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''Footballers' Wives'' is a British television
drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
about fictional
Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
club Earls Park F.C., its players and their wives. It was broadcast on ITV from 2002 to 2006. The show initially focuses on three very different couples, but from the third series onward revolves around a complex love triangle between Tanya Turner ( Zöe Lucker), Amber Gates (
Laila Rouass Laila Rouass ( Abdesselam; born 22 June 1971) is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayals of Amber Gates in ''Footballers' Wives'' (2004–2006) and Sahira Shah in ''Holby City'' (2011–2012, 2021). She has also starred in ''Pri ...
), and Conrad Gates ( Ben Price). The show has earned a cult following since its cancellation and launched on
BritBox BritBox is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Video on demand#Subscription models, video on demand Streaming television, streaming service founded by BBC Studios and ITV plc, ITV which operates in eight countries across Australi ...
in 2021 and
ITVX ITVX is a British Over-the-top media services, over-the-top and ad-supported Streaming television, streaming service operated by ITV plc. The service offers original content from the broadcaster, livestreams of the ITV television channels, Free ...
in 2023.


Background

The show is centred on the fictional Earls Park Football Club (nicknamed "Sparks"). The series, based on the book, ''Footballers' Wives Tell Their Tales,'' by Shelley Webb, wife of British footballer
Neil Webb Neil John Webb (born 30 July 1963) is an English football manager, former footballer and television pundit. He primarily played as a midfielder but also played as a defender between 1980 and 1997, notably in the top flight for Manchester Uni ...
, was produced by Liz Lake, Claire Phillips, and Cameron Roach, with Brian Park as executive producer. The show began as an ensemble of three different football couples, but from the third series on the show largely revolved around the character Tanya Turner ( Zöe Lucker). Lucker left the series halfway through series four, and returned midway through the next series, by which time the series' ratings had fallen significantly. The series was cancelled in 2006.


Cast

* Zöe Lucker as Tanya Turner (Series 1–5) * Gillian Taylforth as Jackie Pascoe/Webb (Series 1–5) * Alison Newman as Hazel Bailey (Series 1–4) *
Gary Lucy Gary Edward Lucy (born 27 November 1981) is an English people, English actor, television personality and model who is best known for playing List of The Bill characters (E–L)#Will Fletcher, Will Fletcher in the ITV (TV network), ITV police dra ...
as Kyle Pascoe (Series 1–3) * Susie Amy as Chardonnay Lane-Pascoe (Series 1–2) * Cristian Solimeno as Jason Turner (Series 1–2) * John Forgeham as Frank Laslett (Series 1–3) * Julie Legrand as Jeanette Dunkley (Series 1–2, 4; crossed over to ''Footballers' Wives: Extra Time'' (recurring) * Daniel Schutzmann as Salvatore Biagi (Series 1–2) * Nathan Constance as Ian Walmsley (Series 1–2) * Katherine Monaghan as Donna Walmsley (Series 1–2) * Philip Bretherton as Stefan Hauser (Series 1–2) * Peter Ash as Darius Fry (Series 2–5; crossed over to ''Footballers' Wives: Extra Time'') *
Laila Rouass Laila Rouass ( Abdesselam; born 22 June 1971) is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayals of Amber Gates in ''Footballers' Wives'' (2004–2006) and Sahira Shah in ''Holby City'' (2011–2012, 2021). She has also starred in ''Pri ...
as Amber Gates (Series 3–5) * Jesse Birdsall as Roger Webb (Series 3–5) * Sarah Barrand as Shannon Donnelly-Lawson (Series 3–5) * Ben Price as Conrad Gates (Series 3–4) * Jamie Davis as Harley Lawson (Series 3–4) * Marcel McCalla as Noah Alexander (Series 3-4) * Helen Latham as Lucy Milligan (Series 4–5) * Ben Richards as Bruno Milligan (Series 4–5) * Tom Swire as Sebastian Webb (Series 4; crossed over to ''Footballers' Wives: Extra Time'') * Craig Gallivan as Callum Watson (Series 5) * Lucia Giannecchini as Urszula Rosen (Series 5) *
Phina Oruche Phina Oruche (born 31 August 1969) is a Nigerian actress, radio presenter and former model best known for her performances as Liberty Baker in ITV's ''Footballers' Wives'', for which she won a Screen Nations Award for Favourite TV Star. Ea ...
as Liberty Baker (Series 5) * Angela Ridgeon as Trisha Watson (Series 5) *Jay Rodan as Paulo Bardosa (Series 5) * Chucky Venice as Tremaine Gidigbi (Series 5) * Nicholas Ball as Garry Ryan (Series 5; crossed over from ''Footballers' Wives: Extra Time'') A number of celebrities made cameo appearances in the series, appearing as themselves. They include:
Peter Stringfellow Peter James Stringfellow (17 October 1940 – 7 June 2018) was an English businessman who owned several nightclubs. Early life Stringfellow was born in the City General Hospital, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 17 October 1940, to Elsi ...
,
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson Tara Claire Palmer-Tomkinson (23 December 1971 – 8 February 2017) was an English socialite and television personality. She appeared in several television shows, including the reality programme ''I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British ...
,
Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
, Antony Worrall Thompson,
Peter Andre Peter Andre (born Peter James Andrea; 27 February 1973) is a British-Australian singer, songwriter, and media personality. Born in England to Cypriot parents and raised in Australia, Andre achieved success in the mid-1990s as a singer, topping ...
,
Lionel Blair Lionel Blair (born Henry Lionel Ogus; 12 December 1928 – 4 November 2021) was a Canadian-born British actor, choreographer, tap dancer, and television presenter. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, he made regular appearances as a danc ...
, Richard Madeley, Judy Finnigan, Calum Best and
Rula Lenska Rula Lenska (born Roza Maria Leopoldyna Lubienski 30 September 1947) is an English actress. She mainly appears in British stage and television productions and is known in the United States for a series of television advertisements in the 1970s ...
, as well as footballers
Sol Campbell Sulzeer Jeremiah "Sol" Campbell (born 18 September 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player. Widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs of his generation, he spent 20 years playing in the Premier League and had a ...
,
David Seaman David Andrew Seaman (born 19 September 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In a career lasting from 1981 to 2004, he is best known for his time playing for Arsenal. He won 75 caps for England, and is the country ...
,
Teddy Sheringham Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham (born 2 April 1966) is an English football manager and former player. He played as a forward, mostly as a second striker, in a 24-year professional career. Sheringham was part of the Manchester United team tha ...
and Nigel Quashie.


Production

The part of Tanya Turner was originally named Tansy. In the earlier series, Earls Park Football Club's home games were played at the real life
Selhurst Park Selhurst Park is a football stadium in Selhurst, in the London Borough of Croydon, England, which is the home ground of Premier League club Crystal Palace. The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1924. It has hosted interna ...
, which is the home of Crystal Palace Football Club. From series three onward, stadium scenes were filmed at the original
White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...
, former (now demolished) home of
Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
.


Episodes


Series 1 (2002)

Series one was shown between 8 January and 26 February 2002 with eight episodes. The series follows a group of footballers' wives whose husbands play for Earls Park (nicknamed "Sparks"). Ian Walmsley, Sparks' latest signing, deals with his up-and-coming success. His wife Donna is more concerned with getting their son back from the woman who adopted him after her parents forced her to give him up when she was a teenager. In the final episode, their 8-year-old daughter Holly is kidnapped. Donna's younger sister causes trouble while staying with them. She has a secret fling with the Sparks' mid-fielder, ruthless bad boy Jason Turner, who is married to the beautiful-yet-vile Tanya Turner. Tanya is too busy to worry about the affair as she tries to save her husband's job when club owner Frank Laslett buys 'Italian stallion' Sal Biagi, who takes Jason's job. Tanya and Jason take matters into their own hands on the way home from a club dinner, and in a drunken brawl, Tanya puts Frank in a coma. Jason helps her push his car off the side of the road, making it look like a drunken accident. Series one was produced by Liz Lake.


Series 2 (2003)

Series two was shown between 8 January and 26 February 2003 with eight episodes. Series 2 begins with Tanya and Jason in court, lying on oath. The British population is convinced that Frank is deranged and that he tried to rape Tanya. Charges are dropped, and Tanya walks away scot-free. Chardonnay Lane-Pascoe and Kyle Pascoe raise Jackie Pascoe's baby son Paddy as theirs. At the series' end, Jason sits on the rooftop, drunk and feeling sorry for himself, but as he slips and desperately grasps for a life-saving hold on the ledge, an unseen (by the audience) assailant hits his hands with a champagne bottle, causing him to fall to his death. Series two was produced by Claire Phillips.


Series 3 (2004)

Series three was shown between 11 February and 7 April 2004, with nine episodes. The series begins with Chardonnay's funeral following her death from anorexia. It is also revealed that she killed Jason. Tanya marries Frank Laslett as Jason had left her in debt. He also wanted her to admit that he did not rape her and that Jason had made her lie in court. Kyle finds new romance. Tanya has an affair with the new captain Conrad Gates and endures his jealous wife, Amber Gates. Tanya and Amber soon became arch-enemies and have a vicious catfight. Amber Gates fakes her own kidnapping when Conrad starts seeing Tanya. Harley Lawson and Shannon Donnelly's lives are turned upside down when he becomes Earls Park's new signing. Conrad also has an affair with new signing Noah Alexander. The season ends with a shocking cliff-hanger. Tanya is pregnant with Frank's child. She killed Frank for his money by "shagging him to death" on a lethal combination of Viagra, alcohol and cocaine. When Amber Gates announces that she is pregnant with Conrad's child, Tanya tries to keep Conrad by claiming that she too is expecting his child. Series three was produced by Sean O'Connor. This series was nominated for a
National Television Award The National Television Awards (often shortened to NTAs) is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and begun in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted o ...
in 2004, the only time the series was nominated.


Series 4 (2005)

The fourth was shown between 31 March and 26 May 2005 with nine episodes. Tanya and Amber both have their babies; Tanya had the babies swapped at birth to hide the possibility that hers could be Frank's, but this backfired when Amber's son (Tanya's, really) was smothered to death by Amber's dog. When the swap was discovered, Conrad and Amber claimed their rightful baby back and banished Tanya abroad. The footballers are involved in a rape scandal during a party in Spain. Shannon and Harley have marriage problems and eventually split up. Darius turns out to be the rapist of Katie in Spain, and has a breakdown when she kidnaps him for revenge. Jackie Pascoe marries club manager Roger Webb, who signs his son Seb to the club. Seb tries to cause trouble in their marriage, and is thrown out. Hazel leaves the club with her new girlfriend, a tennis player. New characters
Bruno Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters * Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologn ...
and Lucy Milligan have an adorable daughter, Angelica, but their marriage is eroding due to control-freak Bruno's emotional and sometimes physical abuse of Lucy. Lucy meets Dr. Giles Arrowsmith on the Internet and runs to him with Angelica in tow. He tries to kill Lucy, Angelica, and himself in his car, believing he is re-creating the accident that killed his real fiancée the previous year. Bruno accidentally shoots Conrad, thinking he is Giles. The final episode was considerably edited for broadcast on ITV, though the full episode was shown in Ireland and Australia. Some cuts from the episode were featured in the first series of Footballers' Wives: Extra Time, others were featured in series five of Footballers' Wives. The episode was restored for the DVD release. Series four was produced by Cameron Roach.


Series 5 (2006)

After Lucy leaves Bruno at the altar of their ''
Pride and Prejudice ''Pride and Prejudice'' is the second published novel (but third to be written) by English author Jane Austen, written when she was age 20-21, and later published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabe ...
''-themed wedding, Amber takes the lead as the central character and wastes no time getting revenge on Bruno, knowing he killed Conrad. She moves in with him and inflicts her own brand of psychological torture on him by making him think he is losing his mind. Becoming more desperate, Amber tries to poison, then shoot, him. In her last scene, she shoots Roger Webb, who loses his sight. Amber is then
sectioned Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation, or informally in Britain sectioning, being sectioned, commitment, or being committed, is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qual ...
and sent to a mental institution for bleeding on the brain. With Amber out of the way, Tanya returns and immediately aims to seduce Earls Park's latest star, Paulo Bardosa, and goes head-to-head with Eva de Wolffe (
Joan Collins Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Awards, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emm ...
). Tanya's joy at snatching Paulo from Eva's clutches is short-lived; he has a breakdown and is taken to a mental hospital, and Tanya finds herself penniless. Shannon, now divorced from Harley and feeling lonely, is delighted to hook up with the new Earls Park signing, Callum Watson. Shannon moves Callum in, but his interfering mother comes along and causes havoc. New club chairman Garry Ryan kills Roger, and Jackie leaves to live with her son Kyle in Australia. Tanya discovers evidence that proved Garry's involvement. As series five ends, Tanya is trying to come to a "settlement" with Garry over the tape-recording that proves he caused Roger's death, when he offers her cocaine laced with poison. New characters include Tremaine Gidigbi and Liberty Baker, who marry in episode 5 in a typically over-the-top Egyptian-themed wedding. Liberty, a top supermodel with a striking resemblance to
Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British supermodel. Beginning her career at the age of eight, Campbell was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press. She was th ...
, is exposed by the press for having a lesbian affair with her P.A. Urszula Rosen, then stars in a Japanese advert that makes her look like a cannibal. The fifth and final series was shown between 23 February and 13 April 2006 and consists of eight episodes, and was produced by Cameron Roach.


Cancellation

In May 2006, it was announced by Shed Productions and ITV that no further series of ''Footballers' Wives'' would be commissioned. Its cancellation had been blamed on falling ratings, particularly during its fifth and final series.


Reception


Ratings


Awards and nominations

''Footballers' Wives'' has been nominated for several awards; in 2004, there were two nominations at the
National Television Awards The National Television Awards (often shortened to NTAs) is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and begun in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted o ...
– for Most Popular Drama and Zöe Lucker for Best Actress. Zöe Lucker received the TV Quick Award for Best Actress in 2004, as well as a nomination for Best Actress in 2005. The series also received the TV Quick Award for Best Loved Drama in 2005.


Related series


''Bad Girls''

Between the third and fourth series of ''Footballers' Wives'', Zöe Lucker's character Tanya Turner crossed over to
Shed Media Warner Bros. Television Studios UK (formerly Shed Media Group and later Warner Bros. Television Productions UK) is a British creator and distributor of television content. The Group produces long-running television brands in drama, factual, doc ...
's highest-rated series '' Bad Girls'' for three episodes of that programme's sixth series. In ''Bad Girls'', which centres on a women's prison, Tanya is convicted for drug possession and sent to jail for six months. After stirring up mischief in the prison and even being arrested for poisoning inmates, Tanya is eventually released when a series of events leads to the wing governor coercing a criminal to confess to planting the drugs on her.


''Footballers' Wives TV''

''Footballers Wives TV'' is a spin-off mockumentary comedy series that was broadcast to tie-in with the original broadcast of the fourth series of ''Footballers Wives''. It aired on Thursdays at 10:30pm on ITV2 and only lasted for one series of eight episodes. The series was loosely based on the book ''How to be a Footballer's Wife'' and centred on a chat show presented by
Katherine Jakeways Katherine Jakeways is a British comedian, actress and writer. She has appeared in numerous television, radio and theatrical productions. Career Jakeways' television appearances include '' Extras'', ''Horrible Histories'', '' Sherlock'', '' T ...
and Glenn Hugill as TV presenters Gary Fox and Lorna Miller. Characters from ''Footballers' Wives'' appeared in interviews as did parody celebrities.


''Footballers' Wives: Extra Time''

The
spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...
series '' Footballers' Wives: Extra Time'' premiered on
ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...
on 26 May 2005, after series four of ''Footballers' Wives''. Several characters from the original programme appeared, including Bruno and Lucy Milligan, Seb Webb, Harley and Shannon Lawson, Katie Jones, and Amber Gates. The first series of ''Extra Time'' features Tanya Turner's sister, Anika Beevor. Series two began on 23 February 2006 with Peter Ash as Darius Fry and Julie Legrand as Janette Dunkley from the original series as regular cast members. Nicholas Ball, who portrayed Garry Ryan in the series, crossed over to ''Footballers' Wives'' for series five as the new Chairman of Earl's Park Football Club. The series' executive producer was Cameron Roach. It was shown in the United States under the name '' Footballers' Wives: Overtime''.


Adaptations and successors

In 2005, RTL in Germany adapted the programme as ''Das geheime Leben der Spielerfrauen'' (''The Secret Life of Footballers' Wives''). The original scripts were rewritten to appeal to a German audience, and the show was cancelled after only four episodes.
Mediaset Mediaset S.p.A. is an Italian mass media and television production and distribution company that is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE – MediaForEurope (the original ...
produced its own version of the series in Italy, called '' Ho sposato un calciatore'' (''I Married a Footballer''), which was written and directed by Stefano Sollima and lasted for four episodes on
Canale 5 Canale 5 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel of Mediaset, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It was the first private television network to have national coverage in Italy in 1980. On 4 December 2012, Mediaset launched Canale 5 HD, a ...
in 2005. It stars
Paolo Seganti Paolo Seganti (born 20 May 1964 in Rovereto, Trentino, Italy), is an Italian actor and model, known for playing Damian Grimaldi in the CBS television soap opera ''As the World Turns''. Career Seganti is known for his portrayal of Damian Grimald ...
and
Jane Alexander Jane Alexander (née Quigley; born October 28, 1939) is an American-Canadian actress and author. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. From 1993 ...
as Bruno and Tonia Caracci, Karin Proia and Edoardo Leo as Anna and Vito Palma, Maria Elena Vandone as Crystal Ferrari, and Mirko Petrini as Luca Martelli. A US version, called ''Football Wives'' and focusing on an
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
team, was developed for ABC in 2007. The
pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...
, written by Marco Pennette and directed by
Bryan Singer Bryan Jay Singer (born September 17, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed, as well as multiple television series. After graduating from the Univ ...
, starred
Lucy Lawless Lucille Frances Lawless (; born 29 March 1968) is a New Zealand actress and director. She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', as Number Three (Battlestar Galactica), D'Anna Biers on the re-im ...
and
Eddie Cibrian Edward Carl Cibrian ( ; born June 16, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Cole Deschanel on the television series ''Sunset Beach (TV series), Sunset Beach'' and List of Third Watch characters#James 'Jimmy' Doherty, Jimmy ...
as Tanya and Jason Austin,
James Van Der Beek James David Van Der Beek (; born March 8, 1977) is an American actor. Known for his portrayal of Dawson Leery on The WB's ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003), he also played a fictionalized version of himself on the cult ABC sitcom '' Don't Trus ...
and Kiele Sanchez as Brian and Donna Reynolds,
Gabrielle Union Gabrielle Monique Union-Wade ( Union; born October 29, 1972) is an American actress. Her career began in the 1990s, when she made dozens of appearances on television sitcoms, prior to landing supporting roles in 1999 teen films '' She's All That ...
as Chardonnay Lane, Brian J. White as Kyle Jameson, Holly Robinson-Peete as Jackie Jameson, and
Ving Rhames Irving Rameses Rhames ( ; born May 12, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying IMF Agent Luther Stickell in the Mission: Impossible (film series), ''Mission: Impossible'' film series (1996–2025) and crime boss Marsellus Wal ...
as Frank Wallingford. ''Football Wives'' was not picked up for series for the fall 2007 season, but ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' later reported that the production company ABC Studios had extended its options on the show's cast, and that
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
and
FOX Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...
, even
The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
were interested in the series. A number of websites, including ''
Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...
'', speculated that ''Football Wives'' was not picked up due to potential conflicts with the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
and ABC sister network's
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
's ''
Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...
'' and broad surrounding NFL programming deal. In Canada,
CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...
launched ''
MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...
'' in early 2008. Creator Mary Young Leckie acknowledged ''Footballers' Wives'' as an inspiration, but chose to create a similar series about
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
rather than directly adapting ''Footballers' Wives'', as she felt that some elements of the original series—particularly the broad campiness of some British humour—would not translate well to a Canadian audience. In
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, kykNet launched '' Getroud met rugby'' or "Married to Rugby", an
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
series in 2009, which became a nightly soap opera before being cancelled in 2022. In addition to being influenced by ''Footballers' Wives'', it was also inspired by '' Friday Night Lights''.


Home releases

All five seasons have been released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
in the United Kingdom and Australia, by Contender Entertainment Group (Series 1-2) and Video Collection International/2 Entertain (Series 3-5) in the United Kingdom and Shock Entertainment in Australia. Series 1 through 3 have been released on DVD in the United States. All five series were re-released in the UK by Acorn Media in
Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3 (see below), is the name for a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, it is lossy compression (except for Dolby Tr ...
and with new artwork. Acorn also released a "Complete Collection" box set featuring all five series, and both series of ''Footballers' Wives Extra Time''.


Legacy

On Saturday 15 July 2006 in the UK, the BBC made a spoof mini-episode entitled ''The Last Ever, Ever Footballers' Wives'' that was broadcast as part of ''
Sport Relief ''Sport Relief'' was a wikt:biennial, biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002. It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Dire ...
'' live telethon. The six-minute episode featured four cast members from the last season, Zöe Lucker, Sarah Barrand,
Laila Rouass Laila Rouass ( Abdesselam; born 22 June 1971) is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayals of Amber Gates in ''Footballers' Wives'' (2004–2006) and Sahira Shah in ''Holby City'' (2011–2012, 2021). She has also starred in ''Pri ...
, Halacy Kurenski and Ben Richards, who played their respective roles, with ''Sport Relief'' host
Graham Norton Graham William Walker (born 4 April 1963), known professionally as Graham Norton, is an Irish comedian, broadcaster, actor, and writer. He is a five-time BAFTA TV Award winner for the comedy chat show ''The Graham Norton Show'' (2007–present) ...
playing new Sparks captain Brendan Spunk. ''The Guardian'' described the show upon its 20th anniversary, "The show is now regarded as something of a kitsch cult classic, regularly appearing in meme form on social media". A musical in the works based on the show.


References


External links

* * *
BBC America - ''Footballers Wives''
{{Footballers' Wives 2002 British television series debuts 2006 British television series endings 2000s British drama television series British sports television series British English-language television shows ITV television dramas 2000s British LGBTQ-related drama television series Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows set in England