User:Kushal one/Football Week UK

I created this page just to save the contents from being deleted forever. I am not associated with FWUK. My archiving of the code of the page does not give my consent to the notability of the subject. Thanks. --KushalClick me! write to me 03:34, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Football Week UK was a weekly football news programme made and shown by Granada Sport dedicated to keeping the world up to date with all the happenings in the English football Premiership and Football League. The show ran from 2001 until 2004, when Granada Television merged with Carlton Television.

Humble Beginnings
In early 2001 budding journalist Andy Ford "came up with a concept which was to sweep the Asian continent." A weekly football programme aimed at keeping football fans outside the British Isles up to date with all the news from the English Premiership and Football League. With that concept on board, Granada Sport ran with the idea and by the start of the 2001/02 season, Football Week UK was born. Experienced Executive Producer Derek Martin was bought in to nurture the show through the early days, whilst Producer Rob Williams, fresh of the back of Channel 5 hit show Footy Shorts, was given the day to day responsibility of actually making the programme, alongside his right hand man David Greenfield and to a lesser extent, voice over artiste Rachel Whatley. The budget of the show was very low indeed and the production team had to beg steal and borrow features from regional ITV newsrooms in order to make up the 26” required running time. A deal was done by Granada Sport controller Tony Baines to get cut features from ITV's Saturday afternoon magazine football show On the Ball but all Premiership footage was cut out and replaced by pre season footage or training shots as Granada did not have the rights to show Premiership football in Africa or Asia (the main recipients of the show). Despite being hampered by Granada Sport’s tightening purse strings, the show flourished and was a major success, in Japan especially.

Troubled Times
By 2003, the show was floundering and in all sorts of trouble. Executive Producer Derek Martin was failing to justify his £55k a year salary, seemingly content to sit at his desk and read the Guardian all day, whilst Rob Williams, tired of being treated like a monkey, went off to work on John Barnes’ Soccer Night for production company Sunset & Vine. The show was looking tired, and had dropped down the ratings as a result. Football Week UK needed somebody to make an immediate impact or the show was dead. Martin was laid off, saving the company a fortune which instead of being reinvested in the show, went straight into Baines’ back pocket. Whatley threw her hat into the ring for Producer but Dave Greenfield was given the chance and what a decision it proved to be. FWUK was born. Greenfield immediately rebranded Football Week UK to the snappier FWUK, and got Ladbrokes, the betting company in as sponsors for the show. Rachel Whatley was given the boot and young VO artiste Ross Dyer came in to provide a voice of authority into proceedings. Greenfield needed a second in command though. There were many names out there – Dave Francis had proved himself capable at cars, but football was not his forte, Tim Gray was never going to have a hope, whereas Nicki Prowting was way too old and Stuart Randall thought it was beneath him – but Greenfield took a massive gamble on up and coming assistant producer Garry Barfoot. It was a bold move, and one which surprised everyone, Barfoot was best known for making the tea, but Greenfield had seen his potential. It was a stroke of genius. Within months, Greenfield and Barfoot had ripped up the rulebook, sellotaped it back together, then burnt it.

The End
Greenfield and Barfoot deftly bent the rules regarding the use of Premiership footage in the programme, spotting a loophole in the laws which meant they were allowed to use as much as they liked – as long as the ball wasn’t in shot! It was a brilliant move and by that decision alone the show became that much more vibrant. It eventually became evident that the loophole didn’t actually exist and ESPN Star in Asia issued a cease and desist order, which Greenfield and Barfoot turned their noses up at. They were brave, but their bravery was justified as FWUK became the most watched sports programme in Japan, China, Malaysia and 80% of Africa. The world was their oyster! FWUK could have gone on forever. Unfortunately the bureaucrats at Granada Sport saw differently. Early 2004 saw Granada merge with Carlton. The first bit of business was that all third party business – programmes made for channels other than ITV channels – had to be cut. FWUK was, at that point, earning its makers a substantial amount of money each week, but they decided to cut their noses off to spite their faces. FWUK was over.

The Last Show
The last ever show has gone down in television folklore, but it is worth reiterating what happened. Greenfield and Barfoot had a choice, whether to go down gracefully or not. They decided not. Who else would have done a five minute closer with its production team walking to the job centre? Who else would have had the nerve to do the parody to end all parodies with the “Day In The Life” feature? They did. The closer caused the most concern. The programme at that point was not allowed to use library music, yet alone commercial tracks. Barfoot and Greenfield laughed at this and promptly stuck Radiohead’s “High and Dry” on the piece. The television world gasped. Greenfield and Barfoot shrugged. Thom Yorke, Radiohead’s one eyed lead singer loved the show so much he decided not to sue and instead invited Greenfield and Barfoot to appear on his next video. They declined. The show was a complete success, with 95% of people in Africa and Asia that night, watching FWUK. The other 5% had set the video, but had set the wrong channel to record. The DVD became the highest selling Weekly Sports News Programme DVD of all time. Instead of going out with a whimper, they went out with a big bang.

The only problem was, how were they going to follow up their phenomenal success. Well, the Production team had varying degrees of success. Ross Dyer, went to America and surprisingly was given stardom by Hollywood in the early part of 2005. Unsurprisingly it was then taken away a couple of months later and he returned home with his tail between his legs. Derek Martin retired, and it currently looking after his garden. Whilst Garry Barfoot went on to make a boxing programme called KOTV. He clearly thought it was going to be the boxing equivalent of FWUK, but it failed miserably. After that, he achieved brief stardom as part of Host Broadcasting Services team during the 2006 World Cup, leading a team of librarians to make the most comprehensive footballing database system ever seen. This led to HBS managing director Peter Angel praising Barfoot and deeming him solely responsible for the televising success of the World Cup, and for FIFA president Sepp Blatter to remark that it all looked “very nice” when he came round to visit. Since then though, Barfoot keeps trying to recreate his times with FWUK to little or no success. Sir David Greenfield was made Patron Saint of Football News Programmes and can currently be seen on the after dinner speaking circuit regaling fascinated people with his FWUK anecdotes. The money he earnt from the programme was spend on building homes, then feeding and clothing a large village in Africa. Tony Baines was last seen walking through a park in Southampton with no trousers on.