Fantasy Football

Elis James and Matt Lucas have replaced Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, but otherwise the format is unchanged – un-PC jokes and all.

It was just a shame there were no nods to the women’s game, especially after a week with no top-flight men’s football. Later in the series, we’re promised actor Brian Cox (currently languishing bottom of the league), athlete Mo Farah (top of the table), comedian Jennifer Saunders, presenters Rachel Riley and Gabby Logan, and newsreader Trevor McDonald. New co-hosts Matt Lucas (a devoted Arsenal fan) and Elis James (Swansea City) came off the bench for an ambitious 16-week run, filmed the night before transmission to ensure topicality. Segments included “The Big Hello”, “A Few Things We've Noticed from Watching Football” (basically Harry Hill’s TV Burp for football coverage) and the much-loved “Phoenix from the Flames”, recreating moments from footballing history. Mensah made for a lively addition, cracking edgy gags about taking the knee and teasing Lucas for his blackface misdemeanours on Little Britain. [Frank Skinner and David Baddiel’s BBC Two cult classic](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/didnt-even-drink-baddiel-skinners-fantasy-football-accidentally/) was in its pomp during the mid-1990s, when it spawned inescapable terrace anthem Three Lions and, along with Chris Evans’s TFI Friday, came to epitomise laddish Nineties TV.