Standing Room Only

Standing Room Only was a television programme on association football shown on British channel BBC2 1991. It was produced by the BBC's Youth and Entertainment Features department, at the time headed up by Janet Street-Porter who was also Executive Producer. The first series consisted of six episodes broadcast in BBC2's "Def II" slot. The host was Simon O'Brien, but other people, including Shelley Webb, presented small sections of the programme. The format was magazine style mixing current news stories with star interviews and comedy. Notably involved were comedians David Baddiel and Rob Newman who delivered weekly sketches under the banner of "Sepp Maier's Comedy Shorts", Rory Bremmner who recorded comedy voices, and Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell who drew a weekly graphic comic strip. The series was inspired by the growing mainstream interest in football and the popularity of so called football fanzines magazines notably "When Saturday Comes" which offered the opinions of football fans themselves rather than professionals. It had an informal style with presenters usually standing near football grounds rather than sitting in a studio. In 1994 David Baddiel would go on to co-host the hugely successful football series: "Fantasy Football League" with fellow comedian Frank Skinner.