Jane Hewland, creator and executive producer of Dream Team, explains how the show came about.
How did Dream Team come about? David Hill, head of Sky Sports, phoned me up one day in 1994 and said, "I've got a great idea. Kids love soaps and football. So why don't we put the two together? Apart from the fact that at first he wanted to show it five nights a week, I thought it was a great idea too. But before we had got very far with it David left Sky to go to Fox. I kept turning the idea over in my mind and eventually, with David's permission, developed it myself. We've now done 142 programmes, won seven international awards and we're about to embark on a third, 64 episode, series.
There have been huge changes in football in the past decade. Do you think a programme such as Dream Team would have been feasible in an earlier era? Probably not. I first started taking my son to White Hart Lane when he was eight and it was noticeable how the 1990 World Cup changed the whole attitude and atmosphere at football. Suddenly more women started coming to games, for instance. The impetus created by Italia 90 could easily have been lost. But then the Premiership started and Sky came along and pumped lots of money into the game and brought tots of publicity. Perception of the game has changed and its audience has broadened. All round football is more exciting than ever before. Though, I must say, as a Spurs fan, I can't help looking back on the Gascoigne and Lineker era and thinking "Those were the days". The game is much more glamorous too. It's hard to imagine what the equivalent of Becks and Posh would have been in, say, the 1980s. Chrissie Hynde and Paul Mariner? Or one of Banarama! It just wouldn't have happened, would it? But now football is the new rock 'n' roll and the fact it is more fashionable has helped Dream Team. The amount of money the players earn, the clothes, the model and pop star girlfriends, the whole lifestyle is appealing to our target audience.
The first series of Dream Team focused on the youth team, but the emphasis switched to the first team Last season. Why was that? Largely it was Michael Owen. Because of him it was obvious that a player who was really good, even if he was only 17, would be playing in the Premiership. Also, the problem with youth squads generally is that they are poorly paid and nobody has heard of them. My son, who was thirteen by this time, said, I don't want to know about these people. I want to see the ones who are rich and famous!" Last season we initially tried to include both, but the drama became too cluttered.
One of the problems with football drama has always been the "Escape To Victory" effect. The sight of actors running really slowly with the ball while other actors make feeble attempts to stop them. You've overcome that by using real footage. Well, that was another problem with focusing on the youth team, we had to film them actually playing. When we first considered showing first-team games, Sky football producer Rod Brown went away and used a new computer colouring technique plus some filmed cut-ins and turned Manchester United into Harchester. When we saw the results we were just blown away. Now all the actors have, to do, more or less, is goal celebrations and arguments with the referee-which they do very well. So in many ways it has worked out easier to do the Premiership games realistically than those of the youth team.
The last episode ended with gunshots at Wembley and Harchester Lifting the FA Cup. Can you top that in the new series? Definitely! The whole shooting storyline will gradually unravel and Harchester are in Europe. If people thought that the game at Wembley looked incredible, just wait until they see the one at Ajax Stadium!
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