They Think It's All Over
- TV panel show
- BBC One
- 1995 - 2006
- 153 episodes (19 series)
Sports-based panel show hosted by Nick Hancock. Regulars included David Gower, Gary Lineker, Rory McGrath and Jonathan Ross. Also features Lee Mack, Phil Tufnell, Boris Becker, David Seaman, Ian Wright and Lee Hurst
Press clippings
The UK TV panel show is dying (but it's probably for the best)
The cancellation of Mock The Week marked another nail in the coffin for UK TV panel shows. Is this the end of an era?
Alice Pattillo, Den Of Geek, 1st September 2022Nick Hancock apologises for Luke Chadwick jokes
His appearance became such a running joke on They Think It's All Over that it took a toll on his mental health. Now former Manchester United player Luke Chadwick has finally won an apology from its host Nick Hancock, who admitted that in retrospect he is 'appalled' at his behaviour.
Chortle, 18th May 2020It's 10 years since 'They Think It's All Over' ended
Can you believe that it's ten years since the last ever episode of They Think It's All Over? The sport-themed British comedy panel game was first shown in September 1995 and ran for nineteen seasons on BBC One before coming to an end in 2006 after over a decade on air.
David Somerset, Cult Box, 14th November 2016Women - beware panel shows!
Jo Brand: I used to find They Think It's All Over quite stressful and often locked horns with Rory McGrath over his "all sportswomen have moustaches and are dykes" lines.
Jo Brand, The Guardian, 10th June 2009What the point was in booking Julian Clary as a guest, and then not allowing him to join in the Feel The Sportsman round is hard to guess, but otherwise this was a sparkling episode of the show that has managed to shake off the self-congratulatory smugness of its last series.
Matthew Norman, Evening Standard, 19th May 1997They Think It's All Over (BBC1) is like watching little lads in the playground. You wonder fondly if they will ever tire of whacking each other.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 20th April 1997It is this principle, you supsect, that brought They Think It's All Over (BBC1) from radio to television, its great selling point being that it is not A Question of Sport but an ironic twist upon it. There are no repulsive jumpers here, while the scent of Brut is absent. What has replaced it (Body shop eucalyptus and mango exfoliating scrub, perhaps) is pleasanter, of course, because New Laddishness - as personified by presenter Nick Hancock, one of the movement's leaders - is less pernicious than the original.
Matthew Norman, Evening Standard, 17th April 1996They Think It's All Over (BBC1) has two sporting captains, David Gower and Gary Lineker. Clever young comics swarm all over them like a pitch invasion.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 21st October 1995