With the original tape long destroyed in some needless ITV purge, such was the hubbub of excitement when a recording of Bob Paisley’s 1977 appearance on This Is Your Life surfaced unexpectedly last week that one could have been forgiven for assuming intrepid relic hunters had actually been searching for it in the first place. Indiana Jones and the Quest For A Complete Recording Of The Appearance Of A Former Liverpool Manager On A Once Ridiculously Popular Midweek Light Entertainment Show Presented By Eamonn Andrews might not have much of a ring to it, but would almost certainly have made for far more entertaining viewing than the intrepid archaeologist’s critically panned search for the legendary crystal skull of Akator.

The truth seems more mundane. A bloke called Pete Day seems to have chanced upon a complete recording of the Paisley tribute on VHS (teenagers, ask your parents) and uploaded it to YouTube (parents, ask your teenagers) for anyone who might like to watch it. Indeed, perhaps the most surprising thing about Day’s exotic find is that, in the fine tradition of hidden video treasure in that dusty cupboard under grandad’s telly, the crucial moment when Andrews surprised Paisley with the iconic Big Red Book did not segue abruptly into a recording of a different show: an episode of Minder or Ned’s Atomic Dustbin soundtracking a hideously drunk Oliver Reed as he slurred his way through Wild Thing on Channel 4’s much maligned but sadly defunct weekend “yoof” vehicle The Word.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bob Paisley on This Is Your Life in 1977

Readers of a certain age may be unfamiliar with the concept of This Is Your Life, a one-time staple of the TV schedule that could well have flashed up on screen when the Scottish scientist John Logie Baird switched on the first television in 1926 and more or less ran weekly with the occasional hiatus until its controversial conclusion 13 years ago. A salute to assorted luminaries including those known for their work on stage, screen and in the sporting arena, each episode featured a well-known “victim”, who was surprised by the microphone-wielding host before being whisked away to the TV studios where they were taken through a life invariably well lived with the assistance of various special guests including fellow notables, family members and assorted childhood acquaintances whose identity certain subjects of the show often visibly struggled to remember.

Paisley was by no means the first or last football personality to appear on This Is Your Life and before him the Tottenham and Northern Ireland legend Danny Blanchflower had made history by refusing to participate, going so far as to actually run away upon being ambushed by Andrews. “As I straightened up and turned to present him with the book, there was no Danny,” recalled the Irish presenter in his autobiography. “He had headed for the door of that studio like a greyhound from a trap. Angus [Mackay, then the BBC’s sports editor] lunged forward to try to stop him, caught hold of his coat and Danny wriggled out of it, went through the door in his shirtsleeves and I could hear him pounding down the stone steps, shouting: ‘Let me out! Let me out!’.”

Boxing brawls, junior Joe Cole, plus Bob Paisley – This is Your Life Read more

There were no such problems with Paisley although, perhaps mindful of the peculiarity of his unfortunate experience with Blanchflower, Andrews approached him on a moving bus from which there was no escape: the Liverpool team coach making its way from Loftus Road after a 2-0 defeat at the hands of QPR. “How the secret was kept from Bob Paisley has the hallmarks of bizarre fiction,” the journalist Michael Charters wrote in the Liverpool Echo. “Not only his family were involved in the preparations for the programme, but dozens of people on the Anfield staff, including the players, had to be told.”

Among them were Emlyn Hughes, Tommy Smith and Billy Liddell, who appeared alongside Paisley’s wife, Jessie, his younger brother Hughie, coaches and future Liverpool managers Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran, his friend, the Hong Kong-based racehorse trainer Frank Carr, and a couple of Paisley’s colleagues from his days as a bricklayer in Durham. Having helped Liverpool to a league and European Cup double the previous season, Kevin Keegan had moved to Hamburg, but was on hand to pay homage to his charming former manager with a video message he concluded by saying: “Auf Wiedersehen … which in case you don’t know, in Germany means something like, eh, ta-ra wack”. Paisley’s predecessor, Bill Shankly, was also present as well as various comrades with whom he occupied dugouts of a different kind in the Middle East during the second world war.

Months in the planning, it later emerged that Paisley’s appearance on This Is Your Life had almost been derailed in its infancy when he had taken the European Cup and league trophies to his home village of Hetton-le-Hole in Durham to show childhood pals and had been decidedly nonplussed when several of his closest failed to turn up. It was later revealed the show’s organisers had got wind of his visit and ordered anyone earmarked for an appearance on his televised tribute to stay away. Liverpool fans are occasionally mocked for their obsession with history but in stumbling upon a copy of their late manager’s long lost appearance on what was once the most popular show on British television, one amateur archivist has uncovered a fascinating chapter.

• This article was amended on 11 December 2016 to point out that Danny Blanchflower was a Northern Ireland legend and not a Republic of Ireland legend.