Setanta is bidding to become a larger name in the UK and Ireland regarding the coverage of such events. The company is already a major brand name abroad thanks to its broadcasting of Irish sports around the globe, but its acquisition of important English football league fixtures, along with getting Lynam on board, has pushed the company a little further towards competing with the big boys of sports broadcasting.

Described by Mrs Merton as "the menopausal woman's Tom Cruise, " Lynam himself is Irish, born in Clare nearly 65 years ago. Both of his parents, Edward and Gertrude, were nurses.

While he was still a small child, he and his family moved from Ennis to Brighton.

They would return to Clare every year for a month of summer holidays, spent on the beach. His father joined the army as a member of the medical corps.

Young Lynam attended Vardean Grammar School and following that didn't study at a university or college but went straight into the insurance world of the 1960s, where he worked for a period as a salesman.

This career was to be short-lived however with a life in broadcasting beckoning, and he began working close to home with BBC Radio Brighton in the late 1960s.

Before moving to the BBC, he married Susan Skinner in 1965, having met her in Sussex. Five years later, they had a son, Patrick. From Brighton he moved to London, becoming a respected boxing commentator. He would later follow his hero, Mohammed Ali, around the world, reporting on the boxer's fights in Malaysia, Zaire and the US. But the BBC had even bigger plans for Lynam, and his move to television came in 1977 when he became the presenter of Sportswide. He stayed there for six years.

His most famous position followed this as the anchor of Grandstand. He would remain at the helm of that institution until 1991, overlapping with Sportsnight and finally Match of the Day. His reign at the latter ended in 1999. During this period he was the BBC's main sportsman, covering Wimbledon, several Olympics, World Cups and the Grand National. In 1996, the public voted him 'Top Presenter of All Time'.

Known for his sharp and impromptu quips, he lent his familiar chocolatey voice to the commentary of the computer game soccer series Fifa. "If you'd told me before these Olympics that an Irish swimmer would win three gold medals, I'd have said:

'Whatever you do, keep the straitjacket on, '" he said when Michelle Smith stormed the Atlanta Olympics.

That tournament also inspired his most memorable sporting quote: "Going down to the pub is not yet an Olympic sport, but beach volleyball is."

He showed a different side in 1998, recording an album of recited poetry to classical music.

One of the poems he read, he wrote himself. 'The Scilly Isles' was a protest poem penned in opposition to the Falklands war. He reads a lot of Dickens and is a keen traveller, his favourite destination being Venice.

Lynam shocked the BBC by defecting to ITV in 1999, lured from his muchloved position at Match of the Day. At ITV he anchored the soccer coverage, but retired from the station just five years later following the Euro 2004 tournament.

Now with a long-term partner, interior designer Rose Diamond, Lynam's most interesting relationship to date was with Caroline Cossey, who appeared as a Bond girl in the film For Your Eyes Only. Little did Lynam know that Cossey spent the first 17 years of her life as a man named Barry before undergoing several sex change operations. "His reaction was 'Oh, God! , '" Cossey said about Lynam discovering her true gender. "But he was a very intelligent person. He seemed very centred within his own sexuality."

According to her, Lynam later asked Cossey to marry him, but she turned down his proposal.

His retirement was as unconvincing as Gay Byrne's as he remained at work, presenting bits and pieces for BBC radio along with a guest host gig on the current affairs comedy panel programme Have I Got News For You.

Following the death of Richard Whiteley, Lynam was called upon to fill his shoes in 2005 and present Countdown.

Upon being offered the job, he called his long-time friend Carol Vorderman and after a lengthy conversation, decided to accept the offer.

"It will be a hugely difficult task to replace Richard Whiteley, " Lynam said at the time, and indeed it was. His time on Countdown was short-lived, and he quit the job just 11 months into a two-year contract.

In October 2005, he published his autobiography, I Should Have Been At Wo rk , the title taken from an exceptionally dry introduction he gave to a middleof-the-day soccer match during the 1998 World Cup.

"Good afternoon, " he began, "shouldn't you be at work?"

Setanta has secured the rights to 79 live Premier League games. Lynam's first task was to interview Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill ahead of his team's match with Liverpool yesterday.

Lynam's slots will become part of Setanta's new Friday Night Football programme, to be broadcast every Friday at 6.30pm.

"During the 37 years that I've been in broadcasting, I've always expected someone to turn to me and say: 'Get a proper job and get back to work!'" Lynam said in an interview while promoting his autobiography. "I'm delighted to say that it's never happened so far."

CV

Born: September 1942 in Ennis, Co Clare
Occupation: TV presenter
In the news: Lynam has just moved to Irish channel Setanta to become part of its Premiership coverage