Critics unimpressed with BBC Two's new football comedy

BBC Two’s new football comedy The First Team has failed to score with critics.

The Premier League-set sitcom from Inbetweeners creators Iain Morris and Damon Beesley launched last night to a volley of two-star ratings from the newspapers.

The Daily Telegraph complained of  ‘disappointingly slack writing’ and said it was ‘awkwardly redolent of notoriously naff Noughties soap Footballers’ Wives’.

The Guardian said: ‘ It’s brave to try to write a comedy that leans heavily on a relatively repetitive existence and this never quite transcends that problem.’

The Daily Mail decided: ‘Most of the attempts at jokes floated high and wide, like shots over the crossbar from 30 yards out. There was no rhythm, and far too many characters’

Radio Times said: ‘Much of the humour on display here comes across as not only juvenile but underwhelming.’

And Chortle’s review said the show ‘missed the goal’.

However in an unstarred review. the Evening Standards was kinder to what it called a ‘gently funny and occasionally touching’ show, saying that by next week’s second episode ‘ it feels a lot more confident and funny’

And in the most positive review, Den Of Geek said: ‘Beesley and Morris are fluent in the dynamics of young male friendship and in milking comedy from the collision of none-too-bright lads clumsily negotiating the early stages of adulthood.’

Published: 29 May 2020