Warren United

Went to the bloggers' screening of Warren United last night at the Prince Charles Cinema, the new football comedy starting at 10pm on ITV4 on April 22. It's about Warren Kingsley, a 37-year-old fanatical fan who supports Brainsford United, nicknamed the Meringues, a useless underachieving football team who haven't won any trophies since the Co-operative Tarpaulins Trophy in 1971— although in one episode they draw 0-0 with East Ham United (not at all based on West Ham). 

Brainsford United are managed by Fat Baz, voiced by Johnny Vegas, and owned by iffy Egyptians the Luxor Borthers. Strangely Warren's wife Ingrid, moody teenage daughter Charlie and son Harrison don't quite share his passion. The episodes I saw also featured talking police horses and characters such as Burger Al, a fast-food vendor who makes our Green Street vendors seem haute cuisine. The first three episodes are by Simon Nye, who wrote Men Behaving Badly, and the series is co-produced by Bill Freedman and Henry Normal, of Steve Coogan fame, so it has a good football pedigree. 

A hapless middle-aged man supporting an underachieving team? Nothing at all for us West Ham fans to identify with, but it is pretty funny from what I've seen and worth checking out…