British Comedy Guide
The First Team. Image shows from L to R: Olivia Talbot (Tamla Kari), Mark Crane (Will Arnett), Benji Achebe (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah), Mattie Sullivan (Jake Short), Jack Turner (Jack McMullen), Chris Booth (Chris Geere), Petey Brooks (Theo Barklem-Biggs)
The First Team

The First Team

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC Two
  • 2020
  • 6 episodes (1 series)

Comedy following three young football players at a fictional Premier League team. Stars Jake Short, Shaquille Ali-Yebuah, Jack McMullen, Will Arnett, Chris Geere and more.

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Press clippings Page 2

TV review: The First Team, BBC2

We might have to wait a bit longer for the real Premier League to start but you can get an early football fix with this new sitcom set in the world of soccer's top flight written by Inbetweeners writers Iain Morris and Damon Beesley. Although a word of warning if you are having really bad withdrawal symptoms, there is no actual football shown. This is pretty much a workplace comedy that happens to be set in the football world. Same shit, shinier cars.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 28th May 2020

Review: The First Team

The Inbetweeners rightly raised Iain Morris and Damon Beesley to the comedy nobility. But with The First Team - another examination of young male relationships - they've missed the goal, certainly judging by a relatively flat opening episode.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 28th May 2020

The First Team - a football sitcom fit for relegation

This new comedy from the writers of The Inbetweeners boasts Will Arnett and trademark 'banter' - but there's only so long you can watch bored footballers playing Fifa.

Rebecca Sayce, The Guardian, 28th May 2020

The First Team, review: second division comedy

The German Bundesliga and reruns of classic matches have been trying valiantly to fill the football-shaped hole in our lives. Could new pitchside sitcom The First Team (BBC Two) further plug the gap? No, it couldn't. Viewers were left sick as a parrot, rather than over the moon, Clive.

Michael Hogan, The Telegraph, 28th May 2020

The First Team review: boys, balls and banter

Is The First Team football's answer to The Inbetweeners? Luckily for the BBC Two sitcom, yes it is.

Louisa Mellor, Den Of Geek, 28th May 2020

The First Team review: football sitcom hits the post

New comedy series from the creators of The Inbetweeners fails to score big laughs.

Patrick Cremona, Radio Times, 28th May 2020

Iain Morris and Damon Beesley on The First Team

The duo that skewered lad culture with The Inbetweeners are back and want to show us that football is not all toxic masculinity.

Jay Richardson, i Newspaper, 27th May 2020

An Inbetweener on how to write a self-isolation sitcom

Not going out? Stuck indoors with the same old people every day, life under corona lockdown probably already feels like a perpetual - albeit rather dark - sitcom. So what better time to try to actually turn it into one? But how do you ensure you're a Royle Family and not a Mrs Brown's Boys? We grabbed Iain Morris, co-creator of The Inbetweeners and brand new football-based sitcom The First Team, for some handy dos and don'ts of penning the perfect laughfest during lockdown.

Rich Pelley, The Guardian, 26th May 2020

How players gave Inbetweeners writers inside stories

The First Team lampoons the game's excesses - and much of the insight came from players and club officials.

Sarah Hughes, The Observer, 23rd May 2020

28 new British TV comedies for 2019 and beyond

Here's what fans of TV comedy can look forward to over the next year or so from the UK...

Louisa Mellor, Den Of Geek, 17th July 2019

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