Play to the Whistle

The final part of ITV's self proclaimed 'Super Saturday' is a comedy sports show (because that's what we've been crying out for) that is utter rubbish and will be very lucky if it gets a second series.

The set up itself is poor. It feels like a comedy panel show and then remembers half way through that its supposed to be a game show. Not that points mean prizes or that anyone cares who wins. Throw in some in jokes about the sport stars who appear each week and the hour still drags by. Poor old Bradley Walsh in the middle is the only saving grace.

Quite frankly its poor entertainment and doesn't work as either a sports comedy programme or a game show. 'They Think It's All Over' did this so much better.

Alright, where do we go with this programme? So, this was one of the first productions produced by Dan Baldwin's production company Hungry Bear Media (1000 Heartbeats was their first production, and it was a pretty decent game show with Vernon Kay as presenter) and is it any good? No, it isn't.

Play to the Whistle is just another panel show placed within an oversaturated genre, even for the time it premiered. It aired on ITV on Saturday nights from 2015-2017, lasting three seasons - somehow.

Alright, the show is presented by... oh brother, Holly Willoughby, the least expected person you'd see to present on a sports-focused panel show. But I suspect that she only got the role because Dan Baldwin, being the delightful hubbie he is to her, wanted to milk out her oversaturation more and more.

Frank Lampard and Bradley Walsh are your team captains, and the guest stars? The same youth-focused comedians you see in every other panel show, and some sports stars.

The aim of the show? Why am I kidding? There is NO aim, in fact, there's no point of this show even existing. The games are dumb, the guest stars are overused, the humour is also the exact same jokes you hear on every other panel show, of course there's plenty of four-letter words said every 10 seconds and it just feels tedious to watch, seeing these lifelikes playing games badly simply for cheap laughs. Oh, and Holly is not the right person to present this show, as she knows very little about sports. But still, it's perfect for anyone who finds her hot to stare at her face as she reads on her cue cards.

And to give in how uninspiring this show is, it feels not just like a poor man's "A League of their Own", but it also feels like the "I don't know if I should turn this into a panel or game show!" formula was taken from 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, but unlike this mistake, that show worked because the formats can work together.

And all in all, Play to the Whistle is... what it is. An unfunny, boring, lifeless panel show that doesn't know what the heck it's meant to be doing. And after the show was axed, everybody forgot it ever existed. There are reasons some panel shows have stood to the test of time and everyone still talks about them to this day, Play to the Whistle is not one of them and is best left forgotten.