I was mise for 40 but n the fu in the H
THEY are the father-and-son soccer superstars who proved there is life after football. And now Harry and Jamie Redknapp are showing they still know how to have a laugh too.
Harry’s new ITV series, in which he takes a team of unfit retired England football players on a hilarious journey through Europe, kicked off last night.
The legendary manager has also teamed up with son Jamie for the sports-themed entertainment show Redknapp’s Home Fixture, which began last week on Sky One.
Along with comedian Tom Davis, they do their best to cheer us up and fill the sporting void in our lives.
Both programmes are in the “comedy” category – and that irony is not lost on 73-year-old Harry, who says he was a “miserable git” before retiring from football three years ago.
He says: “I never imagined I’d have a new career making people laugh on TV in my seventies.
“When you’re football manager it’s hard to be a bundle of fun.
“As a player if there was any fun going on then I was always right in the middle, but then I got into management and I became serious and pretty miserable.
“I was a miserable git for the last 40 years after I became a manager, no laughs at all. But since I left football I do think I’ve gone back to my youth a bit and started to laugh and have more fun.”
Jamie, meanwhile, knows all about fun as part of the team on Sky’s sport comedy quiz A League of Their Own, as well as becoming a football pundit and presenter since retiring from the game – 12 years before his dad – in 2005.
And he agrees his dad has lightened up and showed more of his jocular side since announcing his retirement from football.
He says: “I remember coming home from school and if he’d lost a game he would be pretty miserable, which was understandable.
“It’s a very high-pressure job being a manager, I’m not surprised he got a little bit down and stressed.
“But I’ve always known that my dad is funny and the best thing is that he doesn’t try to be funny. When people are around him they laugh, it’s a gift.
“He has an amazing ability to tell stories and crack punchlines that comedians would give anything for.
“That’s why I thought he’d be great in the show. I told the producers, ‘Dad’s so
aON HIS COMEDIC FATHER, HARRY
funny, let’s use him’. Every show needs to have one or two good Harry Redknapp stories to keep people laughing.”
But who is the funniest Redknapp?
“Oh, I’m definitely funnier than replies Harry.
“Yes, it’s him without question, I’ll give him that,” retorts Jamie, 46.
“But I was the better footballer.”
Harry played for clubs such as Bournemouth and West Ham before managing the likes of the Hammers, Portsmouth and Spurs, who he guided to the Champions League in 2010.
Son Jamie spent 11 years at Liverpool before
He has an amazing ability to tell stories and crack punchlines JAMIE REDKNAPP
Jamie,” joining Spurs and Southampton, and was capped 17 times for England.
The family includes Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, son of the late twin sister of Harry’s wife Sandra, making him Harry’s nephew.
But football fans mourned after the largerthan-life manager, who was nearly made England boss, finally announced his retirement after leaving Birmingham City in 2017.
Then a year later, Harry took part in ITV’S I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here and ended up enthralling viewers – and being crowned King of the Jungle.
Since then he has been in demand, with several TV programmes and his own touring stand-up show, where he tells tales from his life.
Jamie said he was thrilled tha people have got to see the rea minute Harry.
He says: “I remember finding out that he was going to the jungle on the front page of the Daily Mirror! I told him, ‘Dad, you can’t do that,’ and he said, ‘No, I’m doing it, I think it will be a laugh’. I asked him if he knew what he will have to do and he said, ‘No, but it doesn’t matter, I’ll be all right’.
“The whole thing was very emotional. I’m not massively int reality shows but it was really nice fo me and the kids to watch him.
“The key to those shows is to b yourself and not try to be funny.
“There were times when he clearl found it hard but he genuinely cam across as my dad, the person I know
But Harry insists he had no inten kick-starting a new TV career and th he would get back to being retired w got home. He says: “I really just t