Toby Charles

Toby Charles (* 1940 in Wales ) is a former British football commentator.

Toby Charles was a trained teacher but was dissatisfied with his professional situation. During a cricket tour through Devon and Cornwall in 1960 he met a young woman from Cologne who suggested that he move to Cologne. He arrived there at the end of 1960 and initially also worked as a teacher for English and sports. In 1962 he successfully applied as a commentator for the English program of Deutsche Welle . With German radio listeners he achieved cult status as "England correspondent" for the program Sport und Musik des Westdeutscher Rundfunks (WDR), in which he reported on the results of the British leagues in a telephone conversation with moderators Kurt Brumme or Dietmar Schott - supposedly - from England regularly submitted a weather report from the island. In November 1984, Der Spiegel revealed that Charles was not even sitting in England, but in a studio in Cologne-Marienburg , a few kilometers from WDR. He obtained the necessary information himself from the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS). His contributions were immediately canceled and editor-in-chief Brumme was suspended for a short time.

Toby Charles was the presenter of the soccer show Soccer Made in Germany of the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) from 1976 to 1988 . The program was broadcast weekly on Saturdays, lasted an hour and was produced by Deutsche Welle . At that time it offered the only opportunity for Americans to see football on television, "and it taught those same Americans how to pronounce Moenchengladbach" (dt. = "[...] and it taught the same Americans how to 'Mönchengladbach' pronounces ").

Toby Charles is married for the fourth time. He is a great cousin of Welsh national soccer players John and Mel Charles . Today Charles lives alternately in Wales, Florida and Kerpen.

Individual evidence

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Charles, Toby
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British sports presenter on the radio
DATE OF BIRTH	1940
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wales

[1] Interview with Toby Charles on epltalk v. November 20, 2007

[2] Very windy. WDR specialty in football coverage: the British telephone trick on spiegel.de v. November 19, 1984

[3] How Toby Charles rocked the radio listeners. The Felix Krull of the WDR on 11freunde.de v. November 18, 2011

[4] Breaking News: Toby Charles Interview on epltalk.com v. November 17, 2007

[5] Soccer On Tv Not Such An Oddity Anymore on sun-sentinel.com v. November 30, 2003

[6] Interview with Toby Charles on epltalk v. November 20, 2007