John Virgo, who has died aged 79, made his name through snooker, but found fame through television – chiefly in the form of the Big Break game show on BBC1, which attracted millions of viewers in the 1990s.
Having had a respectable but non-stellar career on the green baize, Virgo transitioned to the small screen as a referee in the snooker-based Big Break, which was hosted by the comedian Jim Davidson and ran in a prime-time Saturday evening slot from 1991 to 2002, attracting up to 14 million viewers per episode at its peak.
Initially scripted as Davidson’s assistant, he quickly became much more than that, with his own party pieces, trick shots and catchphrases. Success in that half-hour format opened up other light entertainment opportunities and enhanced his popularity as a BBC snooker commentator, a role he had taken on once his playing career began to stall.
As a snooker player Virgo won the UK Championship in 1979, and also made it to the semi-finals of the World Championship, reaching a world ranking of No 10 in 1980. Though he was capable of periods of excellence, however, his form was too patchy to deliver prolonged success. By the mid-80s he had fallen out of the reckoning, reliant for much of his earnings on playing exhibition matches at holiday camps, where his natural talent as a gently humorous entertainer came to the fore.
A heavy gambler for many years, Virgo had reached a personal and financial low-point when the offer to appear on Big Break came along. Grasping the opportunity with both hands, he quickly established a lively rapport with Davidson as the pair shepherded contestants through quiz questions and challenges that led to an end-game in which famous snooker players potted balls for prizes.
Once Big Break came to the end of its natural life after more than 200 episodes, Virgo maintained his public profile through his commentary work, in which he was noted for another full set of buzzwords and expressions, including shouts of “where’s the cue ball going?” whenever the white looked to be in jeopardy. In all he commentated for 40 years, and was behind the microphone until shortly before his death.
Virgo was born in Salford in Greater Manchester, where his father, William, was a dockyard crane driver and his mother, Florence, worked as a shop assistant. Leaving Ordsall secondary modern school at 15, he took on a job as a delivery boy at an engineering firm, after which he began to spend his wages at the local billiard hall. Having had some experience of the game on a toy table he had been given as a child, he quickly showed his mettle by winning the 1962 British Under-16 Boys’ Championship and then, three years later, the British Youth Championship.
At the time snooker was in a poor state, with few opportunities to make money outside of billiard-hall hustling, in which Virgo was fully versed. In 1969, however, the BBC came up with its single-frame Pot Black competition, and the sport suddenly caught the public imagination. Two years later Virgo was appearing in a copycat Granada TV tournament on the basis of being a leading amateur – and won the trophy.
Granada, sensing a star in the making, invited Virgo to co-present its How to Play Snooker programme, and in 1976, aged 30, he left his clerking job at a Manchester metals factory to turn professional.
His early years were his best, leading up to a 1979 World Championship semi-final against Dennis Taylor, which he lost 19-12, and then, the same year, his only major tournament victory, in the UK Championship.
That win in Preston was accompanied by high drama when Virgo failed to show up for the start of the concluding Saturday session of the final, having been unaware of an adjusted start time. He had led 11-7 overnight against Terry Griffiths, but was docked two frames on his eventual arrival, and was so unsettled by the turn of events that Griffiths was able to proceed to 13-12, leaving him just one frame short of victory. Somehow, however, Virgo managed to stage a comeback, winning 14-13 and redeeming himself in the eyes of the audience, who had booed him when he first appeared.
There was little in the way of success to follow, so that by the mid-80s Virgo had become increasingly reliant on making money from summer stints journeying around Butlin’s camps, cracking jokes, taking on all-comers at the table, essaying trick shots and doing impersonations of the top players.
His flair in that regard came to much wider public notice at the Crucible theatre in 1984, when unexpectedly swift finishes to both World Championship semi-finals prompted the organisers – and the BBC – to ask him to fill in the downtime by running through his Butlin’s repertoire. With millions watching, Virgo found himself a new audience, and by the following year he had established himself as a popular part-time commentator.
Nonetheless, with his game on the wane and his high-stakes gambling largely unchecked, he was struggling to make ends meet until the BBC came calling with the idea for Big Break. Establishing a close personal and professional relationship with Davidson (despite their divergent political views), he essentially became a co-host of the show, colourfully waistcoated, always ready to urge the participants to “pot as many balls as you can”, and signing off each episode with “goodnight JV” at Davidson’s prompting to “say goodnight, JV”.
It was such easy watching that Big Break gained some of the highest quiz show ratings to date, becoming an established part of British Saturday evenings for more than a decade and transforming Virgo into a nationally recognised figure. It also opened up new avenues for him, including the bestselling video John Virgo: Playing for Laughs (1993) – in which he entertained an audience with his trick shots – and a decade in pantomime with Davidson.
Having given up top-line snooker not long after joining Big Break, he could also devote more time to commentating on major tournaments. Noting that “if you say something enough times, people are going to treat it as a catchphrase”, he had several at his disposal, including the regular observation that a player had “the cue ball on a string” and the contention that “there’s always a gap”.
His last stint in the commentary booth was at the Masters final between John Higgins and Kyren Wilson in London in January 2026.
Two marriages ended in divorce. Virgo is survived by his third wife, Rosie (nee Ries), a publishing executive, whom he married in 2010, and two children, Gary, from his first marriage, to Susan, and Brook-Leah, from his second, to Avril.
• John Virgo, snooker player and commentator, born 4 March 1946; died 4 February 2026
