bang on the money. 

Image by TAYLOR LANNING.