Light entertainment was big in 1979 and you couldn't get much bigger than the captains of Welsh rugby and English football. However, to contemporary audiences this series offers something more: a glimpse into a vanished world where the audience smoke cigarettes and the contestants puff on cigars. Women are constantly described in terms of their "loveliness" and the weights of the male darts players are openly discussed. It is an alien world in terms of attitudes, but exists within living memory from our own. Pro-Celebrity Darts was part of a stable of shows following the same format, including snooker, golf and bowling; all hosted by ITV legend Fred Dinenage. Filmed at the Dragonara Hotel in Leeds, the show made no secret of their sponsorship by Ladbroke's bookmakers. Ladbroke's were an old established Mayfair firm whose fortunes had dwindled in the post-war era. However, after the government legalised betting shops in 1961, Ladbroke's were able to enter a period of exponential growth. They bought a major stake in the famous Dragonara casino hotel in Malta and opened casinos, hotels, bingo clubs and holiday centres under the same brand name. Then, in 1979, the same year this show aired, Ladbroke's were rocked by scandal. They faced claims that they had employed illegal marketing techniques and even bribed a police officer. They were banned from running casinos, lost 40% of their revenue and their share price collapsed.