Dream Team (TV series)
Encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Dream Team (disambiguation)
Dream Team is a British television
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
series produced by Hewland International which aired on Sky1 and Sky3 from 1997 to 2007; it chronicled the on-field and off-field affairs of the fictional Harchester United Football Club
Harchester United F.C.
Harchester United Football Club was a fictional Premier League football club from the Midlands, featured in the television series Dream Team...
.
The club is based in the fictional town of Harchester (which is said to be close to Tamworth
Tamworth
Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...
) in the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
.
Beginning
The show began in 1997 and centred on the Harchester United youth team. The next series, series 2 transmitted in 1998 concluding in 1999 focused on the first team for the first time and on Ian Coates, the manager, Jerry and Lynda Block the owners of Harchester United and Luis Amor Rodriguez, star striker and soon to be lover of Lynda. The end of the series resulted in Harchester winning the FA Cup.The series that followed have focused on the club fighting against relegation, qualifying for the highly acclaimed Champions League and being demoted to the Football League for financial irregularities and corruption after they were found guilty of match fixing (Source: Harchester.net). The soundtrack for the series was composed by Justin Broadrick
Justin Broadrick
Justin Karl Michael Broadrick is a British singer, songwriter, guitarist and drummer. He is best known as a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and industrial music.-Biography:Broadrick was born in the council estates of inner...
.
Cancellation and final series
As the show developed, the storylines became more and more extravagant, with the character death toll rising significantly in the final seasons. With declining viewing figures and repetitive storylines, Sky decided not to renew the Dream Team contract, and in April 2006, the director of programmes at Sky One, Richard WoolfeRichard Woolfe
Richard Woolfe is a senior British broadcast figure. Woolfe is currently Creative Director of Prime Focus Productions, the UK arm of Prime Focus Group, a role recently created for him to help spearhead the post-production house's push into TV production, with a focus on high-end drama and...
, confirmed the show would not return after the tenth
series.
The tenth series began on 29 October 2006, the final episode being broadcast on 3 June 2007, with viewers left unaware of which characters survived an explosion that ripped through the Dragon’s Lair during the final Premier League game of the season. However it is hinted that Harchester United win the Premier League. The last ever song to be played on the programme was "Cast No Shadow" by Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
.
The main storyline of series ten revolved around "Dragonslayer", a mysterious poster on the club’s fansite revealing the innermost secrets of the club. It was ultimately this storyline that resulted in the major explosion that ended the series.
Following the announcement of Dream Team being axed, many of the main cast members left the programme at the start of series ten. These included Alex Dempsey, Lynda Block and Ryan Naysmith.
The kits
Harchester United team kits were created by real kit manufacturers and were also available to buy whilst the show was on the air. The manufacturers of these kits were PONY, Le Coq Sportif and Valsport.Series One (1997–1998) PONY
Series Two-Seven (1998–2003) Le Coq Sportif
Series Eight-Ten (2004–2007) Valsport
Series 1 Home (PONY)
Series 2 Home (Le Coq Sportif)
Series 3 Home (Le Coq Sportif)
Series 4 Home (Le Coq Sportif)
Series 5 Home (Le Coq Sportif)
Series 6 Home (Le Coq Sportif)
Series 7 Home (Le Coq Sportif)
Series 8 Home (Valsport)
Series 9/10 Home (Valsport)
The most popular kits were the series 7 kits, which was most fan's favourite.
Cast
Cast members who featured during the shows tenth and final season.- Alison KingAlison KingAlison King is an English actress. She has had major television roles as Lynda Block in the Sky One television series Dream Team, and as Carla Connor in Coronation Street since 2006.- Early life and education :...
as Lynda Block (1998–2002, 2003, 2005–2006, 2007) - Daniel Lundh
as Mustapha Karim (2005) - Jamie LomasJamie LomasJamie Lomas is an English actor best known for his role as bad boy Warren Fox on the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks....
as Alex Dempsey (2005–2006) - Lucinda KennardLucinda KennardLucinda Kennard is an English actress who played Amy Kerrigan, the team co-ordinator, in Dream Team.Lucinda's hometown is in Worthing, West Sussex in England....
as Amy Kerrigan (2005–2007) - Naomi RyanNaomi RyanNaomi Ryan is a British actress who has appeared in Dream Team as Ashleigh King, Mile High as Lehann Evans and Coronation Street where she played Underworld factory worker Bobbi Lewis.-Naomi Russell:...
as Ashleigh King (2005–2006) - Julie HealyJulie HealyJulie Healey is an Australian-born model and actress and has won various beauty competitions. Now focusing on acting, she appears in the British television series Dream Team as agent Chloe Tyler.-External links:...
as Chloe Tyler (2005–2007) - Jessica-Jane ClementJessica-Jane ClementJessica-Jane Clement is a British glamour model, actress and TV presenter.-Education:...
as Cindi Marshall (2005–2007) - Danny Husbands
as Danny Sullivan (2001–2007) - Junior Nunoo
as Eugene Rose (2004–2007) - Jonathan Howard
as Gavin Moody (2005–2007) - Duncan PowDuncan PowDuncan Pow is a Scottish actor best known in his role in Sky One's Dream Team, as Liam Mackay the captain of Harchester United F.C. and as Linden Cullen in the BBC1 medical drama, Holby City.-Early life:...
as Liam Mackay (2005–2007) - Sapphire EliaSapphire EliaSapphire Elia , is an English actress and singer best known for her roles in musical drama Britannia High and the soap opera Emmerdale.-Early and personal life:Sapphire Chrystalla Elia was born on 15 April 1987 in London...
as Gemma Craig (2006–2007) - Frankie FitzgeraldFrankie Fitzgerald-Career:Fitzgerald trained at The Webber Douglas Academy of Performing arts, completing his three year course in 2006. His career however started much earlier when he landed his first professional role at just 15...
as Jason Porter (2006–2007) - Danny Midwinter
as Jimmy Craig (2006–2007) - Amy Perfect
as Katy Irwin (2006–2007) - James Floyd
as Miguel Lopez (2006–2007) - David Ajala
as Sean Campbell (2007) - Nick NevernNick NevernNick Nevern is a British actor and director from London. Nick Nevern has a Russian mother and spent his early years in Russia before moving back to London...
Pavel Kovac (2006)
For a list of characters that have appeared on Dream Team, see Dream Team characters
Dream Team characters
This is a list of characters to have appeared on the Sky One television serial Dream Team.-Footballers:*Curtis Alexander*Linton Alexander*Andy Ansah, who played himself.*Phil Baker, who played himself.*Monday Bandele*Didier Baptiste*Andrei Belanov...
Karl Fletcher
Arguably the most famous character in Dream Team was Karl ‘Fletch’ Fletcher (played by Terry Kiely), who became the series' stalwart character, remaining a fixture in the cast from the beginning of season 1 through to the end of season 8. During his tenure with Harchester, Fletch was briefly promoted to manager, became a father, married (and divorced) physiotherapist Abi, and was briefly jailed. At the end of season 8, Fletch died after being impaled on a coat peg by deranged manager Don BarkerDon Barker
Don Barker is a fictional character in the series Dream Team, played by Jon Morrison.Don Barker had a reputation of being a hard-nosed, tough manager, renowned for making teams achieve promotion in the lower leagues...
.
The death of Fletch was seen by many as an attempt to boost falling ratings, but in truth lay Kiely wanted to pursue other projects, namely Channel 5 soap-opera Family Affairs
Family Affairs
Family Affairs was a British soap opera broadcast on Five, from 1997 to 2005. It was the second programme to be broadcast on the channel on 30 March 1997, the channel's launch night...
”. Kiely had also grown tired with the character. Fletch remained one of the most popular characters throughout the entire show, topping the popularity ratings each year until the character's death.
After a fan's poll about former characters returning, producers introduced a ghost of Fletch on Easter Sunday 2007, when the Harchester legend returned to haunt Jason Porter
Jason Porter
Jason Porter was a fictional footballer for Sky One's television drama Dream Team. He played both midfielder and striker for Harchester United.His highest moment with Harchester came in the final game of the season...
, whose world has begun to fall apart. The move was popular as the character was used sparingly but effectively until the end of the series.
Episodes
419 episodes were made over ten seasons. For the first three seasons, the show aired in a half-hour format of Tuesday and Thursday nights, with an hour-long omnibus airing on Saturday/Sunday mornings. The final episodes for seasons two and three were both an hour in duration and after receiving strong ratings in both cases, starting in season four, the show switched to a single hour long episode on Sunday evenings.| Season | Start date | End date | Episodes |
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Foreign audience
In the United States, Fox Soccer ChannelFox Soccer Channel
Fox Soccer is an American television specialty channel, owned by News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group, that specializes in soccer. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian rules football, but is now dedicated strictly to soccer...
(like Sky, a part of News Corporation) airs ‘Dream Team’, albeit several series behind Sky One. The tenth series will begin broadcasting from August 6 at 9pm Eastern Time. The series is also currently aired in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, on Studio B
RTV Studio B
RTV Studio B, more often called Studio B , is a radio and television broadcaster in Belgrade, Serbia, which was the first broadcast station outside the national electronic media system.-Background:...
television, in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
on TV In
TV In
TV IN is a television station in Montenegro. It started working in early 2002. It is based in Podgorica. It is currently one of the most watched TV stations in Montenegro...
, and in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
on TV4. It also aired on Botswana's national television station BTv