Fantasy World Cup

I really did enjoy FANTASY FOOTBALL and David Baddiel and Frank Skinner resurrected the format for the 1998 world cup , or as it`s known in America the soccer world cup .

Truth be told I can`t remember much about the tournament except for the fact that Scotland once again went out in the first round after a really poor display , and I can also remember little about the show itself except for the appearance of Brigette Nielsen .

Dane Brigette and French musician Jean Michel Jarre were invited onto the show to discuss their countries performance in the tournament earlier in the day but within seconds of their appearance it became obvious Brigette Nielsen had been drinking heavily . She kept interuppting the conversation with Jarre then suddenly stood in front of the audience and started shaking her ..... well " twin strikers " I suppose football fans would call them , much to the delight of the males in the audience . Not content with this Brigette went over to Baddiel and Skinner and started to thrust her cleavage in their faces . " Sit down Brigette . You`re making a fool of yourself " whined Frank to which Brigette retaliated by sticking a Danish pastry in David`s face . The commercial break came up and Brigette was missing from the second half of the show much to the disappointment of myself who loves to see drunk people make fools of themselves on chat shows

This was a delight to watch for fans of Fantasy Football, which in its original format had ended in the mid 90s. The comeback, as a series running throughout the 1998 World Cup, was really good. Frank and David were back to their best, sat on the sofa in a flat-like studio, welcoming celebrity guests (such as Tracey Ullman, Sean Bean, Noel Gallagher and the infamous Johnny Rotten) to view clips selected by Frank and David, and to discuss the various goings-on of the World Cup. The Phoenix from the Flames sketches probably reached their peak in this series of the programme. Hilarious sketches, such as the recreation of a Klinsmann dive, and the Patrick Batiston incident when a goalkeeper, Schumacher, mowed him down and got off scot-free. In one of these sketches, Frank and David were taunting a former Czech international, who left, and so Frank goes into a phone box to phone him back in the Czech Republic to apologise and tell him that they just want to recreate the goal he scored to beat Germany in a past international. Upon Frank saying this, there's a tap at the door of the phone box, and the guy has returned, luggage on his arms, telling Frank "I got here as quick as I could". That was just wonderful, but you need to see it to find it funny. It sounds less funny typing it, but on seeing it I was in stitches and have remembered it 4 years on.

Not sure what episode the other reviewer saw back in the day, but the one with Brigette Nielsen is on Youtube and she is in the whole episode. Every episode of FF is there and many of the earlier episodes of this great show. I personally preferred the earlier ones due to the competition factor of the actual Fantasy League, but this is still very funny. I thought that also due to their being no league for the guests to be involved in there meant less statto featured which was also a shame. I'm not sure what they all do that is so great these days that doesn't see this come back. Why not play another Fantasy League with a new batch of managers? It's cheap TV and would give many old fans a treat and generate some new ones also. The Premier League doesn't have the players with such character as it did back then to make fun of, but I'm sure they could manage it. Come on Bring back Fantasy Football LEAGUE!!