Footballers' Wives (2002–2006) User Reviews (26)

Dazzling Eurotrash

[MVictorPjinsiste · 6/10 · 6 August 2020]

I just saw a couple of episodes - and I couldn't look away. The actors (All women are scheming vixens while all men are moneymaking lummoxes) aggressively ham it up in their outrageous clothing amidst pricey environments with a background of screaming fans - a cynical, psychotronic critique of our era.

Yeah, it's bad - gloriously bad. I do hope they found it intact a thousand years from now, just so they can get the geist of our times.

6/10, just for the shock (schlock) value. And Zoe Lucker is magnificent.

The nostalgia I need in 2020.

[acnlds · 6/10 · 24 September 2020]

I was quite young when this was out and I wasn't allowed to watch it however I was obsessed with Bad Girls growing up (even though I shouldn't of been watching that at my age then either lol!) 24 now I decided to give Footballers Wives a go seeing as it's made by the same people as Bad Girls and Tanya even crossed over into the Bad Girls world.

First time watching it I wasn't overly keen but the second time around I was hooked. However the first season was strong but from then on out Tanya Turner is the one who continued to hold the whole show together with her fabulousness and mad ways, without her I don't think many people would remember or would want to remember this show all that much. It's a true 2000s classic that'll would never be approved into the world of today so appreciate the nostalgia that it'll forever hold.

Premiership quality

[jessmcrae76 · 10/10 · 30 August 2006]

More plot per episode than can be imagined. Higher cliffs to hang from, thicker glossier makeup, higher heels and hair, flasher cars, brighter clothes. Not much soccer, but you didn't tune in for that purpose presumably. As Tanya Turner Zoe Lucker found a role of enormous power and variety. She lights up the screen in every scene she's in, especially when Jase, both true partner and nemesis, was around. Dragging Joan Collins in for an episode or two was true to the genre but not to the show. You enjoy the gesture only for its trueness to type, not its product.

Addictive in a way most television could never be, sly but blatant and insane. Sorely sorely missed.

An entertaining drama

[stephen2203 · 20 February 2002]

This is an entertaining drama, which is not really going to tax your brain to much. It features the wives of a group of footballers in a fictional Premiership football team. Story-lines include attempted murder, drug abuse, adoption, adultery and a nurse who has a bit of a fetish for her comatose patients. All slightly far-fetched but so what?? US soap operas like Sunset Beach thrived on this. Real life footballer's wives such as Posh Spice (Mrs David Beckham) have criticized the program for being unrealistic but it does not claim to be a documentary.

A Load Of Old Balls

[ShadeGrenade · 1/10 · 22 February 2006]

Without a doubt the worst decade for British television was the Noughties. We got 'Big Brother', 'Little Britain', 'Celebrity Love Island', 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here', 'Celebrity Wrestling', 'Pop Idol', 'Fame Academy', I.T.V.'s ill-fated 'Crossroads' revival, 'Strictly Come Dancing', and 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'. Dreadful shows every one of them. In his novel '1984', George Orwell envisioned a future in which a totalitarian regime brainwashed citizens with trashy novels designed to destroy intelligent thought. He was almost right: for trashy novels read trashy T.V., and there was no better an example of this than 'Footballers' Wives', a train wreck of a series that made 'Neighbours' look like Shakespeare. It centred round a group of...well, footballers' wives who drank, took drugs and slept with every man who crossed their paths. It was surprising that the feminists failed to invade the studio where it was made to pelt the cast with eggs and flour bombs. Perhaps having women in key positions of power on British T.V. nowadays has blinded them to this? 'Footballers' Wives' flopped originally, and it was only when the tabloids came galloping to its rescue with a blitz of coverage did it secure a second season. So now you know who to blame for this cynically-motivated crap. There was even an American version, mercifully brief. On May 3rd 2006, common sense prevailed finally, and it was axed, hopefully never to return.

Great acting

[bevo-13678 · 10/10 · 3 October 2020]

I like the bit where I got divorced and never had to watch this show ever again.

Worse than worse

[gibbs-18172 · 1/10 · 10 March 2020]

Its probably impossible for me to even compose a set of words to elaborate how crap this.

Best tv drama EVER!

[seannk3 · 10/10 · 12 February 2004]

Footballers Wives is one of the best television drams to come out of the UK. It started its third series last night and it is still as racey and raunchy as the previous series'. Tanya is still incredible as a Footballers Wife. New arrivals Conrad and Amber Gates keep the show glamorous. Although alot of the original characters have departed to do other things the show is still great with its replacements. No one can beat Tanya and Hazel though. They make the show what it is. Absolutely amazing. I hope this programme goes on for more and more series'. I just love it.

Sexist, Stereotypical and Humiliating.

[SuPeRCrAzYoi · 1/10 · 15 June 2006]

It's great to hear the 3 or so comments, that point out what 'Footballers Wives' signifies for women. The title alone, washes away any supposed equality women have in the media industry or society, reducing them to two dimensional cartoon caricatures of how men think women should behave . It is a post modern moronic farce. It might as well be called, 'Footballers Wifey who stays at home and knows her place'.

On one hand, it could actually be some sort of parody on the U.K.'s, gutter trash press representation of celebrities and the role they have in maintaining a patriarchal society. So women can undermine stereotypes by acting like those stereotypes and own the image that has been created for them by mens desire. Nah, that would be to ironic and clever. I also sound like I should be praising it.

Zoe Lucker is simply too camp and over the top to be taken seriously. Just like an even cheaper Cruella De Ville. She just needs some maniacal, condescending, yet at the same time, self appraising laugh to show off her true acting range. Oh she does? Right. Anyway, it just about sums up whom this is aimed at. Either 'clever clever' journo's, who think its an up-roaring send-up of vaudevillian proportions, or people who think its 'real'. "Finest actors"? OMG!! Stop watching this afterbirth of a pantomime and get a life.

Its utterly sexist and is of such low quality, that maybe those who enjoy it think they are "in" on the "joke". Do the actors really care or understand what they are communicating? Its so demeaning to women and men. They are not all self centred, selfish, football loving materialistic jerks, who think women are nothing but another trophy to be put on display for the public. It's so humiliating. I am sure Ms Lucker would easily stand up to them in her "real" life, and twist them round her finger as so easily done in 'Footballers Wives' .

But of course, its doesn't really matter. I mean its only a T.V. programme after all. So please let it stay axed. It's dreadful and will only be looked back on in the same disbelief that 'Prisoner Cell Block H' was so fondly remembered for.

How did it come to exist? It sure ain't subtle or complex. It could only come from the same mind set who read FHM magazine, and think its "alright" to look at soft-porn, and "do" as many women who bow to their "will" and chant patriotic and racist comments whenever "their" football team losses/wins. It's totally crass.

Footballers' Wives clearly tops over Footballers' Wives, Overtime

[judy_floyd · 9/10 · 30 March 2007]

Footballers' Wives clearly tops over Footballers' Wives, Overtime. The series that captured the audience and kept it was clearly the series that included the Tanya and Jason Turner characters and the entire ensemble during that period which includes the actors as well as the directors. They were all bigger than life. Immediately with the onset of Footballers's Wives, Overtime, something was lost. It just became substandard when compared with the original series. It was predictable and lost it's special edge that kept it exciting but quality. Lost a desire to watch it after the first season of Overtime. Tried, but the spark is not there.

The best we've got!

[Paul_A_C · 8/10 · 27 July 2006]

Sex, glamour, fame, top notch story lines yet so unreal but we can't help loving it. The show has it all. Footballers wives is by far England's most successful, addictive TV drama show. The show is evolved around the lives of several footballers and their wives changing characters and story lines throughout the series.

The show mainly revolves around the ultimate footballers wife Tanya Turner (Zoe Lucker) who has always given the show its ten out of ten entertainment; she's a heartless, greedy, money hungry, manipulative bitch but we love her. She's bribed her way through it all, bumped off rich men for their money, swapped babies at birth to save herself and much more that's kept us watching throughout. As the series have progressed they've lost touch as most series do; but it's always kept its shock making us desperate to know what happens next.

Love. Love. Love. 💚

[potatopirate-69039 · 9/10 · 11 November 2019]

I love this show like I did when I first watched it when it came out in 02. It's got everything you want in a show. Good story lines , great characters which the actors chosen portray very well, love, drugs, betrayal, deceit and murder !

COMPULSORY TV viewing

[jaceybaby · 31 July 2005]

Footballers' Wives is better then a lot of the crap that comes out of America these days. The show is best described as one of the most scandalous series aired ever where nothing goes untouched.

The action is based around the lives of the stars of a fictional premiership football team 'Earls Park'. Whilst the players themselves are outrageous, the behavior of their wives and girlfriends is beyond words....these women are cold hearted and ruthless, and will do anything to succeed, whether it be in terms of column inches or in order to bed the latest young star.

The characters are consumed by the wealth they get from their careers at the club, but their lives are also rife with manipulation, double-crossing, lying and cheating. The show drags you in with its steamy story lines, outrageous twists of fate and crazy cliffhangers, cat-fights

The show makes Melrose Place, Desperate housewives, Models INC. look like the Brady bunch.

Now with 4 series been under the shows belt, the series has become a cult hit across the globe.

The series has some of the UK's finest actors including Zoe Lucker (Tanya), Ben Price (Conrad), Alison Newman (Hazel).

Did you know that the series has been filmed on location in Thailand and Spain, When Tanya goes to HMP Larkhall prison for grade A drug possession she actually appears in series 6 of Bad Girls. The wives clothing is supplied by Versace, Robert Cavalli and Dolce and Gabbana. The stars on the show often buy some of the outrageous and simply glamorous costumes once filming has been completed.

The show is filmed on location in Chipstead FC

Rearranging the letters of 'Footballers' wives' gives: " We boil fast, lovers "

Tanya turner played by Zoe Lucker has to be one of the best villains to be in a drama series to date.

Must see COMPULSORY TV viewing at its best !!!!!

Brilliant

[rob-86932 · 10/10 · 18 October 2020]

Classic show from the 2000s. Outrageous plots and characters that made for unmissable TV every week. It would never get aired these days!

Amazing, fun, camp

[jvjr25 · 10/10 · 17 October 2020]

It's brilliant for what it is. Soap opera, have vs have nots, owners vs. talent, husbands vs. wives, up and comers vs. establishment, it's got it all!

Great Soap Opera Written and Directed by Women!

[artpf · 8/10 · 3 December 2006]

A show like Footballer's Wives could go very wrong in the wrong hands. Thanksfully that is not the case with this classic British series. It's one of the few dramas on television that does not take it's audience for granted.

It's sort of female centric and with good reason -- it's produced, directed and written by women. And it shows. The characters are well drawn and the male leads are wickedly positioned from the feminine point of view.

Don't miss this show! It's one of the best soaps opera dramas ever on TV. Unfortunately U.S. citizens can only see it on BBC America or by buying the DVD sets. If you go the DVD route, try to buy the UK versions, if your player can handle it. Those contain juicy extra disks not on the American versions!! I heard this show may have been canceled. If that's true it's really too bad. it then 5 years is a good run by any standard.

So unbelievably camp... and that's the appeal!

[GlamourRock · 2 March 2003]

I absolutley LOVE footballer's wives!! It may have over the top characters and story lines, but that's why everyone loves it. Unfortunatley series 2 has now finished with a wicked cliffhanger of an ending, but i know that most of the UK can't wait for the third series to start. The guys are all gorgeous and the girl's outfits simply divine... I kinda of have a love- hate relationship with Tanya Turner, but she is definently the most interesting character in the show...

so come on ITV, bring back Footballer's Wives - SOON!

So much fun!

[alanmryan100 · 10 January 2004]

This is one of the best shows to watch, you don't need to know everything that has happened beforehand to watch and the storyline's aren't very taxing after a long day at work.

The show follows (as you've probably guessed) Premiership footballers and their wives. There are Jason (seasons 1 & 2) and Tanya (season 1 - ), the constantly sparring, schemeing and cheating couple. He's a sex-mad, homophobic bad buy and captain of Earls Park Rangers while she's a cocaine addict, attempted murderer and TV's biggest bitch.

Next there's the dull Walmsley family, who only lasted 1 1/2 seasons on the show.

The Pascoes consist of Kyle (season 1 - )and his glamour model wife Chardonnay (seasons 1 & 2), as well as his mother Jackie. They are very Posh and Becks. In season 1 Jackie got pregnant with Jason Turner's baby, and then Char learned she couldn't have kids so they came up with the crazy idea that she and Kyle would bring up Jackie's baby. But as ever in FW things went wrong and it turned out that the baby had both male and female reproductive organs. At the end of season two, Jackie left with baby Paddy. Will she return?

There are also other characters, Salvitore Biagi (another footballer), who had an affair with Donna Walmsley, Freddie Hauser (his new love interest), Stefan (her father, manager of Earls Park) and Frank (who Tanya tried to kill and also works at Earls Park).

Overall this show is great!

Very good drama

[walfordqueen · 6 November 2005]

This show gives a new meaning to the word sensationalism but it's fabulous. The show is so bad that it's funny at the same time with it's colourful characters. The show is bad but in a good way, it certainly provides me with a form of escapism. Tanya Turner played by Zoe Lucker is a super mad bitch who behaves very desperate housewife-esquire and she's just great. She left the series last time though but let's hope that she'll appear in the next one. I think the show isn't as good without the original cast that made it so great but hopefully they'll be able to create a few more characters who prove to be just as successful.

Tania (of the players) : "They are the studs, we are the slags".

[wombat_1 · 29 December 2004]

Yes, Tania, that is indeed what we think. And in all honesty could you blame us? American women in soapies generally look like Barbie dolls; but yes, you and your fellow tarts (men AND women) do indeed look, talk and behave like slags. I had the misfortune of sitting through about half an hour of this crap, and didn't have the stomach for any more.

One reviewer here in Sydney commented on the amount of leopardskin in this show; and indeed he is right. But I was more taken by the long plastic fingernails. And then there were the women ...

When I went to school, there was much made of how much "better" British drama was than anything else. Gee, if only those people were sitting next to me now.

What rubbish. I won't sit through any more of this garbage again.

Rubbish on a grand scale!

[Goldie7662 · 5 February 2002]

As this came out of the same stable as the excellent "Bad Girls" I was really looking forward to this, their second project. What I expected and what has actually been produced are two entirely different things. As butt clenching bad story-lines go, this has them all. Every tabloid cliche you can think of and some very bad acting which you cannot really blame the actors for as the material they are working with is so awful. It is so bad it will be probably gain cult status in the same way "Eldorado" did for the BBC. I should think most footballers wives are either laughing their heads off at this or are mortally offended depending on their ability to take a joke...stick to women behind bars shed not boots!!!!!

It's meant to be like that!!!

[mmsbk · 20 November 2002]

Possible spoilers

I just love this series. Here in Oz we have just had the last cliff-hanging episode of, I hope, the first series.

Can Jason get any worse? Can Tanya save them again? Can't Jackie, Char and Kyle see that the baby plan just can't work !! Who is really behind the kidnapping of Holly, and can Donna and Sal work it out - perhaps Marie can console Ian, now Jason has rejected her ( AGAIN- really, couldn't she see it coming!!! And what of Frank.......And the Scottish stalker.........

I find it hard to believe that reviewers seem to think that its some sort of slice of real life. Its glorious soap, soap, of the highest order and far from bad acting, they are perfect ( well, perhaps not Susie Amie) but Cristien Solimeno and Zoe Lucker are classic. How he must enjoy the anti Italian thing his character does.

filth

[adamr-hinchliffe · 13 October 2004]

One has to question the mentality of the British people when so many of them tune in daily to the kind of filth we see so often on our screens. Footballers Wives is a classic example of this. It glorifies every aspect of human greed, selfishness and immorality and does not in any way portray the real lives of our sporting heroes (or their spouses) in an accurate or favourable way. Instead it shows these people as nothing more than shallow headed imbeciles who believe wealth and fame is the ticket to eternal happiness. Of course, the real objective of Footballers Wives is not to idolise the lifestyles of the cast, quite the opposite, it is to demonstrate that what they are doing is slowly destroying themselves. Abusing their bodies through excessive drinking and drug-taking and indulging in practically every sexual vice going, will in the end be the destruction of everything they cherish. It is probably worth remembering that most of the people we consider 'celebrities' are no different to ordinary people. They just have a talent to do something good. Either they can sing, dance, act or play sport. But besides this, they are just human like the rest of us. The real heroes and celebrities in this world are the ones who don't seek publicity or wealth. They don't aspire to the vain trappings of a materialistic lifestyle either. Instead, they just live their lives as ordinary decent hard working individuals trying to achieve what is best for themselves and their neighbors.

pretty fun

[dvdgoofball · 20 June 2005]

despite myself I kinda like it. It just came out in the U.S., and I think the fanbase here will build over time. Pretty crazy stuff! Someone told me that it was the basis for Desperate Housewives. Is this true? Anyone know?

Anyway you can find the DVD's on Amazon. I don't know what it is about British television it seems to be everywhere lately, and with the low quality of US TV at the moment.

Well

that's why I'm checking these out

dvdgoofball

Brilliant

[rossrobinson · 10 March 2004]

I think Footballers Wives is a fantastic series to watch for all you football fans and non football fans out there. The series started in 2002 and is still going on with the series, So far Footballer's wife has 3 series, the 3rd series is now on tv in united kindgom.

The actors and actresses who play the parts in the programme i think they them brilliantlly. If you like Footballers Wives, then i am sure you will like Playing the field, which was another fantastic programme about footballers and their wifes. I gvie Footballer's wfie a fantastic score 10 out of 10. It's a fantastic programme.