ESPN Classic

The Umpire Strikes Back

Wednesdays at 10.30pm from 10th March

The Umpire Strikes Back, a brand new 12 episode sports panel series, is to air on ESPN Classic from Wednesday 10th March at 10:30pm.  

Hosted by the BBC's, Mark Chapman, the new series is for fans that love the humour, emotion and tragedy associated with sport. 

Comedians Des Clarke and Kevin Day will be joined each week by two leading names from the world of sport as they tackle questions based on ESPN Classic’s extensive archive of unforgettable moments from sporting history. 

Each 30 minute episode will consist of a series of rounds aimed at testing the panels’ sporting knowledge from ‘Heroes & Villains’, in which the teams have to identify the sporting heroes and villains in a series of clips, to ‘Twitter Ye Not’, which picks out some twitter postings from sports stars and asks the panelists to fill in the blanks, and ‘Better If…’ where the teams are shown a clip of a great sporting moment and asked what could have been done to have made it even better.  
Points are awarded arbitrarily by The Umpire, Mark Chapman, based on which answers he is most amused by and likes the best, but not necessarily the correct ones.

The series will be broadcast every Wednesday night at 10:30pm with repeats on Thursdays at 10:00pm. 
The sporting guests include: Ray Parlour, James Cracknell, Austin Healey, Iwan Thomas, Darren Campbell, Graham Poll, Anne Keothavong, Mark Pougatch and Marc Bircham.

As Mark Chapman says: “It’s my show, and therefore it’s my rules. Sporting knowledge is all well and good, but if they don’t make me laugh then the teams won’t get any points.  For TV fans that love sport this gives ESPN Classic a chance to share in and recreate the banter that takes place in pubs and terraces up and down the country”.

Special Guests:
Ep 1 - Darren Campbell / Marc Bircham
Ep 2 - Ray Parlour / Mark Pougatch
Ep 3 - Graham Poll / Iwan Thomas
Ep 4 - Bob Casey / Kelly Cates
Ep 5 - Anne Keothavong / Marc Bircham
Ep 6 - Perry Groves / Dean Macey
Ep 7 - Iwan Thomas / Darren Campbell
Ep 8 - Marc Bircham / Rob Burrow
Ep 9 - Dave Vitty / Graham Poll
Ep 10 - James Cracknell / Austin Healey
Ep 11 - Kelly Cates / Ray Parlour
Ep 12 - Austin Healey / Perry Groves

TV Schedule:
Premiere: Wednesday 10th March, 22.30
Premiere of each episode: Wednesdays at 22.30
Repeats: Thursdays at 22.00, Saturdays at 23.30, Tuesdays at 23.05

About Mark Chapman:
Sports presenter, journalist, BBC 5 Live anchor and Radio 1 DJ, Mark Chapman has recently presented Match of the Day, anchoring the BBCs live coverage of Italy v Northern Ireland. Mark has also hosted Five’s live Serie A coverage, Football Italiano, as well as its weekly football show, Football Night. Mark also hosts ESPN's live studio show TALK OF THE TERRACE, Sundays at 18.30, with Kelly Cates, inviting opinionated contributions from footie fans via tv.espn.co.uk/talkoftheterrace. Visit the "Talk Of The Terrace" Website and have your say, on live TV, on the big issues surrounding the game.