Davies joined the BBC in July 1969, making his first brief on-screen appearance as a touchline reporter at the Wales v Rest of the UK International football match held to celebrate the Investiture of the Prince of Wales, but for the next 35 years he was closely associated with the Match of the Day programme, making his debut in unusual circumstances on 9 August 1969. The programme was to take up a new format, providing each region with its own second match. Davies was signed primarily to cover matches in the North of England and was assigned League Champions Leeds United's match with Tottenham Hotspur on day one. However, on the day before the broadcast, main commentator and presenter David Coleman lost his voice, succumbing to the same flu illness that had already ruled Kenneth Wolstenholme out of covering that weekend's matches. Davies, who had stayed in the Queen's Hotel in Leeds on the Friday night, describes in his autobiography how he "barely had time to eat his cornflakes" on the Saturday morning before being put in a fast car and driven to London so he could commentate on the main match, Crystal Palace v Manchester United, and co-present the show with Frank Bough.