Freddy Flintoff’s Field of Dreams (TVNZ+)
When Andrew Flintoff played cricket for England, he was one of a few players who hadn’t come from a private school. And despite the best efforts of fast-paced new formats like “The Hundred”, cricket in England remains well and truly a posh person’s sport. So in the three-part documentary series Freddy Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, the all-rounder returns to his hometown of Preston, Lancashire, to try and build a cricket team out of lads from his old estate. Their total lack of cricket experience is partly due to the sport being prohibitively expensive and out of reach, and partly down to their personal opinion that it’s “slow” and “boring” and “not as good as football”. Despite their negative perception of the gentleman’s game, enough lads are curious enough to show up to the first training session and form a squad. The unlikely XI ranges from 15-year-old troublemaker (who has really just been let down by the school system) Sean to 18-year-old Ben, who is living on his own for the first time and is heartbreakingly lonely. Both of these players’ arcs are hugely moving, and have little to do with their cricket skills. That this is about so much more becomes clearer still with the late arrival of Afghani asylum seeker Adnan, who, 11 months earlier, turned up in Preston in the back of a lorry unable to speak a word of English. This is his first opportunity to play a sport he’s dreamt of being able to play most of his life, and he’s welcomed into the team as by far their best player. Whatever Flintoff might have hoped to achieve when he started this Mighty Ducks-style experiment, it ended up turning into something far greater. Even if you share the Preston lads’ initial disinterest in cricket, you’d go a long way to find a more moving and heartwarming three hours of television than this.
Funny Woman (Neon)
The US has Marvellous Mrs Maisel, the UK has Barbara Anderson. Based on the Nick Hornby novel Funny Girl (which was published pre-Maisel, so who’s copying who), Funny Woman is the story of a former Miss Blackpool (Gemma Arterton) who decides to pursue a career in comedy, despite it being the 1960s and her being, you know, a woman. She leaves Blackpool for the bright lights of London, and after the requisite series of setbacks finds herself the star of a new TV sitcom — the ultimate platform to show 1960s England that woman can be, you know, funny.
