Jake Short, Shaquille Ali-Yebuah and Jack McMullen play three academy graduates thrown into the first-team squad of fictional Premier League club Warbury Warriors. Their initiation is supervised by Theo Barklem-Biggs’s psychopathic senior pro Petey, Paolo Sassanelli’s chain-smoking Italian manager Cesare and Will Arnett’s egomaniac American owner Mark Crane, who keeps a live eagle in his glass-walled office.
BBC Two broadcast the six half-hour episodes between 28 May and 2 July 2020, pulling around 600,000 viewers and finishing outside the weekly top 50. Critics praised the performances but complained the scripts recycled Inbetweeners gags with studs-up obviousness; The Guardian called it “a sitcom that forgets the ball is supposed to be funny.”
Damon Beesley and Iain Morris wrote and directed every episode through their Fudge Park label, shooting at Hayes & Yeading’s stadium and a disused training ground in Uxbridge. The BBC quietly cancelled the show three months after transmission, leaving the lads stuck on the bench after one brief season.
Production Details
BBC Two / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2020 - Present
Created by: Damon Beesley, Iain Morris
Showrunner(s): Iain Morris, Damon Beesley, Caroline Leddy
Writer(s): Damon Beesley, Iain Morris
Producer(s): Sam Pinnell
Main Cast
Jake Short as Mattie Sullivan
Shaquille Ali-Yebuah as Benji Achebe
Jack McMullen as Jack Turner
Will Arnett as Mark Crane
Chris Geere as Chris Booth
Theo Barklem-Biggs as Petey Brooks
Tamla Kari as Olivia Talbot
Paolo Sassanelli as Cesare
Lewis Clift as Coach Pete
Jonathan Pearce as Commentator (voice)
Ossian Perret as Pascal
Yetunde Oduwole as Mrs. Achebe
