Putting the fun back into the football TV show

Men talking about footb a l l o n t e l e v i s i o n i s nothing new – yet BBC Scotland’s latest incarnation of the concept is quietly but bravely pushing boundaries.

For someone on the outside, what is enticing about the world of Scottish football is a lot of what is appealing about Scotland in general – its sense of humour, its self-awareness, its ability to make fun of itself, and (some ugly incidents aside) its inclusive and supportive nature.

Finally, a T V show has captured that essence and is beaming it into your living room every Friday night, injecting the fun back into football on TV for the first time since Baddiel and Skinner’s Fantasy Football League.

“We take it very seriously, and we don’t take it seriously at all,” admits

A View From The Terrace star Craig Fowler. “We take it very seriously in terms of the work we put in. But we know football’s stupid. It’s just something stupid that we really like.”

A View From The Terrace is the BBC

Scotland TV channel’s take on a classic talking heads football analysis show. It takes the tired trope by the shoulders and shakes some life back into it. There’s not a former player, commentator or anyone you’ll actually recognise in sight – just four thirty-something Scottish football fans wi th a s h e d l o a d o f e n t h u s i a s m, knowledge and cheeky quips.

Without a shred of previous T V experience between them, Craig G Telfer, Joel Sked, Craig Fowler and Shaughan Mcguigan are the show’s hosts. Four friends in real life, the g r o u p h a s b e e n ma k i n g a r e g u - lar podcast about Scottish football together since 2009, which paved the way for the TV adaptation.

Now pulling in around 3,000 listeners per episode, a rotating cast of 12 football fans regularly appears o n T h e Te r ra c e S c o t t i sh Fo o t b a l l Po d c a s t , whi c h r e c o r d s t wo e p i - s o d e s p e r we e k , a s we l l a s ex t r a paid-for audio content – and, yes, that’s alongside filming a weekly TV programme.

O r i g i n a l l y t h e b r a i n c h i l d o f 32-year- old Fowler, what star ted as a far broader concept at university in 2007 with three contributors has blossomed into the much more niche podcast.

“I didn’t like football shows where they debate a topic, and they all just repeat the same points over and over again,” explains Fowler. “I just found

0 Left to right: Regular guest Robert Borthwick with hosts Craig G Telfer, Craig Fowler, Shaughan Mcguigan and Joel Sked. it quite b oring. S o I wanted to do something where you basically got a set time limit on each thing, and then you moved on to the next. I think it’s quite funny, because that’s basically what the TV show has become.”

Anchored by Fowler, Sked, Telfer and Mcguigan, A Vie w From The Terrace is a mixture of topical in-studio match analysis (traversing both the Premiership and lower leagues) and features from other contributors. These segments are what will draw in fans and sceptics alike and tempt them back for more. B eautifully filmed and showcasing the charm of Scottish lower league football, each one is more surprising and engaging than the next.

From an Arbroath match entirely captured in the style of director Wes An d er s o n to b a k i n g e mpi r e b i s - cuits with Kilmarnock right-back Stephen O’donnell to asking primary school kids how they would manage a team in the SPFL, it’s bizarre but brilliant content.

A l l f o u r Te r r a c e t a l k i n g h e a d s work full-time. Telfer is a university video communications officer, Fowler and Sked are sports journalists for The Scotsman and Edinburgh Evening News, and Mcguigan works in finance. After work on Mondays, they show up for a regular two-hour production meeting. On Wednesdays, they get time off their day jobs – to record that week’s programme. Then, on Fridays (while fans tune in to the show) the cast members have already started thinking about the next episode. That’s on top of recording two podcasts per week.

A Vi e w F ro m T h e Te r ra c e wa s recently commissioned for three more episodes – bringing the inaugural series up to 13, and taking the show to the end of the current football season. It’s clear that the group’s tireless efforts are appreciated by the BBC. And, if social media reaction is anything to go by, the gang are definitely doing something right where the viewers are concerned, too.

“[Social media users] can say what t h e y wan t wi t h o u t muc h c o n s e - quence. So we were thinking that’s where they might be really harsh on us, but 90 per cent of it has been really positive,” reveals Sked.

There has been significant support from the clubs featured on the programme, too. “They’ve obviously got a vested interest, because nobody else is going to talk about them,” says Fowler. “But it’s still great to get so much enthusiasm.”

There are critics, of course. “We’ve h a d a c c u s a t i o n s o f n o t b eing gender balanced enough,” s ay s Fo w l e r. B u t t h e g r o u p a r e actively working to make their output more equal. Already “very keen” to add female voices to the podcast, this summer The Terrace team will travel to France in order to cover the Fifa Women’s World Cup. But you won’t see A View From The Terrace suddenly switch their TV analysis to female players before the end of the current series.

“People will see right through us if we start talking about the women’s game, and we clearly have no idea what we’re doing – if it’s just a token gesture,” says Sked. “We’re not doing it any great service by doing that.”

Instead, women in football are represented on the programme via regular non-studio segments, such as a recent feature on Hibs Ladies player Rachael Small, which was met with praise from viewers.

Accusations of sexism aren’t the only assumptions those watching have made about the stars of A View From The Terrace.

“I think they think we’re ‘football h i p s t e r s’, a n d I ’ve r e a l l y n o i d e a why,” says Fowler.

“A football hipster is someone who is across a lot of leagues. They have an opinion on Slovakian leagues and German second division, and try to know everything,” explains Sked.

B u t , Fowl e r a n d S ke d s ay, t h e y aren’t interested in following Scotland’s lower league football teams for the sake of showing off in the pub. They want to do their bit to represent the sense of satisfaction and community real Scottish fans get from the sport and put it on TV, in a way nobody else ever has before.

A significant slice of Scottish pop culture in itself, A Vie w From The Terrace will undoubtedly change opinions on S cottish football and inspire new attitudes for as long as it is allowed to do so. l Watch the next episode of A View From The Terrace at 11pm tonight on BBC Scotland (repeated on BBC One Scotland at 12:55am tomorrow), or catch up via BBC iplayer.

‘From an Arbroath match entirely captured in the style of director Wes Anderson to baking empire biscuits with Kilmarnock right-back Stephen O’donnell, it’s bizarre but brilliant content’