Veteran broadcaster back where it all began

Steve Rider reporting for Anglia Television in 1981 when Ipswich Town won the UEFA Cup Credit: ITV Anglia

The former ITV Anglia sports reporter and veteran broadcaster Steve Rider is back in the region to launch his autobiography.

In the book the former frontman of ITV's Formula One coverage describes how he first fell in love with motorsport while covering motor racing at Snetterton in Norfolk.

While working for ITV Anglia he lived near Halesworth in Suffolk, before moving onto ITV Sport. In 1980 he worked on ITV's coverage of the summer Olympics in Moscow, as well as fronting the network's 'World Of Sport' and 'Midweek Sports Special'.

Since then he has worked as a presenter for Channel 4, Sky and the BBC, returning to ITV to present Formula One in 2006 and fronting their World Cup coverage that year.

Steve Rider's first Formula One broadcast was the 1978 race at Monza where Mario Andretti was crowned World Champion and his Lotus team-mate Ronnie Peterson was killed. He presented his last Grand Prix for British Television in 2008 in Brazil when Lewis Hamilton claimed the title.

Steve presented a programme for Anglia in 1981 called Toast of the Town. It was live coverage of the victory parade through the town centre in Ipswich when Town won the UEFA Cup with Bobby Robson in charge of the club.

Bobby Robson, the manager of Ipswich Town when the club won the UEFA Cup in 1981. Credit: ITV Anglia

In his book Steve Rider expresses strong views on the "greed" he sees at the top level of motorsport, which he says comes at the expense of television viewer and spectators. He argues for cutting down the number of venues "in anodyne arenas in desert locations, hosted by dodgy regimes" and instead introducing a Saturday Formula One race to precede the Grand Prix in order to broaden the appeal of the sport.

He will be appearing on ITV Anglia at 6pm on Thursday 25 October to talk about his book, as well as his five-decade-long reporting career.