Press clippings Page 6

Imagine A Question Of Sport without the sports questions, combined with They Think It's All Over without the comedy and what you get is Sky 1's A League of Their Own.

Apparently the programme is available in high definition, although what it looks like really is the least of its problems. The show desperately struggles to fill its allotted hour, despite the best efforts of chairman James Corden and team captains Jamie Redknapp and Andrew Flintoff. They really do work hard for their money, with Flintoff proving surprisingly witty and charming.

But the format doesn't do anybody any favours, particularly the overworked scriptwriters who are expected to pour comedy into the yawning chasms apparent in the dull, unimaginative and painfully protracted format. Working out which of three sporting lookalikes enjoyed the most success took the teams all of 15 minutes.

There were some very fine gags but nowhere near enough of them. That the whole enterprise was shot through with tedious blokeyness, accompanied by the inevitable whiff of homophobia - the default setting for the terminally unfunny - just made it all the more agonising.

Harry Venning, The Stage, 15th March 2010

A Question Of Sport has been going since the dark old days when football was played with the noggin of a beheaded peasant and shuttlecocks were - no, I'll stop there - so it's about time there was a challenger to its position as Britain's No.1 TV sports spot-the-scripted-bits banter show.

So thank Lord's for A League Of Their Own (Sky1), in which James Corden plays Sue Barker reincarnated as a sumo wrestler with a bit of a mouth on her. Team skippers Freddie Flintoff and Jamie Redknapp are just there as window-dressing/butts of jokes, for this is Corden's show and he takes to it like a puck to the ice rink. Barker beware.

Keith Watson, Metro, 12th March 2010

It was only a matter of time before James Corden got his own celebrity panel show and here it is... basically, A Question Of Sport for idiots. Celeb guests include Freddie Flintoff, Neil Morrissey, David Haye and Jamie Redknapp, who spend the first half bantering loudly with their larger-than-life host about tattoos and booze - it's the televisual equivalent of Nuts magazine.

Sharon Lougher, Metro, 11th March 2010

A new comedy quiz, hosted by James Corden, which draws on sports fans' love of lists. Team captains are England cricket monster Andrew Flintoff and Sky football pundit Jamie Redknapp, here to try to shake off the national embarrassment of those holiday advertisements. Regular panellists are comedian John Bishop and Sky Sports News presenter Georgie Thompson. Show one - an hour-long special with guests David Haye and Neil Morrissey was still in the edit suite as we went to press.

Jack Seale, Radio Times, 11th March 2010

Jamie Redknapp and David Haye joke on new sports quiz

Soccer star Jamie Redknapp takes a huge risk when he unwittingly mocks world heavyweight boxing champion David Haye's T-shirt.

The Sun, 10th March 2010

Redknapp nervous about comedy show

Ex-footballer Jamie Redknapp has admitted that he is nervous about working on comedy show A League Of Their Own.

Alex Fletcher, Digital Spy, 10th March 2010

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