United!

"United!" was a British television series produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967, and screened twice-weekly on BBC1.

The series followed the fortunes of a fictional second division football team, Brentwich United. The football scenes were filmed on the grounds of Stoke City with Jimmy Hill acting as a technical advisor, and the efforts to achieve authenticity saw the show being criticised by the management of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who complained that the series was based on their team.

"United!" was not a success, and was axed after two years. The series was generally too soft to appeal to male viewers, and too male-oriented and sweaty for the female soap opera audience. As was common television practice of the time, all the episodes were wiped, with none of the 147 screened being known to have survived in the archives.

Created by Anthony Cornish, other writers on the programme included Gerry Davis, Brian Hayles, Malcolm Hulke and John Lucarotti. The directors included Innes Lloyd and Derek Martinus. Aside from Cornish, all of these individuals also worked on "Doctor Who" concurrent with their involvment in "United!".

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164301/ "United!"] at the Internet Movie Database
* [http://www.action-tv.org.uk/guides/united.htm Action TV]