heat uses its magic sponge on the stars of A League Of Their Own’s Premier League Special
Boyd Hilton gets bromantic on the set of the hilarious ALOTO…
The atmosphere at Elstree Studios, where A League Of Their Own is filmed, might best be described as semi-organised anarchy. It’s nearly 7pm, when the recording is scheduled to start, and heat is in the hair and makeup room where a gaggle of producers, writers, crew and actual hair and make-up people encircle the stars of the show. Jack Whitehall and Freddie Flintoff are mostly taking the piss out of each other, while James Corden is getting his make-up done and going through some last-minute ideas with the writers. Suddenly, Jamie Redknapp swans in, clad in a white fluffy robe, seemingly having just stepped out of the shower. “He’s always like this,” observes Jack, nodding in Redknapp’s general direction. “He lives his life in that robe.”
VERY SPECIAL GUEST
The crew are also trying to film some behind-the-scenes moments with two of this week’s guests, sports broadcasters Kelly Cates and Jeff Stelling. In fact, heat is a tad worried that we’re in the way, but no one seems bothered. Meanwhile, somewhere lurks the show’s A-list Very Special Guest, Thierry Henry – Arsenal’s greatest, and sexiest, striker, and now full-time legend and pundit. But right now, he’s keeping a low profile amid all the chaos. Full disclosure: your Arsenalsupporting heat reporter unashamedly hero-worships Monsieur Henry, and everyone seems to know about it. So, when he does finally appear, walking nonchalantly down the corridor outside the make-up room, Jamie shouts, “Try to keep calm, Boyd. Don’t get too aroused!” James, meanwhile, makes it one of his tasks for the evening to facilitate some quality time between heat and Henry, which happens suddenly in an ad break, with James even capturing this very special moment for us on his iphone camera.
HOMOEROTIC TOP GEAR
Amid the chaos of the show, and his life in general, heat grabs James in his dressing room for a quiet moment of reflection. He’s spent the morning doing an epic fashion shoot for Vogue, shot by Mario Testino, and now he’s getting ready to corral his often-unruly mates in his role as ALOTO host.
“When we started out, it was a sports quiz,” he reflects. “But now… well, it’s hard to say what it is. It does feel like people are coming to the show to check in with this lovely relationship that’s developed between Jamie, Freddie, Jack and myself. But that was never the plan. It just kind of grew organically.” Pondering the best way to describe the anything-goes nature of the show, James says, “It’s like a joyful Top
Gear, except ours is a lot more homoerotic.”
BEYOND EMBARRASSMENT
Indeed, there are plenty of highly charged erotic moments in the show we watch being recorded, and not just because Thierry Henry is present. There’s a mass “pile-on”, in which everyone in the show bundles on top of each other (with Thierry somewhere in the middle of it), and many attempts by fellow Arsenal fan Jack to ingratiate himself both physically and emotionally with Henry. “Getting the chance to work with my idol is the highlight of this series for me,” Jack tells us in an ad break. “As well as getting to re-watch my favourite moment from the last US Road Trip of Jamie having to fake an orgasm.” This was when Redknapp recreated the infamous scene from When Harry Met Sally, but did so with a mounting sense of hysterical embarrassment. Flintoff agrees that it was, “Hands down the funniest thing Jamie has ever done.” As for his own embarrassing moments on the show, Freddie takes it all in his chilled-out stride. “I have been humiliated for 12 series now, so my powers of humiliation have gone,” he tells us. “Nothing embarrasses me now.” Finally, at the end of a long day and night of filming, James confirms to heat that this show is still a total joy for him. “I can’t even imagine a time when I wouldn’t want to do this,” he says, gesticulating in the direction of the whole bromantic gang and crew. “Whatever the hell this is…” n