Frankie Goes To Russia. Frankie Boyle. Copyright: ITN
Frankie Goes To Russia

Frankie Goes To Russia

  • TV factual
  • BBC Two
  • 2018
  • 2 episodes (1 series)

Frankie Boyle looks around Russia ahead of the 2018 World Cup.

Episode menu

Series 1, Episode 2

Frankie goes in search of ordinary Russian football fans to find out if the game means as much to them as it does to him.

Further details

In this episode, Celtic fan Frankie goes in search of ordinary Russian football fans to find out if the game means as much to them as it does to him. He gets invited to watch a match in the corporate box of a wealthy Spartak Moscow fan, and despairs of the soullessness of corporate hospitality. Spartak is proud of its proletarian roots. Created by the trade union organisation in 1922, it became known as the people's team, although since it was taken over by a billionaire, its fortunes have been on the wane.

With money flooding into the game of football across the world, Frankie discovers that in Russia, it is not just the premiership footballers who are cashing in. In the middle of Moscow's high-rise tower blocks, Frankie meets the street footballers who are selling their skills to the highest bidders, earning massive advertising endorsements. Heading out of the capital to the small industrial town of Shatura, Frankie is delighted to meet Celtic's biggest supporter, a Russian power station worker who loves the Scottish team so much he changed his name to Denis McGoalach and formed his own Celtic team. Frankie can't resist the invitation to join the Celtic Shatura team, realising those childhood dreams of playing in the green-and-white hoops.

Frankie travels to Russia's most hardcore town to play an unusual game of football with a team who play the game at high speed on motorbikes. Thankfully their post-match antics only involve being whipped with twigs in a sauna. Frankie then goes to St Petersburg, which is hosting one of the World Cup semi-final matches, to meet Russia's leading football historian and biggest collector of football paraphernalia, where he discovers that football arrived in Russia 120 years ago via the Scots. Before he leaves, Frankie wants to see where the England team and many fans will be staying during the tournament, so he heads to a small seaside town called Repino on the outskirts of St Petersburg. Some people are saying that the facilities in Repino aren't good enough for the World Cup. On the bright side for England, it is a World Cup, so at least they won't have to stay there for very long.

Broadcast details

Date
Sunday 10th June 2018
Time
9pm
Channel
BBC Two
Length
60 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Wednesday 13th June 2018 11:15pm BBC2
Saturday 30th June 2018 12:55am BBC2
Thursday 12th July 2018 11:15pm BBC2
Sunday 28th March 2021 10:00pm BBC2

Cast & crew

Cast
Frankie Boyle Host / Presenter
Writing team
Frankie Boyle Writer
Charlie Skelton Script Editor
Aiden Spackman Script Editor
Production team
Jenny Dames Director
Jenny Dames Series Producer
Bernie Kay Executive Producer
Russell Crockett Editor
Jake Martin Editor
Leigh Brzeski Editor
Marc Davies Editor
Neil Harvey Director of Photography
Jamie Balment Commissioning Editor
Emma Loach Commissioning Editor
Lexi Rose Development Producer

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