1 hour ago
7
ARTICLE AD BOX
3 min readJul 9, 2026 07:16 PM IST
Maggie Thatcher on the left and the England team on the right. (AP photo/File photo)
It was a time when narration mattered more than narratives. And he was more Jon Champion’s wit than Peter Drury’s poetry. But Bjorge Lillelien commentating on Norwegian radio to register their 2-1 win over England in World Cup qualifying in 1981, turned epic for his feisty, direct monologue addressing then UK PM Margaret Thatcher.
“Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me?” he bellowed. “Maggie Thatcher, your boys took a hell of a beating.” BBC4 recalled the iconic piece of commentatory that heralded the first of two times Norway have beaten England in a World Cup cycle.
That English team for the 1982 qualifiers had Glen Hoddle, Bryan Robson and Kevin Keegan, while Norway had part-timers – rallies from a goal down, through goals for Roger Albertsen and Hallvar Thoresen.
Norway had Hallvar before football got VAR. And goalkeeper Tore Antonsen couldn’t celebrate because he needed to go back to work next morning of September 10, at 7 a.m.
The result however became famous for Lillelien’s throaty, giddy addressing of some of the most famous English political figures.
“Lord Nelson,
Lord Beaverbrook,
Sir Winston Churchill,
Sir Anthony Eden,
Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me?
Maggie Thatcher, your boys took a hell of a beating” he would declare addressing the then PM.
Marcus Lillelien, regional director NRK, would tell BBC, “I think he just had it ..sort of going through his head, what if the impossible happens and we beat England. He had sort of an idea. But he didn’t script anything.”
Story continues below this ad
The monologue got voted in multiple polls as greatest lines of commentatory.
Though Norway would once again beat England in qualification in 1993, a 2-0 win at Oslo again, the earlier win had come about when Norway football wasn’t much. “At the time when Norway wasn’t particularly good sport… Not good at any sport really…,” Marcus would tell BBC.
While Nelson would indicate the naval hero who won the Napoleonic wars, Lord Beaverbrook ran a much-published conservative publication and served as Minister of Aircraft Production during WW2 to help the wartime leader, and his friend, Churchill. He tended to harbour anti-Semitic views before the war, and though he passed away in 1964, the Norwegian football commentator would holler out to him same as to Thatcher. Anthony Eden was known for cliches in speeches and 6 am calls and general obsession with a telephone.
On Saturday, Sir Keir Starmer will be PM, should Norway repeat the feat. He has declared a bank holiday should England win the World Cup.
English (US) ·