Under 11′s football matches are something ingrained on the minds of most Britblokes. Rusty ‘M’ shaped goalposts, people taking corners that can’t reach the goalmouth, people afraid to head the ball, the cold sponge, yelling parents, kits that don’t fit properly, headless chicken tactics, quagmire pitches, getting changed in your dad’s car and huge yellow bruises from where the ball smacked against your corned-beef mottled thigh thanks to sub-zero Sunday mornings. Such is it a part of British life, it’s weird that it’s taken this long to see it turned into a comedy. So here comes The Cup (BBC Two, Thursday, 21 August, 9.30pm) where we can follow Ashburn United who are preparing for the league decider and the game that will qualify them for the North and Midlands’ Under 11s Cup in Birmingham… but will it be any good?

Football is one of the trickiest things to get right on the small, or silver, screen. I’ve yet to see a successful footy programme. Jossie’s Giants might be as close as you get and even then, I’m not even sure that’s true (as my critic-filter wasn’t as finely tuned when I was 7 or however old I was). Fact is, when football goes to the screen, it’s usually more of a spooned shot into a nearby brook as opposed to a curled shot clipping the post on the way in.

This comedy sees Steve Edge playing Bolton dad Terry who is so determined to see his son become a pro that he goes demented. Football dads can be rather like those weird American mums that put their kids in pageants. This is set to be a ‘mockumentary’, much like The Office, but whether it works or not remains to be seen. I really, really want this to work… but that nagging knowledge of football’s lack of success on the telly won’t go away. Fingers crossed.