How the Celts made English football a global brand

It won't help in the Euros next week, but wherever you go in the world you will find people who will tell you that they "support" an English football club. They may never have set foot in England. Still, they will be wearing the strip of several English Premiership teams: Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea, are probably the most popular, but other strips can be seen as well.

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Pitch Invasion: How the Scottish and Irish Changed Football (BBC 1) attempts to explain the success of English football and put it well and truly at the boots of migrant players and managers from Ireland and Scotland. Three managers from Scotland: Bill Shankly, Alex Ferguson and Matt Busby, are credited with having redefined the job of a modern football manager.

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They demanded the best from their players and were free and colourful with their criticism after each match, but each player started with a fresh sheet at the next training session. All three were bought up in the tough industrial region around Glasgow, with its striking, often aggressive-sounding, accent. Each valued young players, choosing to develop a team "in-house" rather than sign new stars on the transfer market.

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These managers looked for genius and guts and often found their future stars among the junior teams in Ireland and Scotland. We meet a whole host of former players reminiscing about the glory days and get an opportunity to watch some edited highlights. A great watch, and an introduction to a wonderful sport.

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For all the wrong reasons, we had an opportunity to peer into another sporting world with There's Only One Rob Burrow (BBC 1). Rob was a relatively short player, who lit up every rugby game he played for Leeds Rhinos, as he outran and outmanoevered his bigger opponents. Just five years ago his behaviour and speech began to change and shortly afterwards was diagnosed with motor neurone disease which affected his brain and nervous system and would lead to an early death. Rob, together with his team and his family, threw themselves into raising funds and awareness of the condition and had considerable success. Sadly, he died twelve days ago, and he has left a tremendous legacy which will be an inspiration to many.

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Many who have had a difficult childhood, may find the play Lost Boys and Fairies (BBC 1) a challenging watch. The plot is simple: a gay couple, Gabriel and Andy, would like to adopt a child. We sit in on the intrusive selection interviews that are mandatory for prospective adopters. Two things were going on. Firstly, the couple seemed to be focused on what adoption would mean for them rather than what they could offer a child. Secondly, one of the men clearly had some very deep-rooted problems stemming from the death of his mother, and a "deeply religious" father who, straight out of any playwriter's stereotyped arsenal, was a disciplinarian bigot. Do the people who write this stuff actually know any Christians?

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Progress was made with the application and the couple were invited to an "activity day". Here the applicants, armed with a colourful catalogue, met children who were looking for parents. The behaviour of the other potential adoptive parents was, at times, distinctly bizarre, making the viewer wonder just how carefully they had been vetted. Whilst the couple had set their heart on a little girl, Gabriel and Andy, were introduced to a young boy, who needed a loving family. In another two episodes, we will know the outcome, but in the meantime, a reminder that there are many children without parents.

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Super, perfect homemakers, Dick and Angel Strawbridge of 'Escape to the Chateau" are easily the most irritating couple on television, far cleverer than the rest of us. So, I didn't have any great hopes for their travelogue Secret France with Dick and Angel (Channel 4). However, it was a pleasant and interesting look at part of France where few other travel programmes ever go. Marseille is France's second biggest city and has a culture which is distinctly Mediterranean with strong influences from North Africa. We are introduced to picon, an orange-based liqueur, and bouillabaisse, a fish stew enhanced by Provencal herbs. Dick and Angel in a new light!

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The title Night Train to Odesa (Radio 4) could well be for a spy novel from the Cold War, but this Book of the Week is bang up to date as it describes a student placement in Moscow between Covid and the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Read by the author, Shetland-born Jen Stout, we are confronted by the drift to war and the closing down of any free expression. She got out of Moscow and made her way to Romania and thence into Ukraine where her Russian language skills enabled her to report on the war.

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Last year I predicted that I would be the only Methodist Recorder reader who would be watching the new series of Love Island (ITV1). A few weeks later, I was at Methodist Conference and I was put right! Some of you do watch it! I thought this series got off to a better start than last year, by showing the contestants in something like their real lives.