Bostock's Cup

Having obtained a copy of Bostocks Cup I must confess It is not as funny as I originally thought!! IT IS BETTER!!!!! Charlie Williams ... eat your heart out. Match fixing???? Never! Sloping pitch at 45%? Ronnie and Reggie Kay? George Best? The Coach Driver who thinks Pontefract is in South Wales ( It's all Ponty this and Ponty that)Bertie Masson's (Tim Healey's)lucky Cup hat!! (not that he's into gimmicks) Sugar Plum Fairy????? Confused???? Watch it again. The innovative use of real footage with Bostock players was brilliant and the producer should be proud of giving us a MASTERPIECE. Come on ITV do the viewers and yourself a favour - show it again!!! Please>

It really is quite staggering that this gem has not been repeated or made available on video or DVD. You really do wonder about some of the people now in charge of television. Night after night we suffer hours of TV that is an insult to the intelligence yet this minor classic is ignored. Has someone lost the master tape?

I am one of the lucky ones who recorded it when it was shown on ITV. As secretary of UniBond League side Burscough Bostock's Cup causes a riot on our away coach trips every season as a new group of players get to see it for the first time. Some of the performances are priceless and the way it lampoons all the various stereotypes in football would make it even more popular today.

As you can see I've submitted 2 comments about this show since 1991....and no, ITV have still not made it available for general release.

HOWEVER, I recently contacted ITV to see if there was any way of getting hold of a copy, and this was their reply.......

"Unfortunately there are no plans for this programme to be released on DVD/video. You can however, purchase copies from our Viewers Requests dept. Their email address is: viewers.requests@itv.com ".

Hope you all now get the chance to enjoy this classic short comedy again.

Can't believe that Bostock's Cup isn't available on a proper video or DVD yet. I've only seen it once, on a dodgy copy taken off the TV and despite not being a footy fan (at all,) thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

The famous sloping pitch of wherever it was, the clueless coach driver ("Ponty-this, Ponty-that", "I'll take the next exit"), the pointless plot; it all added up to aching sides.

Being stuck in the US I'm desperate for some good British humour but not quite enough to spend the amount that the production company are asking for. C'mon, get it out on kosher DVD pronto.

.... could it be that ITV wouldn't want to release this absolute classic because it would show up their current series of Mike Bassett for what it is? When discussing Mike Bassett with some work colleagues I mentioned Bostock's Cup as being a far superior offering and was surprised to find that I seem to be the only person in my entire office that has actually seen it. This can't be right for a film that has got to be the funniest thing I have ever seen.

Let's face it, ITV don't have the greatest recent record for producing comedy so you would think that they would jump at the chance of at least repeating something which is genuinely funny. Perhaps if it could be combined with a lucrative telephone competition of where we think the coach driver will go next then they might be interested.

Come on ITV, there are still some of us out there who would like to watch original, quality comedy/drama. Do the decent thing thing. Repeat it then get it out on DVD.