This collection of personal small screen favourites has already included a few versatile comedians who before my very eyes have progressed from callow newcomer to seasoned broadcaster. When Frank Skinner first appeared on TV he was already fully-formed. He’d transitioned from English graduate and unemployed alcoholic to award-winning stand-up comic. In fact he won the 1991 prestigious Perrier prize at the Edinburgh Fringe from under the noses of both Jack Dee and Eddie Izzard, no less.
Brilliant writer-performers have dominated the box in the past four decades, from Ben Elton to Lee Mack, Nick Hancock to David Mitchell, but West Bromwich Albion’s most celebrated supporter just about squeezes past them. The former Chris Collins was in a few Channel 4 shows which passed me by but I’m pretty sure I’d heard his name by the time BBC2 first showed Fantasy Football League at the start of 1994.
Dad and I were already familiar with the premise of fantasy football from newspapers so this new Friday night show, itself inspired by a BBC Radio Five series, grabbed us from the off. Hosted by real-life flat-sharers Skinner and David Baddiel, the cosy studio set purported to be their ‘living room’, albeit one filled by football fans, to which celebrity guests would be invited through the front door. It was all fortuitous timing. Lad culture was on the rise, Britpop was already gaining ground, the Premier League had recently led elite football kicking and screaming into a new shiny era of Satellite TV while stand-up comedy had completed its evolution from smoke-filled clubs to mainstream arenas. The Beeb was keen to join the party.
OK, so it may not actually have been Frank and David’s actual settee but they both seemed so relaxed, introducing topical, funny football clips, sipping bottled beer and chatting to their guests. Frank, in particular, seemed so wonderfully at ease with his audience, be it in the studio or through the camera lens. In its three-year lifespan, the Fantasy Football content diminished while the comedy, often haphazard and spontaneous, became more prevalent. There were ongoing piss-takes, notably of an aggrieved Nottingham Forest striker Jason “Pineapple Head” Lee but also examples of genuine humorous cult hero worship.
Perhaps my favourite regular feature was Phoenix from the Flames. These were filmed reports recreating famous footballing incidents with Frank and David larking about with the original participant. There were classic goals (e.g. Carlos Alberto, Geoff Hurst, George Best and of course Skinner’s WBA idol Jeff Astle), pitch invasions, referees and managers, not all of them accomplished in the art of speaking scripted lines. Malcolm Macdonald was one of the better ones.
Like Oasis, Blur and Terry Venables’ England team, the summer of 1996 was arguably the peak of Baddiel and Skinner’s laddish fame (Frank was almost 40 but didn’t look it!). With Fantasy Football League part of that culture, and Euro 96 taking place on our shores, they teamed up with the Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie to write the greatest and enduring football song of all time, Three Lions. Frank Skinner’s face when the Wembley crowd was singing the chorus was a picture.
The ‘Fantasy’ brand was revived periodically for subsequent major football championships, starting with the 1998 World Cup Fantasy Football League. The ‘Phoenix’ films were retained, and guests had an international flavour. Holland’s Sylvia Kristel was surprisingly good but Denmark’s Brigitte Nielsen was an embarrassment, perhaps related to over-indulgence in the ‘green room’! The shows were an amusing addition to ITV’s live tournament coverage but the original charm was fading.
Frank Skinner’s star was still rising. He had an easy-going, quick wit, natural intelligence and that breezy Black Country banter and to capitalise on his personality in ’97, the Beeb awarded him his own chat show. There were a few car crash exchanges early on but if Frank liked his guest there were some gems. Unfortunately Frank got a bit greedy with his pay demands and the deeper pockets of ITV were ready to pounce. The chat show jumped ship and in the new millennium Skinner was reunited with his old sofa buddy for Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned. The first few series were live, with predictably chaotic results but there was some amusing interaction with audience members and the closing song was a nice idea: Frank’s karaoke to David’s piano (who knew?!) accompaniment leading into the credits.
There is, of course, more to Frank than a winning turn of comic phrase, impudent smile and extravagantly arched eyebrows. Soon after Fantasy began, Frank starred in a new BBC comedy panel show, Gagtag, chaired by Jonathan Ross. I forget the format but it was basically a lot of quickfire jokes featuring comedians of varying vintage, ranging from Bob Monkhouse and Eddie Large to Phill Jupitus and, another personal fave, Tony Hawks. It wasn’t a classic but there were usually plenty of laughs, many provided by Mr Skinner. There were inevitable performances on Have I Got News For You? and QI, the latter featuring his playing a banjolele. As a big George Formby fan, Frank has often been shown whipping out his ‘uke’ to give viewers a faithful rendition of old songs, much like Billy Connolly and his banjo, only funnier.
In the mid-Noughties, I remember watching Frank on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, joking with the host and promoting his new BBC sitcom Shane. I gave the first series a go, and my contemporary diary entry said it had “some amusing bits but he’s no actor”, and I don’t think that has changed.
Instead he has built upon his strengths. I had my doubts about his replacing Paul Merton as host of Room 101 but he brought his own magic to the role. Those eyebrows certainly had some exercise when Danny Baker declared his choice for banishment in 2012. Then there’s the stand-up. It’s more than two decades since I saw him shamble onto the stage of the Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff to deliver a highly entertaining set but, Covid permitting, he‘s back on tour in 2021. I hope he’s not lost entirely to the medium of television. Angie and I are as obsessed with the Fantasy Premier League game as ever but it’s probably not a smart career move for Frank to revisit the Nineties, however easy it would be to ridicule the finishing of Benteke, the muscles of Adama Traore or the vagaries of VAR. He’s only 63 and there should be plenty more in the tank.
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