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<i>Fantasy Football League</i>

Fantasy Football League
Format Entertainment
Starring David Baddiel,
Frank Skinner,
Angus "Statto" Loughran,
Jeff Astle
Production
Producer(s) Avalon Television
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel BBC Two
Original run January 1994 – May 1996
(specials in 1998 and 2004)
Chronology
Related shows Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned

Fantasy Football League is a British television programme hosted by Frank Skinner and David Baddiel. The Programme began on BBC Radio 5 and was hosted by Dominik Diamond before transferring to BBC 2, with three series being broadcast from January 1994 to May 1996 (followed by episodes during Euro 1996). The show then moved to ITV for live specials on alternate nights throughout 1998 World Cup and then again through the 2004 European Championship.

It is not known if the show is ever likely to return. In its absence, Baddiel and Skinner instead went on to produce a series of podcasts for The Times, documenting their experiences while travelling across Germany at the 2006 World Cup. The success of these led to the duo being signed by Absolute Radio, where they hosted a similar show from South Africa during the 2010 World Cup.

Contents

Format

The format was originally heavily reliant on an actual fantasy football league, made up of teams picked by regular guest celebrities at the point that the game became popular in the mid-1990s. Each week, one or more of the celebrities would appear on the show and chat about football and their fantasy line-ups. As the show progressed on television, however, the fantasy league was pushed to the background in favour of sketches and clips, and was eventually dropped altogether. The latter shows still had guest appearances, from the likes of Nick Hornby, Damon Albarn, Peter Cook etc, although the departure of the fantasy team format meant it was less essential the guests had a decent football knowledge than before.

The television set was designed as a mock-up of the London flat where the hosts were purported to live (the two did indeed share a flat for some years, and the set was partially inspired by it), the idea being to represent the environment in which normal "lads" watch football at home. Celebrity guests would stand outside the "front door" of the set and ring the "doorbell" (always prompting Baddiel or Skinner to wonder out loud, "Who could that be?") before being let in and announced.

In the 'kitchen' area stood the third regular on the show, Angus Loughran, referred to only as "Statto". Clad only in a dressing gown and pyjamas, he would dispense footballing facts and statistics on demand, particularly in the early shows when the fantasy league element was strongest. He was the butt of many of Frank and David's jokes, and was often made fun of for being apparently dull and naive, but quickly became an audience favourite (with chants of "Statto! Statto!" becoming common later in the run).

Other recurring moments in the show included:

  • Phoenix from the Flames - David and Frank recreate a famous moment from footballing history, usually with a retired pro or other famous footballing figure.
  • Jeff Astle Sings - former West Bromwich Albion player (and Frank's idol) Jeff Astle would come in at the end of the show and lead the guests in an improbable rendition of a classic song over the credits. A minute's silence was broadcast on the show in his memory in Euro 2004 due to his death two years earlier, and various ex-players (eg Simon Garner, Brian Kilcline) continued the tradition by singing on the show.
  • The Big Hello - David and Frank would announce that they were going to say a 'Big Hello' to someone (usually some relatively obscure person with a connection to football) who would then say 'hello' on a pre-recorded video clip. The whole studio would then reply with a very loud (big!) "HELLO". After Germany were eliminated from Euro 2004, this was as a one-off changed to "A big goodbye" with the pre-recorded clip being the goal that knocked them out of the competition.
  • A Few Things We've Noticed From Watching Football (this week/recently) - Amusing clips that may have gone unnoticed by the viewer when originally shown. These often provided the basis for sketches or other gags later in the episode.

Memorable moments

  • Skinner and Baddiel performed a sketch with toys, using a Mr. Potato Head to portray Nottingham Forest manager Frank Clark and a toy footballer with a (genuine) pineapple on top to portray Forest striker Jason Lee and his unusual hairstyle. This led to Lee suffering torrents of abuse from fans at actual matches, including chants like "He's got a pineapple, on his head, he's got a pineapple, on his head!" (to the tune of He's Got The Whole World In His Hands by Laurie London). The frequent mention of his name first started, when In a Phoenix From The Flames sketch with Carlos Alberto, the hosts started singing the theme song changing the words to "Pelé was shite, Pelé was shite 'e! he was worse than Jason Lee!". The following week a viewer who was a Nottingham Forest supporter, had a letter read out on the show saying it isn't right to insult him in such a way, with Frank then saying they'll never mention him again, only for Jeff Astle in his Jeff Astle Sings closing segment, to walk onto the set with an actual pineapple on his head, wearing a Nottingham Forest shirt.
  • The programme featured a parody of Eric Cantona's assault on a Crystal Palace fan. In the sketch Frank said "Match of the Day was boring!, all it was, was rugby!", with Statto replying "Well, Five Nations Championship was quite good!". A member of the audience (who was part of the sketch) heckled him from the front row with a chant of "boring, boring Statto", and Statto flung himself slippers first into the audience.
  • In the final series of the 1996 edition, Dave lost a bet with Frank, and as a forfeit a boxer dog named Boo-Boo had to lick off chocolate smothered on his face.
  • During the later stages of the same episode, Jimmy Hill appeared on the show after returning from the Fulham F.C. end of season dinner. As Jimmy was possibly drunk, Dave and Frank decided to confuse him about the short-ball game, by asking him questions about it, as it was famous that Hill favored the long-ball instead.
  • On one of the 1998 World Cup special episodes Johnny Rotten featured as a guest, but was ejected during the commercial break after becoming overly aggressive with the hosts.
  • Jimmy Greaves and Ian St John (Saint and Greavsie) made a rare appearance back together as guests on the show during Euro 2004. St John admitted in his autobiography he had not enjoyed the experience.
  • David Pleat re-created his infamous dance around the Maine Road pitch (April 1983) by galloping round the set
  • The show commemorated the demolition of Liverpool F.C.'s Kop by staging a demolition of Statto's kitchen set during which the singer Jona Lewie appeared singing his 1980 hit "You Will Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties"
  • Commentator John Motson appeared on the show with Birmingham City's young managing director Karren Brady and appeared to be trying to chat her up. Brady treated his efforts with very obvious disdain.
  • Until their relegation in 1994 many jokes were directed at Sheffield United for their long-ball playing style. Manager Dave Bassett was not amused and referred contemptuously to "comedians" in subsequent interviews.
  • In a one-off segment called The Video Shop, featuring Matt Le Tissier, the hosts also directed a long-ball joke at Wimbledon F.C in which Frank Skinner said it took him longer to get to the video shop than the length of a Wimbledon clearance. The sketch also made a joke aimed at Manchester United, when multiple copies of a fictional video of their history entitled The History of Manchester United came in various front cover designs, highlighting their continuous yearly change in strip colours. Skinner also read the blurb on the back of the video and sneered at the statement of Manchester United being The worlds most famous club. In recent years, Manchester United moved away from changing their shirt colours every year, to a fixtation with changing their shirt sponsor every season. Also, throughout that show Le Tissier was repeatedly heckled by a Portsmouth fan in the audience who shouted 'SCUMMER!' at him, which is a name used by Portsmouth fans to insult southampton fans and players.
  • Manchester United were the butt of another joke, in which Skinner and Baddiel played the parts of Alex Ferguson and his then dugout assistant Brian Kidd. The sketch made references to the teams then tendency to constantly rely on using young players, referred to in the media as the teams "Kids", in which toddlers were warming up on the sidelines by running up and down past the dugout. Ferguson and Kidd are at the same time arguing over the teams then grey shirts, claiming their players are having difficulty picking out their own players, due to the shirts colour mixing in with the crowd. This is a reference to an infamous excuse Alex Ferguson made in 1995, when his team were 3-0 down at half time to Southampton in a Premier League match. In the sketch itself Brian Kidd says they paid a lot of money to Umbro for the shirts, and suggests that at half time Southampton should wear different shirts (instead of Man Utd changing to blue and white like in the real game), only for Brian Kidd to hold up a shirt displaying a crowd scene.

Guests

The show was noted for its guests, which were a mixture of football people and celebrities. They included:

Theme song

The show's theme song consisted of the words "Fantasy Football League" sung over and over to the tune of "Back Home", the England team's official song from the 1970 World Cup. After the move to ITV for the 1998 World Cup, the theme was changed to that formerly used by the channel's World of Sport series. For the Euro 2004 series, the theme was changed again to the one formerly used on the Saint and Greavsie show.

The various cutaway segments in the show (such as Phoenix From The Flames) would usually be introduced by having their titles sung over the show's main theme tune (though a few clip series had their own specific music). The names of the celebrity guests were also sung in this way as they made their way into the "flat".

External links

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