TV preview - The Crucible: 40 Golden Snooker Years

BAIZE OF GLORY: Dennis Taylor (right) and Steve Davis at the end of the World Snooker Championships final at the Crucible Theatre in 1985, which was watched by a TV audience of 18 million.

Steve Davis goes back to the Crucible to celebrate 40 years of Snooker's World Championships. If the walls of this famous Sheffield venue could talk they could tell some tales. Tales of tears, triumphs, failure, laughter and top-class sport.

As a six-time champion, Steve is uniquely placed to explain the addictive nature of snooker’s greatest championship. Held over 17 days with three sessions a day and no rest days, it is longer than an Olympic Games.

Along the way, Steve meets up with Dennis Taylor (who beat him in the famous black ball final, watched by a staggering 18 million people at 1am); king of the Crucible Stephen Hendry, the seven-times winner; and always-the-bridesmaid Jimmy White, who missed out in a record six finals.

Davis also chats to Crucible superfan Stephen Fry plus Hazel Irvine, John Parrott and Lauren Higgins, who had a famous part in the 1982 final when her father Alex brought her on stage as a baby following his win.

As well as hearing from the great characters of the green baize, we also look back at many of the extraordinary moments again like Ronnie O’Sullivan’s five-minute 147; Joe Johnson stunning Steve in the 1986 final, dancing shoes and all;, and Cliff “the Grinder” Thorburn with the Crucible’s first ever maximum.

The Crucible: 40 Golden Snooker Years, BBC2, Sunday, 9pm