Live from The Crucible: Sunset+Vine makes the first subtle changes of many for its ongoing production of the snooker World Championship for BBC Sport

Sunset+Vine’s Scotland and London teams are working together to produce the 2025 World Championship, which is the pinnacle of British snooker

This weekend, live from The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, Sunset+Vine’s Scotland and London teams are working together to produce the 2025 World Championship, which is the pinnacle of British snooker.

Taking place from 19 April to 5 May, Sunset+Vine Scotland is first to the table with 19 days of coverage of the World Championship led by executive producer and head of Sunset+Vine Scotland, Grant Philips. He and his team will be producing coverage for BBC Sport and Channel 5.

‘The Worlds’ is Sunset+Vine’s third snooker event of the season – following the UK Championship and the Masters – in the first year of its three year deal with the BBC. It took over the contract from IMG.

Speaking to SVG Europe, Philips says on filling IMG’s shoes for this prestigious event: “One of the big challenges is following anybody that’s produced it for 20 odd years is a big task, a huge task. So I’m pleased to say that first two events, the UK Championships and the Masters, have gone well and backed up a lot of the things that we said we would do, but there’s no doubt the biggest challenge lies ahead.

“The World Championships is the biggest and longest event. We just have enough time to sleep and then we’re back on air. So it’s a huge undertaking just simply putting it on the TV to a discerning audience, and trying to make the coverage seamless so that viewers don’t really notice it has a new production company. That is the big biggest task of all. So we’ve done OK in the first two events, so let’s hope we manage it at the World Championships.”

Changes afoot

Despite making the transition between production companies seamless so that viewers at home do not notice any major differences, changes are afoot that make the production Sunset+Vine’s. Working with the BBC, Sunset+Vine has started making subtle tweaks to the production and the look of the output.

Philips explains: “It’s a new production for us, of course, so it’s important that we give it the Sunset+Vine feel. Changing it too much would probably be unnecessary, if I’m brutally honest. But we have made quite a lot of subtle changes.

“We modernised some production techniques to our style and our standard,” continues Philips. “The first thing that we looked at was the airtime and how can we be on air longer and give the viewers a better experience. Every ball is now potted across all of BBC’s multichannels, 1, 2, 4, and iPlayer website. The matches will finish live on BBC 4 in the evenings most days. So we’ve increased the on air time. And we’ve given it a brand new look and feel around how the set is, and the graphic design, and that kind of thing. So there have been quite a lot of changes already and nobody’s really picked us up on anything, which is good.

He continues on working with the BBC: “It’s making the most of the games and how we look at it together. Most of the priorities now are around how people consume sport and TV differently than they used to, so it’s just about making [this production] as successful to as many people as possible and trying not to make it too technical, but technical enough to satisfy the viewers.

“The BBC have had a huge part of it. We talk if not every day, certainly every week in the buildup. And Phil Bigwood [BBC Sport executive producer for football and snooker] is our BBC point of contact and he’s been really super helpful; you would think it’s just putting the snooker on the telly and chatting in the gaps, but it is a very complex production over many, many hours and many, many days. So he’s been super helpful and really involved us with all aspects of the BBC and introduced us to all the relevant people and thus far it’s been a very seamless transition.”

On the technologies being used in the production, Philips states that the cameras have been a key focus, adding that, “budget of course is a big factor in upscaling cameras”. He goes on: “For the snooker in the auditorium the players need total silence, certainly when they’re over the ball,” which has made finding perfectly silent cameras a goal. The team is using Sony HDC/2500 cameras, and the operators work in silence, with the cue lights switched off on external heads.

New vision

Overall, Sunset+Vine has concentrated on making differences through its crewing for 2025. One of those crew members that is set to make a differences is well-known football director, Jamie Oakford, who has in the past directed snooker but is bringing his eye for a slightly larger and singular ball, to the snooker table for the World Championship.

Says Philips: “We’ve gone with experience. It’s a great blend of technology and people. How we’ve attacked it is to try and provide the best crews and directors. Jamie Oakford, for example, is a director and he’s one of the world’s best directors, he tells me,” laughs Philips. “We’ve tried to bring experience [to the Snooker Championship] but also a different look through the way we’ve staffed it.”

Philips adds that there is friendly competition between the directors on getting that maximum break shot on screen: “I am actually directing as well, and we’ve got one of our chaps, Craig Coughlan from our office in Glasgow who’s becoming a bit of a multisport expert and he’s a huge snooker fan. In fact, both Jamie and Craig have directed at the first two events, and they both managed to cover a 147 [maximum break] each. So they’ve got a healthy competition going there on who leads that table and both of them are not shy about letting me know that I haven’t directed a 147. So that’s maybe something will happen in Sheffield for us.”

Philips says directing snooker is a somewhat longer gig that directing a football game, yet he points to two members of the Sunset+Vine team in particular as embracing the long gameplay.

“Alison Witkover is our lead producer and she’s done snooker forever,” he says. “She crossed from IMG to us and she’s been amazing. She knows everything, which is great. And our production manager is Mary Clarke who also warrants a shout, because she is there at the start and leaves at the end, and her coordinator, Lucy Clark; the two of them literally don’t move from their seats unless we make them. Snooker demands full attention, and that’s what we’ll give it.”

People queuing to get into the World Championship 2024 at The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

Teamwork makes the dream work

Cloudbass is working with Sunset+Vine as its technical services provider for the OBs required. Says Philips: “They’ve been absolutely brilliant. This is another big change for us because we changed OB supplier and Cloudbass has been absolutely brilliant with their attention and their interest in the sport. They’ve been absolutely outstanding. This move [in technical services provider has] been a great choice, a great decision to change.”

Sustainability has also factored into the way Sunset+Vine has staffed this event, with the core of its team working remotely from its base in Glasgow, Scotland.

Says Philips: “Obviously sustainability plays a big part in all of our thoughts and we’re logging the matches this season from our Glasgow base. So I don’t know if that’s necessarily been done before, but it’s our way of dealing with that the best we can; a lot less people travelling.”

On the on-screen teams, Philips comments: “So Hazel Irvine is back with us. Rishi Persad starts the day and Seema Jaswal is with us again. So a very similar front three if you like.” He adds on the on-screen reporters, “Shabnam Younus-Jewell is new to us this season – she’s done great – and Abigail Davies is back”.

As well as a solid line up of expert commentators, snooker players actually participating in the competition will be on screen, discussing their rivals’ play. Says Philips: “We’ve got Shaun Murphy who won the Masters with us as well, but he’s playing too, so we’ll have to suit his schedule. Another big driver of what we’re trying to achieve is have the big named players as part of our pundit team. So we had, for example, at the Masters, the two guys in the final had been our pundits, so we called it the ‘Pundits Final,’ and we’ll continue to do that, try and speak to the biggest players and hear their thoughts. [Snooker players] Mark Allen joins us most of the time, and Kyren Wilson a lot as well.”

After a two day reset following the World Championship, the London team, led by executive producer Titus Hill, will provide coverage of the 5 day Seniors World Championship for Channel 5.

The BBC’s coverage of The Worlds will feature across BBC One, Two, Four and iPlayer while Channel 5 will broadcast on 5 and 5ACTION.

Sunset+Vine crew and BBC Sport talent for the World Championship

Production Team:

Executive Producer – Grant Philips

Senior Producer – Alison Witkover

Production Manager – Mary Clarke

Technical Director – Mark Dennis

Production Coordinator – Lucy Clark

Match Directors – Jamie Oakford, Craig Coughlan, Grant Philips

On Screen Team:

Hazel Irvine (Saturday 19 April – Monday 5 May)

Seema Jaswal (Saturday 19 April – Saturday 3 May)

Rishi Persad (Sunday 20 April to Saturday 3 May)

Reporters:

Abigail Davies (Saturday 19 April to Monday 5 May)

Shabnam Younus-Jewell (Sunday 20 April to Wednesday 23 April)

Commentators and Guests:

Steve Davis

Ken Doherty

Stephen Hendry

Shaun Murphy

John Parrott

Dennis Taylor

John Virgo

+ guest commentators