Only once have we taken my wife to watch football with us at Atlético de Madrid, where my youngest daughter and I have season tickets. On a freezing cold December night in the upper reaches of the new Metropolitano, she spent the entire match reading the Guardian on her phone as Atleti played out an uninspiring 1-0 victory over Alavés. She has zero interest in football and was merely humouring the rest of us by participating in a family activity.
I tell you this because it's important to understand that having zero interest football is no bar to loving Ted Lasso, the runaway Apple TV hit, that is staged in a football setting, but is not about football. Even if, as one of the characters repeatedly insists, "Football is Life". Jane could not care less about football; but she loves Ted Lasso, and so will you.
To be honest, even if you like football, the premise of Ted Lasso, was not promising and I wasn't sure I should watch it.
There is no way on God's green earth that it should have worked at all, let alone that it should have turned out to be a truly beautiful and inspiring piece of television. Every element of the set up was riddled with cliché starting with a fish-out-of-water plot in which an American football coach is transplanted to a Premier League team - essentially King Ralph at Selhurst Park. Then the players: an aging, cynical veteran; a chippy, arrogant hotshot too good for his own team; a wildly over-enthusiastic Latin American; a superstitious young African. Stop me if you've heard this before. Major League at Manchester City?
Then there's the disinterested owner, the inevitably hostile, the ignorant and cynical media, the profane and free-drinking fans, the WAGs... Please.
My skepticism never made it any way near to cynicism. I enjoyed episode one when Ted arrives in London - and immediately visits Tower Bridge (on his way to Richmond from Heathrow!!!), tells us all he hates tea and is immediately thrown to the wolves in a disastrous welcome press conference - "Heck, you could fill two internets with what I don't know about football".
By episode four, the arrival of the new Ted Lasso was a highlight of the week. And that's because none of the stuff above matters one bit. With its smart, sensitive writing, the Ted Lasso storyline became compelling and the clichés charming. On top of that, it's funny. And then there are quite wonderful performances across the board, Hannah Waddingham as the acerbic, scheming owner; Juno Temple is a perfect WAG and Brendan Hunt's deadpan Coach Beard is a great foil to Ted himself. The footballers deliver on and off the pitch and Brett Goldstein, also a writer on the show, is outstanding as Roy Kent, the hard man midfielder raging against the dying of the light.
And then there is Ted himself, wonderfully played by the outstanding Jason Sudeikis. The show is not about AFC Richmond's fight for Premier League survival. It is about what Ted Lasso has to teach us about life and how we can all be better at it. Ted Lasso is the kindest, most generous, sensitive, forgiving and optimistic soul to have walked the earth. With his homespun wisdom and instinctive goodness he has an encouraging word for everyone and an effervescent optimism that can lighten even the gloomiest moment.
He arrived at the perfect moment - six months into the Covid pandemic, audiences were probably ready for more kindness, more optimism and more goodness in their lives. The show is very funny, hugely entertaining and genuinely moving. Season two starts this week, and I can't wait for the arrival of my new favorite TV show. And so what if you don't like football. You'll love Ted, and if you don't you can go back to The Guardian.