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See also WAGs, acronym for footballers' "wives and girlfriends".
Footballers' Wives is a British television drama surrounding the fictional Premier League Association football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives. It aired on the ITV network from 8 January 2002 to 15 July 2006. The show began with a multi-lateral focus on a variety of different types of relationships explored, however, from the third series onward the primary focus was on complex love triangle between Tanya Turner (Zöe Lucker), Amber Gates (Laila Rouass) and Conrad Gates (Ben Price).
[edit] BackgroundThe show centres around the fictional 'Earls Park Football Club' (nicknamed 'Sparks'). The Series was produced by Liz Lake, Claire Phillips and Cameron Roach. Its Executive Producer was 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 (Zöe Lucker). Lucker left the series halfway through Series Four, though returned midway through the next series. However, by this time the series ratings had fallen significantly,therefore certifying Lucker as the main star of the show even though the series was cancelled in 2006. 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 11 January 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 7 March 2007 at 9pm. The series was then taken over by ITV. Earls Park Football Club's home games were played at real life Selhurst Park, which is the home of Crystal Palace Football Club. [edit] CastMain article: List of Footballers' Wives cast members [edit] EpisodesMain article: List of Footballers' Wives episodes [edit] Storyline guides[edit] Series 1 (2002)Main article: Footballers' Wives (series 1) Series one began airing on 8 January and concluded on 26 February 2002. It featured a total of 8 episodes. The series follows a group of footballers' wives whose husbands all play for 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 teenager. Trouble crops up when their 8-year-old daughter is kidnapped in the final episode of the series. Donna's younger sister Marie is staying with them, causing trouble. 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 One was produced by Liz Lake. [edit] Series 2 (2003)Main article: Footballers' Wives (series 2) Series two began airing on 8 January and concluded on 26 February 2003 with a total of 8 episodes. Series 2 kicks off with Tanya and Jason in court, lying on oath. The British 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's baby son, Paddy, 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 two was produced by Claire Phillips. [edit] Series 3 (2004)Main article: Footballers' Wives (series 3) Series three began airing on 11 February and concluded on 7 April 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 in debt. 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 jealous wife, Amber Gates. Tanya and Amber soon became arch enemies, and pit up for 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 cliffhanger. 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. Amber Gates also is pregnant with Conrad's child. So to keep Conrad, Tanya claims she is also pregnant with his child. [edit] Series 4 (2005)Main article: Footballers' Wives (series 4) The fourth series premiered on 31 March and concluded on 26 May 2005 with a total of 9 episodes. Tanya and Amber both have their babies; Tanya had the babies swapped at birth to hide 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 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 himself, Bruno and Lucy's daughter Angelica, by locking them inside his car and turning on the exhausts. Bruno accidentally shoots Conrad. The final episode was considerably edited on ITV1 with the full episode being shown in Ireland and Australia. The episode was not restored for the DVD release. Series four was produced by Cameron Roach. [edit] Series 5 (2006)Main article: Footballers' Wives (series 5) The fifth and final series premiered on 23 February and concluded on 13 April 2006 with 8 episodes. Series five was produced by Cameron Roach. After Lucy leaves Bruno at the altar of their Pride and Prejudice themed wedding, Amber takes the lead as the central character and wastes no time getting revenge on Bruno as she knows 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. Getting more desperate, Amber tries to poison and then shoot Bruno. In Amber's last and surely campiest scene, she is shown wearing what looks like one of Cher's old costumes. In the struggle, she ended up shooting Roger Webb, who loses his sight. Amber was then sectioned and sent to a mental institute for bleeding on the brain 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, looking shockingly similar to Naomi Campbell, 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 went head to head with Eva de Wolffe (Joan Collins, best known as Dynasty super bitch Alexis Colby). Tanya's joy at snatching Paulo from Eva's clutches was short-lived; he was taken to a mental hospital after a breakdown, and she found herself penniless. Garry Ryan, the new club chairman, kills Roger and Jackie leaves to live with her son Kyle in Australia. Tanya discovered evidence that proved Garry's 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. [edit] CancelledIn 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] [edit] Sport Relief specialOn 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.[1] [edit] SynopsisThe episode opens with Tanya waltzing into a swanky expensive resturaunt, with her face covered in 'powder'. She is having dinner with Shannon, who has ordered for her from the kiddies menu. Tanya finds it hard to use the cutlery because of her longer nails and instead, uses her fingers. A waiter then arrives with a telephone call for Shannon, but she takes the phone and puts it into her purse. Shannon then claims to have "gone" and asks what has happened, Tanya tells her that "Paulo has had a sex change and shacked up with James Blunt, oh, and Bruno Milligan has been sacked from Earls Park and has been replaced by a brand new hunky Irish captain, Brendan Spunk". We then see Amber over at the bar and Tanya soon notices her. The three then gossip about Brendan Spunk, but when the girls argue over who is going to get with him, Shannon claims him but Tanya warns them that he is hers. He then arrives, revealing him to be Graham Norton. When Tanya tries to get her claws into him, he reveals he is with Amber. He then lets them know she will soon be Mrs. Spunk and Amber accepts. Brendan is then in bed grinning and moaning, Tanya then appears from under the covers, as does Amber, complimenting his sexual score. Shannon also appears and realises that "someone has put one in the back of her net", the waiter from the resturaunt then appears. The door blasts open and Bruno enters holding a machine gun, they all scream, but when everyone has stopped Brendan is still screaming, Amber slaps him. Bruno then relates to the last series, that Brendan has bedded his girlfriend (Amber), she then comments that they split up. Bruno then reveals that there will be no series 6, he then shoots. The group are then shown uninterested and reading Heat magazine. Bruno then blows up the room by setting fire to hair spray with a lighter. A title card reading "The End" is then shown but a question mark shows after and an alarm clock goes off. Tanya wakes up relieved by the fact that the last 5 series was all a dream. She then lights a cigarette and due to hairspray still being in the air she blows herself and the room up. [edit] Cast
[edit] Inspiration and connections 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 Media, 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. [edit] Footballers' Wives: Extra TimeWith the success of Footballers' Wives came the spin-off series, Footballers' Wives: Extra Time 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 Footballers' Wives: Overtime. [edit] Foreign audienceFootballers' Wives has aired in Portugal, Brazil, New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Bulgaria, Germany, the Republic of Macedonia, France, Estonia, Finland, South Africa, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Denmark and the United States. The Swedish broadcaster Kanal 5 has retitled the show "Fotbollsfruar", which translates to Football Wives. It began in the United States in the summer of 2005 on BBC America. The channel has aired series 1-5 and both seasons of Overtime. In South Africa the show aired on SABC 3 Monday nights at 21h00, The show was very popular and a huge success. (all five series was aired.) 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 Turkey, show airs on e2. e2 has aired 1, 2, 3 and 4th seasons. 5th season will air in spring. In the Netherlands they launched in 2007 a similar series: Voetbalvrouwen, a literal Dutch translation. It's a huge success in the Netherlands and in 2010 season 3 will be aired on the Dutch channel RTL4. The original Footballers' Wives series were also shown in the Netherlands with Dutch subtitles. 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 four episodes had aired. The original show currently airs on TIMM. In Slovenia is airing on Kanal A as Žene nogometašev. In Italy, Mediaset produced an own version of the series, Ho sposato un calciatore. It was axed after one season. 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. In Canada, CBC Television launched a similar series, MVP, in early 2008. That show's creator acknowledged Footballers' Wives as an inspiration, but chose to create a similar series about hockey from scratch rather than directly adapting Footballers, 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.[2] [edit] DVD releasesSeries 1-5 have been released on DVD in the United Kingdom and Australia and Series 1-3 have been released on DVD in the United States.
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