FOOTBALLERS' WIVES

(Redirected from Footballer\'s Wives)

'''Footballers' Wives''' is a British television drama surrounding the private lives of a group of professional footballers, it aired on the ITV network from January 8, 2002 to July 15, 2006. American television network HBO, is considering the series as a mid-season replacement during the 2007-2008 season, with the same cast involved.

Contents
Background
Full Cast
Episodes
Storyline Guides
Series One - 2002
Series Two - 2003
Series Three - 2004
Series Four - 2005
Series Five - 2006
Cancelled
Five Life
Football Wives - American Remake
Sports Relief special
Cast
Trivia
Footballers Wives: Extra Time
Foreign Audience
DVD Releases
External links

Background


The show centres around the fictional ''Earls Park Football Club'' (nicknamed 'Sparks'). The Series is produced by Liz Lake, Claire Phillips and Cameron Roach. It is Executive Produced by Brian Park. The show began as an ensemble of three different 'types' of football couple. However, from the third series on, the show more or less revolved around the character Tanya Turner. After Tanya left in Series Four, a massive ratings slump was seen. Zoe Lucker returned midway through the next series, but was unable to raise ratings as much as expected.
U.S. television network ABC ordered a pilot for an American version, named ''Football Wives''. Lucy Lawless, Gabrielle Union, Eddie Cibrian, Kiele Sanchez, and James Van Der Beek were confirmed as part of the cast but ABC cancelled the show due to "potential conflicts with the National Football League."
On January 11 2007, Five's sister channel Five Life picked up the rights to air the entire series. It has so far aired the first series, with the first episode shown on 7th March 2007 at 9pm.
Earls Park Football Club's home games were played at real life Selhurst Park, which is the home of Crystal Palace Football Club.

Full Cast


Main articles: Full Footballers Wives cast

Episodes


Main articles: List of Footballers' Wives episodes

There were 8 episodes in Series One. Series Two had 8 episodes. Series Three had 9 episodes. For Series Four, there were 9 episodes. Series five had 8 episodes.

Storyline Guides


Series One - 2002

Main articles: Footballers' Wives (series 1)

Series one began airing on January 8,2002 and concluded on February 26, 2002. It featured a total of 8 episodes. The series follows a group of footballers' wives whose husbands all play for the same team, Earls Park (nicknamed "Sparks"). Ian Warmsley, 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 mere teenager. Trouble crops up when their 8-year-old daughter is kidnapped from school in the final episode of the series. Donna's younger sister Marie is staying with them, causing all the trouble she can. She has a secret fling with Sparks' mid-fielder and ruthless bad boy Jason Turner, who is married to the beautiful, yet vile, Tanya Turner, TV's megabitch. 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 into a coma. With the help of Jason, they push his car off the side of the road, making it look like a drunken accident.
Series Two - 2003

Main articles: Footballers' Wives (series 2)

Series two began airing on January 8, 2003 and concluded on, February 26, 2003 with a total of 8 episodes. Series 2 kicks off with Tanya and Jason in court, lying in front of God. The whole English population are convinced 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-Webb's child, Paddy Pascoe as their own. At the end of the series 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 Jason to fall to his death.
Series Three - 2004

Main articles: Footballers' Wives (series 3)

Series three began airing on February 11, 2004 and concluded on, April 7, 2004. With a total of 9 episodes. The series begins with Chardonnay's funeral, after she died of anorexia. It is also revealed that she killed Jason. Tanya married Frank Laslett, as Jason left her with debts. He also wanted her to admit that he didn't rape her, and that Jason made her lie in court. Kyle finds new romance. Tanya had an affair with new captain Conrad Gates, and has to put up with his psychotic wife, Amber Gates. 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 parks new signing. Conrad also has an affair with new signing Noah Alexander. The season ends with Tanya being pregnant with Frank's child. She killed Frank for his money. Amber Gates also is pregnant with Conrad's child. So Tanya has to pretend her baby is Conrad's to keep her boyfriend.
Series Four - 2005

Main articles: Footballers' Wives (series 4)

The fourth series premiered on 31 March 2005 and concluded on, 26 May 2005 with a total of 9 episodes. Tanya and Amber both have their babies; Tanya swapped the babies at birth to hide that hers might have been 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 marrige, and is thrown out. Hazel leaves the club with her new girlfriend, a tennis player. New characters Bruno and Lucy Milligan have a destructive marriage when Bruno tries to control her. Lucy meets a man on the internet and runs away with him. He tries to kill him, Lucy and Lucy's daughter Angelica, by locking them inside his car and turning on the exhausts. Bruno accidentally shoots Conrad.
Series Five - 2006

Main articles: Footballers' Wives (series 5)

The fifth and final series premiered on February 23, 2006 and concluded on April 13th, 2006 with 8 episodes. Amber tries to get revenge on Bruno as she knows he killed Conrad. She makes him think he is losing his mind. Getting more desperate, Amber tries to poison and then shoot Bruno. In the struggle, she ended up shooting Roger Webb, who lost his sight. Amber was then sectioned and left the show. Shannon now divorced from Harley and feeling lonely, was delighted to hook up with new Earls Park signing Callum Watson. Shannon moved Callum in; however, his interfering mother came with him and caused havoc. New characters included Tremaine Gidigbi and Liberty Baker, who married in Episode 5 in an Egyptian-themed, typically over-the-top wedding. Liberty, a top supermodel, was caught out by the press having a lesbian affair with her P.A. Urszula Rosen, and then was shamed by starring in a Japanese advert that made her out to be a cannibal. Tanya returned, once Amber was out of the way, and set about seducing the latest star of Earls Park, Paulo Bardoso. Tanya's joy at snatching Paulo from Eva de Wolffe's clutches was short-lived; he was taken to a hospital after a breakdown, and she found herself penniless. Garry Ryan, the new club chairman, kills Roger. Tanya discovered evidence that proved his involvement. However, as series five ended, Garry was offering Tanya some cocaine laced with poison, just as she was trying to come to a "settlement" with him over the tape recording that proved he caused Roger's death.

Cancelled


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 fifth series where they frequently faced defeat for their timeslot from BBC One's ''Hotel Babylon'' during the first half of the series. Despite their comeback to win the competition against BBC One's ''The Family Man'' (Lead-in from ''Hotel Babylon''), the figures did not reach expectations. [1] [2]

Five Life


In early 2007, British channel Five Life reached a deal with Shed productions to get the rights to all episodes of Footballers' Wives.
Five Life has shown the first series and are planning on showing the second series later in the year

Football Wives - American Remake


US Network ABC has given an order for a pilot version for an American version of Footballers' Wives, named ''Football Wives''. It was based on the British version using similar plots, but a complete new cast was used. The pilot also focused on American Football, and not Association Football (soccer) as Footballers' Wives did. The pilot was not picked up due to budget reasons, and cast members Lucy Lawless and Bryan White have confirmed that the project is, for all intents and purposes, dead.

Sports Relief special


On Saturday 15 July 2006 in the UK, the BBC aired a final mini-episode as part of Sport Relief, that was broadcast during the show at 11.30pm. It was only a comic six minute episode and it didn't tie anything up.
Cast


Zöe Lucker - Tanya Turner

Sarah Barrand - Shannon Donnelly-Lawson

Laila Rouass - Amber Gates

Ben Richards - Bruno Milligan
Find out more, here!

Trivia


''How To Be A Footballer's Wife'', a humorous guide to the series, was published in 2003.

Between the third and fourth series of ''Footballers' Wives'', Zöe Lucker's character of Tanya Turner was convicted of possession of drugs and was sent to jail for six months. The company who produce the show, Shed Productions, also produce the show ''Bad Girls'', which centres around a women's prison. For three episodes of ''Bad Girls'', the character of Tanya Turner crossed over and was seen being her usual self and causing mischief for others in jail, including being arrested for poisoning inmates. Turner was eventually released when a series of events lead to the Governor forcing a criminal to confess to planting the drugs on her.
Many of the principal characters are thinly veiled caricatures of famous UK footballers, including Justin Fashanu and David Beckham, and their associated wives.
A number of celebrities have made cameo appearances in the series, appearing as themselves. They include: Sol Campbell, Peter Stringfellow, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Jordan, Antony Worrall Thompson, Peter Andre, Lionel Blair, David Seaman, Richard Madeley, Judy Finnigan, Teddy Sheringham, Calum Best and Rula Lenska.

Footballers Wives: Extra Time


With the success of Footballers Wives came the spinoff series, '''' that began on ITV2 on 26 May 2005. It aired after Series Four of the original and several characters, including Bruno and Lucy Milligan, Seb Webb, Harley and Shannon Lawson, Katie Jones and Amber Gates, appeared on the series. The first series features the sister of Tanya Turner, Anika Beevor. Series Two debuted on 23 February 2006 with stars Peter Ash as Darius Fry and Julie Le Grand 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 5 as the new Chairman of Earl's Park Football Club. The series was Executive Produced by Cameron Roach. The series additionally aired in the United States under the name

Foreign Audience


Footballers Wives has aired in New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Bulgaria, France, Netherlands, Estonia, Finland, South Africa, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia and the United States. Kanal 5 the Swedish broadcaster has retitled the show ''Fotbollsfruar'' which translates to ''Footballs Wives''
It began in the United States in the summer of 2005 on BBC America. The channel has aired series 1-4, and currently season 5.
The show airs in Ireland on TV3. Many Irish viewers receive Ulster Television (UTV) (a subsidiary of ITV) and also watch it on that channel. Often, the same episodes air at the same time.
In Germany, RTL made an attempt in 2005 to recreate the look and feel of the show with an adapted version, called ''DAS GEHEIME LEBEN DER SPIELERFRAUEN'' (The Secret Life Of Footballers' Wives) [3]. The original scripts were rewritten to appeal to a German audience. The show failed terribly and was cancelled after only 4 episodes had aired.
In Slovenia is airing on Kanal A as ''Žene nogometašev''.
the show is currently airing in latin-america in the channel "fox life" (as of june 2007)
The show is received in various parts of Asia (for example Singapore) under the cable channel BBC Entertainment.

DVD Releases


Series 1-5 have been released on DVD in the United Kingdom. Series 1-5 have been released on DVD in Australia. Series 1-3 have also been released in the United States. Series 1 of '' has been released in the UK and Australia. Series 2 of '' has also been released in Australia.
'The Complete First Series'
'Set Details''Special Features'

★ 8 Episodes
★ 3-Disc Set
★ 16:9 Aspect Ratio
★ Subtitles: English
★ English (Stereo)

★ "Cast Interviews"
★ "Outtakes"
★ "Cannes Promo"
★ "Exclusive trailer"
★ "PC Wallpapers
★ "Gallery"
'Release Dates'
January 27, 2003 February 3, 2003 June 7, 2005

'The Complete Second Series'
'Set Details''Special Features'

★ 8 Episodes
★ 3-Disc Set
★ 16:9 Aspect Ratio
★ Subtitles: English
★ English (Stereo)

★ "A Day on Set with Tanya"
★ "How to be a Footballer’s Wife"
★ "Outtakes"
★ "Exclusive trailer"
'Release Dates'
February 9, 2004 February 16, 2004 December 6, 2005

'The Complete Third Series'
'Set Details''Special Features'

★ 9 Episodes
★ 3-Disc Set
★ 16:9 Anamorphic aspect ratio
★ Subtitles: English
★ English (Stereo)

★ "Cast Interviews"
★ "Outtakes"
★ "Hazel Bailey’s Earls Park"
★ "Exclusive trailer"
'Release Dates'
April 25, 2005 May 2, 2005 September 19, 2006

'The Complete Fourth Series'
'Set Details''Special Features'

★ 9 Episodes
★ 3-Disc Set
★ 16:9 Anamorphic Aspect Ratio
★ Subtitles: English
★ English (Stereo)

★ "Photo Gallery"
'Release Dates'
March 20, 2006 March 27, 2006 TBA

'The Complete Fifth Series'
'Set Details''Special Features'

★ 8 Episodes
★ 2-Disc Set
★ 16:9 Aspect Ratio
★ Subtitles: English
★ English (Stereo)

★ "Photo Gallery"
'Release Dates'
October 9, 2006 October 10, 2006 TBA

'Extra Time: The Complete First Series'
'Set Details''Special Features'

★ 12 Episodes
★ 2-Disc Set
★ 16:9 Anamorphic Aspect Ratio
★ Subtitles: English
★ English (Stereo)

★ This set contains no special fearures.
'Release Dates'
July 3 2006 July 10 2006 TBA

'The Complete Series Three to Five And Extra Time Series One And Two'
'Set Details''Special Features'

★ 51 Episodes
★ 12-Disc Set
★ 16:9 Aspect Ratio
★ Subtitles: English
★ English (Stereo)

★ "Cast Interviews"
★ "Outtakes"
★ "Hazel Bailey’s Earls Park"
★ "Photo Gallery's"
'Release Dates'
October 22, 2007 October 29, 2007 TBA

External links



''Footballers' Wives'' Official website

Footballers' Wives Online

''Shed Insider'', fan-site of Shed Productions' programs.



BBC America - Footballers Wive$

Footballers Wive$ series 6 Piczo Fansite

Shed Insider

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psst.. try this: add to faves