Andrew Flintoff

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 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

A strange sensation nagged at tvBite as, tears of bitter rage trickling down its cheeks, it sat down to the opening stanzas of the symphony of smug that is Sky's take on They Think It's All Over. Dear old Andrew Flintoff was there, making jokes about his drink issues. Top Top Jamie was there, being chummy. And there was the host, popular Gavin And Stacey actor James Corden. Several minutes passed, with tvBite eyeing the kitchen knives lasciviously and wondering what was amiss.

And then it hit! Fully four minutes had gone by without Corden making an amusing self-deprecating reference to his weight! Alarmed, tvBite began calling the Trading Standards Office, but they were out. Offcom were no more use. Just as tvBite was considering a cab to Isleworth or wherever to plead at the door of the TV studio for one, just one, "I am fat" quip, normal service was resumed. Corden then done five jokes about his own physical appearance in the next seven minutes, and all was right with the world once more. Phew! Banter!

TV Bite, 11th March 2010