Boyle fronts travel documentary ahead of the World Cup

Frankie Boyle is to front a new travel documentary show about Russia ahead of this summer’s World Cup.

The two-part BBC Two series promises to ‘go behind the stereotypes and half-truths of Russian football and culture with his trademark provocative humour’.

He will visit a sleepy seaside town preparing to host the England team, a city twinned with Glasgow that’s renowned for its football violence, joins a daredevil motorbike football team, records a rap with a hip-hop artist and learns how to wield a sabre from the Cossacks who will be policing the World Cup stadiums.

Frankie Goes To Russia is set against the backdrop of spy poisoning, alleged state-sponsored doping and threats of ultra-football hooliganism that mark the worst relations between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

The show is being made by ITN Productions, directed and produced by Jenny Dames, whose credits include First Dates and  Life is Toff. 

It was one of several commissions announced at a BBC Two event in London last night.

Published: 1 May 2018