By Elliott West
“He was also a great bloke, humble and very personable. His loss is being felt deeply by all those who knew him and worked with him.”
Jim McGrath
Introduction
I was reminded last week by Dennis Taylor when I was with him at an exhibition in Faversham of the sad loss of Stephen Docherty in May this year, passing away after a heart attack, aged just 60. A master of his craft, Stephen was a key figure at the cutting edge of snooker production for over 25 years, working for the IMG team who produce snooker for the BBC. Stephen worked on a range of sports’ production including coverage of horse racing including the Grand National, football, rugby and ITV’s coverage of the Tour de France. He is the reason why many sports’ journalists are at their desks today, a keystone of many a precarious television project but someone who stamped his mark on each production, sprinkling his ingenuity over the top of each.
The Man Himself
Steve Docherty was always well dressed for work, wearing neatly pressed clothes as he sat at his bank of monitors. What seemed like a monumental task, was just part and parcel of his various roles in live sports coverage. He relished a challenge and the word ‘impossible’ had been erased from his vocabulary. His was the calm voice in the production team’s ear, steering the production in the right direction. Steve didn’t take prisoners and for this production giant, there wasn’t a byway or highway but just a plain and simple my way. However, his way would often annoyingly be the right way. A man who could be stubborn and autocratic, a perfectionist who could spot the tiniest of mistakes to the point of a pixilated detail
A highly respected individual, Docherty left an amazing impression on all those he worked with and became part of the fabric of the BBC, ITV and Channel Four for many years. A person who could often be spotted in the background of the shot as the camera panned in on the winner and the trophy. A stickler for an original idea rather than a factual product, Docherty was fondly known by the nickname ‘Doc, an apt name for someone who could capture sporting events in their full and mesmerising glory. Steve is already missed, a character who was unique and irreplaceable.
