TV writers to tackle footie
Folk musician in US version of Beatles
THE creators of The Inbetweeners are making a comedy about footballers.
Due to be aired on BBC2, the series by Iain Morris and Damon Beesley is about players at a fictional Premier League club.
The writers said: “We’re hoping to show viewers the hilarious inner lives of three young men who just happen to have a stressful job in the public eye.”
The show’s working title is Afternoons. School sitcom The Inbetweeners ran from 2008 to 2010.
Tork in 1967. Inset, Tork with bandmates Dolenz, Nesmith and Jones MONKEES star Peter Tork, the “Ringo” character of the US band manufactured to take on The Beatles, has died aged 77.
The bassist and keyboardist, originally a blues and folk musician, was 24 when he auditioned for the group, in which he played the lovable dimwit.
Their TV series was launched in 1966 and amid the Monkeemania of 1967 they sold 35 million records – twice as many as the Fab Four and Rolling Stones combined.
Beach Boy Brian Wilson said: “The Monkees were great. Peter will be missed.”
Tork’s sister Anne confirmed his death without saying where or how he died – but he was diag- nosed with a rare cancer in his tongue 10 years ago. Tork was born in Washington, DC to a homemaker mum and economics professor dad who loved folk music and bought him a guitar and banjo.
After Tork left the band in 1969 his career waned and he fought alcoholism, later reuniting with bandmates Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones for tours. On criticism of them being a manufactured band, Tork said in 2013: “I refute claims any four guys could’ve done what we did. There was a magic.” He is survived by his fourth wife Pam and three children.
Jones died in 2013 from a heart attack aged 66.