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BBC Radio 5 Live

Sport's Strangest Crimes

The streak is over but the chaos is just beginning.

Mark Roberts has danced naked at the centre of the Super Bowl, been tackled by an NFL linebacker, and carried off the field. What he doesn’t realise is that minutes earlier, a “wardrobe malfunction” at halftime has triggered a media storm that might well dwarf his moment. 

While Mark sits in a crowded Houston holding cell — still in his Velcro referee uniform — halftime producer Salli Frattini is hauled up to the NFL commissioner’s box to explain what just happened live to 100 million viewers. Janet Jackson has vanished. Justin Timberlake is apologising. And the NFL is in crisis mode.

Hours later, Mark is charged with criminal trespass and released on bail — buzzing from the streak, but now facing a very real Texas trial.

What follows is a courtroom drama broadcast on Court TV and the very real threat of six months in a Texas prison for Mark. Hard to see how he can blag his way out of this one. 

As Mark’s legal fate unfolds, the fallout from halftime spirals: complaints flood in, careers are damaged, and senior figures begin to question their roles.

Back in Liverpool, Mark rides the wave of fame — then slowly steps back as nothing can ever top the Super Bowl. Twenty years later, a diagnosis forces him to confront a harder question: not can he streak again, but should he?

After three decades of running naked toward the spotlight, is the Streaker King finally ready to stop… or will there be another temptation he just can’t resist. 

Presented by Rich Hall
Produced and written by Elle Scott
Production co-ordinator: Juliette Harvey. 
Production manager: Debbie Waddell. 
Development Executive: Emma Shaw.
Production Executive: Ian Taitt
Executive Producer: Georgia Catt
Sound Design and Composition: Julian Corrie
Assistant Commissioner: Rob Green
Commissioning Executive: Stevie Middleton

A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

6. The Fallout

Houston, 2004. Super Bowl XXXVIII. The biggest television event of the year — and everyone involved is chasing perfection.

Inside the NFL machine, Jim Steeg is orchestrating a military-grade operation where every second is worth millions. In the production truck, Salli Frattini is holding together a halftime show so complex it feels like a controlled explosion: Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, pyro, thousands of performers, and cameras everywhere. On the field, Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham is inches away from the game of his life.

And somewhere in the middle of all this sits Mark Roberts — disguised, tattooed, layered in Velcro, and nervously taping a tiny deflated American football over his “chicken McNugget” because Texas has him rattled.

As the game kicks off, the tension builds — not just for the players, but for everyone who knows what’s riding on halftime. When it arrives, the stadium turns into a full-blown 2004 MTV spectacle: lights, dancers, smoke, sweat, and pop royalty at its most electric.

It looks flawless. It sounds flawless. Everyone thinks it is flawless.

But in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, something happens that almost nobody inside the stadium fully registers — yet will be replayed, analysed, and argued about for decades.

And while everyone is distracted by that half-second… Mark sees his chance.

Presented by Rich Hall
Produced and written by Elle Scott
Production co-ordinator: Juliette Harvey. 
Production manager: Debbie Waddell. 
Development Executive: Emma Shaw.
Production Executive: Ian Taitt
Executive Producer: Georgia Catt
Sound Design and Composition: Julian Corrie
Assistant Commissioner: Rob Green
Commissioning Executive: Stevie Middleton
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

5. Houston, we have so many problems

After failing in San Diego, Mark swore he’d never try the Super Bowl again. Then one unexpected email changes everything.

Comedian Rich Hall presents the story of an eight-month mission to infiltrate Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston - rehearsals, disguises, sponsor tattoos, and a growing belief that this time, he really might pull it off.

At the same time, the NFL’s Jim Steeg and MTV’s Salli Frattini are juggling post-9/11 security, a wildly complicated half-time show, and the pressure of a live global broadcast.

Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham is locked in for the biggest game of his life. Mark is locked in for the biggest streak of his.

Everyone's converging on Houston with their own plans. Mark's ready. The NFL's ready. The players are ready. But is anyone really ready for what is about to happen?

Presented by Rich Hall
Produced and written by Elle Scott
Production co-ordinator: Juliette Harvey. 
Production manager: Debbie Waddell. 
Development Executive: Emma Shaw.
Production Executive: Ian Taitt
Executive Producer: Georgia Catt
Sound Design and Composition: Julian Corrie
Assistant Commissioner: Rob Green
Commissioning Executive: Stevie Middleton

A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

4. The man with the plan

Before Mark could streak the Super Bowl, both streaking and the Super Bowl had to become what they are.

Streaking has a history. The Super Bowl has a history. And host Rich Hall? Well he has a history too, which might explain a few things.

Rich Hall pulls apart the rise and fall of streaking in 1970s America - a cultural flash in the pan that somehow never quite died. Then, the evolution of the Super Bowl from a simple championship game into a global spectacle of music, money, and over-the-top showmanship.

Jim Steeg, the man who ran the event for 26 years, explains how half-time transformed from a small-time, marching-band interval into a billion-dollar pop extravaganza.

Meanwhile, Mark brings his act home. A charity streak at the Merseyside Derby is just a warm-up for the moment that truly makes him famous: crashing Fred’s floating weather map live on national television. Overnight, Britain knows exactly who he is.

Archive: Famous for Fifteen Minutes, BBC Radio 4.

Presented by Rich Hall
Produced and written by Elle Scott
Production co-ordinator: Juliette Harvey. 
Production manager: Debbie Waddell. 
Development Executive: Emma Shaw.
Production Executive: Ian Taitt
Sound Design and Composition: Julian Corrie
Executive Producer: Georgia Catt
Assistant Commissioner: Rob Green
Commissioning Executive: Stevie Middleton

A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

3. On the Map

Every superhero has an origin story. For Captain Cock, it begins in Hong Kong, 1993.

Comedian Rich Hall takes us back to when Mark is a young bartender in the city’s chaotic nightlife district -far from Velcro trousers, tutus, or a global streaking career. Then comes a drunken dare at the Rugby Sevens, the kind most people laugh off and forget by morning.

What happens next will set the course of his life for the next three decades. 

But hang on. Someone else remembers that event very differently. So what are the actual origins of this so-called origin story? 

Presented by Rich Hall
Produced and written by Elle Scott
Production co-ordinator: Juliette Harvey. 
Production manager: Debbie Waddell. 
Development Executive: Emma Shaw.
Production Executive: Ian Taitt
Executive Producer: Georgia Catt
Sound Design and Composition: Julian Corrie
Assistant Commissioner: Rob Green
Commissioning Executive: Stevie Middleton

A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

2. The Calling

Comedian Rich Hall presents the story of Mark Roberts - who isn't your average bloke. By day, he's a painter from Liverpool. By night? He's Captain Cock - the world's most prolific streaker, a man who's dropped his kit at over 500 major sporting events across 23 countries.

By 2002, Mark's conquered almost everything. Wimbledon. The Champions League Final. The Olympics. But there's one event left. The biggest stage on Earth. The Holy Grail of streaking: the Super Bowl.

So in 2003, Mark jets off to San Diego. No ticket. No plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Presented by Rich Hall
Produced and written by Elle Scott
Production co-ordinator: Juliette Harvey. 
Production manager: Debbie Waddell. 
Development Executive: Emma Shaw
Production Executive: Ian Taitt
Executive Producer: Georgia Catt
Sound Design and Composition: Julian Corrie
Assistant Commissioner: Rob Green
Commissioning Executive: Stevie Middleton
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

1. Captain C**k

Rich Hall presents the story of one man's mission to conquer the Holy Grail of streaking. The Super Bowl.

Introducing...Confessions of a Super Bowl Streaker

Was Hansie Cronje a villain? A victim? Or something in between? In this final episode, we unpack the legacy Hansie left behind — the loyalties, the doubts, and the stories that still divide opinion. Some say he was trapped by powerful people and trying to find a way out. Others say he knew exactly what he was doing. From emotional moments with close friends to sharp takes from those who saw a darker side, this episode digs into the heart of the scandal and what it says about cricket today.

6. Friend or Foe?

June 2002. Hansie Cronje dies in a plane crash. The reaction is immediate - shock, disbelief, grief. But not everyone buys the official story. In Episode 5, Mark Butcher traces Hansie’s final hours - a missed flight, a last-minute ride on a cargo plane, and a descent through mountain cloud with broken instruments and almost no visibility. Was it pilot error, as the report claimed? Or something more? From talk of missing money and dropped investigations to strange phone calls and long-held theories, this episode explores where the facts end and the doubts begin.

5. The Only Passenger On Board

Hansie’s admitted guilt but the real drama is only just getting started. Episode 4 takes us to the King Commission, a library turned media circus, where cricket’s clean image takes hit after hit. More names come out. More matches are mentioned. And as the pressure builds, the emotion gets raw. And one big question hovers over it all: was this about getting to the truth or just controlling the damage?

4. The man with the plan

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