A League of Their Own, Sky1’s new sports quiz fronted by little seen shy funnyman James Corden.
A guest slot as chair of Never Mind the Buzzcocks showed that James Corden cannot present a programme if his life depended on it, A League of Their Own goes one step further by proving it. His style of comedy is just poor observations, self-deprecating fat jokes and being as loud as possible.
Jamie Redknapp in A League of Their Own
On his left sits Sky Sports rent-a-gob Jamie Redknapp. That’s right, former Liverpool pretty boy Jamie Redknapp; the guy who only has a career in TV punditry because the best people have gone to the BBC or other subscription networks and they need someone, anybody, at last minute to fill in five minutes of air time by speaking nonsense. Like Michael Caine it doesn’t matter what it is, he’ll do it. And in this Redknapp tries, desperately, to join in the banter but it’s impossible not to be distracted by his glowing teeth.
Opposite resides Engerland cricket star Andrew Flintoff, who seems unusually subdued but given that he makes more headlines for his drunken behaviour he has nothing to prove by being laddish. In the hour long(!) series opener the panel were joined by Neil Morrissey and David Haye – the first advert in the break was for his televised title defence against John Ruiz being shown on Sky Box Office...hmm indeed – where the questions are obviously based on sport.
A League of Their Own is They Think It’s All Over
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? No, you haven’t slipped into a time warp or alternative reality portal; this is really happening. Of course it used to be called They Think It’s All Over where cricket player David Gower and footballer Gary Lineker were team captains with comedian Nick Hancock sitting in as host would conduct a comedy quiz about sport. Seriously, someone should sue. The main difference though being with They Think It’s All Over is that it was quite good in the early days.
In defence Sky1 could claim that it bares more resemblance to Jumpers For Goalposts, a very poorly misjudged Fast Show spin-off where the football pundit sketch was dragged out for a half hour comedy quiz thing. It was awful and the biggest joke being that they got Chris Waddle to appear in one episode (The Fast Show fans will understand that one). So given Redknapp’s Ron Manager inspired observations and the poor quality all round it’s fair to say that A League of Their Own is a shoddy rip-off of that instead.
James Corden Sky1 Sports Show
Listing the problems would be a long and tedious process best left for a pub rant. However, one point is that there’s too much over-the-top laughter at terrible jokes and clapping from the panellists. Yes, usually it’s the audience who get carried away with reactions at live recordings but for the talent to succumb to fawning applause is embarrassing. Even new darling of stand-up comedy and A League of Their Own regular John Bishop was disappointing.
If anyone is going to produce a panel show these days the absolute priority should be to create an original format (ah...) and invite sharp comics with an eye for satire (oh dear). Don’t even bother watching it. This is one of those rare occurrences where you can base an opinion on prejudices and other people's views like those delightful Daily Mail readers.
A League of Their Own is on Sky1 every Thursday at 9pm. Hopefully it doesn’t get a second series, it’s just not fun in any way.
Steven Cookson - Steven Cookson is a writer and attempted journalist based in Howden. Originally from Chester, that Hollyoaks place in North-West of ...
