I hadn't watched a single minute of this show until Season 10 and I have since watched all older episodes going back to Series 6. Prior to watching A League of their Own my opinions of the regular guests were very low, hence the reason I never gave this show the time of day.
My prior opinions:
James Corden – Hilarious in Gavin & Stacey, I had my doubts about him as a presenter.
Freddie Flintoff – irritating, questionable alcoholic with an irritating self-inflicted 'Lad' persona who likes to remind us every time we see him that he's 'from up North'.
Jamie Redknapp – Where do I even begin? His football punditry is the least insightful of all pundits, that's even more insulting when you consider Niall Quinn, Michael Owen and Glenn Hoddle also partake in this profession.
Jack Whitehall – Relatively funny, a half decent stand up tour and some good turn outs in sketch show dramas. However, his consistent references to being Posh got a little tiring as did his immaturity.
Now, having watched the show, all of my above comments still stand. However, I was surprised to see that the positives outweighed the negatives for each and every panel member. They each have very likable traits on this show and when put together they work very well:
James Corden – His hosting is a little hit and miss at times and with each episode he gets slimmer, more bronzed and gets an extra inch on his quiff. He's likable though and overall does a decent job of hosting the show, I was surprised at this.
Freddie Flintoff – The alcohol references which are either told by himself or are directed at him by other members, come thick and fast – other than that he's much more natural on this show than I expected.
Jamie Redknapp – Now with Jamie, I was the most shocked. He's the funniest out of Himself, Corden & Flintoff, he has an act of being very straight faced and serious and is first to admit his failures of playing the game and his basic football punditry. He is however, insanely irritating when he refers to all guests as 'big man', consistently gets ex- Liverpool footballers on the show and when there is another footballer on the show, talking football, he will say 'back me up her big man' and then proceed to make a predictably basic comment on something uninteresting.
Jack Whitehall – He's basically the child of the show, somewhat seen as Freddie Flintoff's younger brother, irritating everyone and taking nothing seriously. He consistently, purposely messes up the challenge - which gets old very quickly. He's the crudest of the other guests and performs the most slapstick humour; he is likable though and overall gives a good balance to the show.
All of them are down for a laugh and get involved in everything, which cannot be said about plenty of egotistical celebrities these days. I haven't watched as far back to see John Bishop so I cannot comment on him. The guests they regularly get on range from footballers, pop stars, TV Personalities, other sportsmen/women and stand-up comedians. The show has the usual scripted feel to it but there are many moments which you can tell are completely improvised, resulting in some hilarious moments. Jokes are often overdone, repeated very, very often. For example: Jamie Redknapp's vanity, Flintoff's boxing attempt, James Corden's weight and Jack Whitehall's boarding school upbringing. Mum jokes are often used, along with plenty of other toilet humour which isn't every ones cup of tea.
Overall it is a fun show which was miles better than I expected it to be, it's easy watching and does everything it can to not take itself seriously! Give it a watch, there are plenty of repeats knocking about and there are worse ways to spend 40 minutes!
8/10
