Can Jack serve up with the Sporting Nation?

Friday:Jack Whitehall’s Sporting Nation; (BBC One, 8.30pm)
Jack Whitehall invites us to relive our most incredible sporting achievementsJack Whitehall invites us to relive our most incredible sporting achievements
Jack Whitehall invites us to relive our most incredible sporting achievements

Jack Whitehall is doing alright for himself.

Recent reports suggest the comedian, who is still only 31, has amassed a £7.5million fortune thanks to his stand-up tours and TV shows such as Fresh Meat, Bad Education, Travels With My Father and his role in the League of their Own franchise.

He still has some way to go before he matches his pal James Corden from the latter, who is reportedly worth more than double that.

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However, although Jack may be feeling cock a hoop with his finances, and that he is loved-up with his girlfriend, stunning model Roxy Horner, he realises that the nation is in need of cheering up.

A couple of weeks ago, Jack’s ode to his old man Michael was broadcast by the BBC to tie in with Father’s Day.

It saw the pair reminisce about the ups and downs of their relationship in a socially distanced way in Whitehall Senior’s front garden.

And now, Jack is providing a lift for sports fans around the country with his new series Sporting Nation.

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2020 has been a strange year for sport with almost every professional league suspended and an entire summer of iconic events wiped out.

Things are slowly getting under way again, but the nation is still itching for more action, so step forward Jack, with sports history at his fingertips.

This nostalgia-filled and light-hearted comedy retrospective sees the armchair fan tell the story of the UK through its greatest sporting moments. Looking back on decades of glorious action, Jack invites us to relive our most incredible sporting achievements together while exploring what our love of sport says about our nation and heritage. In collaboration with some of the UK’s most exciting sports writers, Jack takes us on a journey through six themes that unite us, from loving the underdog to hating the Australians.

The show will bring together rich cultural nostalgia, social commentary and top-class athleticism to create a feel-good dive into our sporting past that will remind us just how much we love it, and how we have longed and are still longing for its return.

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“The British public has lost over a hundred hours of sport this summer with the Olympics, Euro 2020 and Wimbledon being wiped off the schedule,” Jack says.

“So we thought what do people need in this barren summer and we came up with this.

“I’ve worked with some of the country’s most talented sports journalists to create six compendiums of British sport.

“From Super Saturday to super overs this will be pure unadulterated nostalgia!”

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Kate Phillips, Controller of BBC Entertainment, says: “Jack’s very funny take on our country’s passion for sport is sure to give people of all ages that sporting fix we’re all missing this year.”

Meanwhile, Ben and Gabe Turner of production company Fulwell73, says: “Sport like life is as much about the story as the result.

“We feel it is a lens through which we can explore all kinds of themes and what better time to consider what our sporting obsessions say about us as a nation that right now?

“And who better to do it with than Jack Whitehall?”

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