Cult footy-soap series Dream Team scored legions of fans – none more so than Andrew Cooke. He explains his undying love for a team that never existed beyond Sunday nights on Sky One
“Growing up in the West Midlands, I should’ve been a West Brom or Wolves fan. Instead, I chose another local side. Sure, they may be fictional – and their last game was in 2007. But the mighty Harchester United are my football team.
“I first fell in love with the Dragons as a kid – when I discovered Dream Team on Sky One. It was true football drama and, for a decade, one of the best things on TV. I can remember one long summer holiday, binge-watching the repeats then catching new episodes on Sunday nights – they were great times.
“There was never a dull moment. I loved the youth team set-up in the early seasons and the innocence of it all. In later series, memorable storylines included the goalie holding the dressing room hostage, the dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Charlton, and club legend Fletch’s death on the dressing room peg – at the hands of his former manager.
“Harchester didn’t win too much. But there was the 1999 FA Cup final win over Man United at the end of season two. It was one of their finest moments – I was cheering them on from the sofa. However, minutes after lifting the trophy, club captain John Black was tragically shot dead by a hitman in the Wembley stands. Then, there was the coach crash en route to the Uefa Cup final and, after winning promotion back to the Premier League in season eight, the explosion of their team bus in the car park.
“That’s Harchester United for you: a club truly beset by tragedy. Over ten seasons, 27 players were killed. They attracted some big (fictional) talent, though. In season seven, they broke the British transfer record, signing Luke Davenport for £28m from Barcelona. He was moulded on David Beckham, I think.
“They changed the club’s history as they went along. In 1997 it was supposedly their first ever Premier League season. Later, it turned out they’d been in it a couple of years, been relegated, then promoted straight back. They stayed in the top flight until relegation at the end of series seven. It was a good change of direction for the show – but Sky weren’t happy they were in Division One. That’s why they won promotion the following season.
“The series ended on a high note. In the very final episode, they became Premier League champions and lifted the real trophy. It’s perhaps why they’ve been likened to Leicester: a Midlands yo-yo club who won the league against the odds. There’s even a similar storyline with a non-league player rising through the ranks to become a title-winning star striker. Rather than Jamie Vardy, it was Jason Porter.
“I’d already set up my fan website, Dream Team Diehard, by the time I was bitten by the memorabilia bug. I now own 13 Harchester shirts, thanks to deep trawls on Classic Football Shirts and eBay. They vary from the famous purple home kit, to match-worn orange away, to the white European away strip; from plain back shirts, to ones with names, numbers and even Premier League patches. I’ve kept all my receipts – I’ve spent £400 over five years compiling 13 shirts. I’m not the best at football, so it’s rare I stick one on. Instead, they’re all kept, safely stored, in a big box.
“They were all made by sportswear companies, the likes of Pony and Le Coq Sportif. For them, it was product placement – it added to the show’s realism. My favourite from my collection is the one-off, dark orange shirt the team wore in the play-off final – the same game that their coach exploded. It’s super-rare – I’ve never seen it crop up online again. Likewise, kit from the first two seasons is the holy grail. I search ‘Dream Team TV’ on eBay all the time and never come across them.
“Today, my collection stretches to shorts signed by the show’s cast (bought for a bargain £10), to training gear, club coats, match programmes, a one-off figurine of forward Casper Rose, plus show scripts bought for £500. It’s amazing how much was made to resemble a real football club – I own a club scarf and have even seen a shaving bag emblazoned with the Dream Team logo.
“There would’ve been a ton of memorabilia on eBay when the show ended in 2007 – it’s a big regret I missed out on that haul. As time marches on, less and less comes online. Often, you’ll see the same shirts and memorabilia doing the rounds. You typically know it’s a new item when the seller provides a story to prove it’s genuine – often because they worked on the show. I’ve met Dream Team extras and those from the costume department who have had a shirt for sale. It means the item is genuine – and rare.
“With other fan sites going offline, I’ve sort of had it bestowed on me as being the biggest authority on the show. I’ve even interviewed a few of the players – 17 cast members – for my site. However, I still need to do the stadium tour – Millwall’s The Den, which posed as the Dragon’s Lair.
“There aren’t any Dream Team reruns. All the Sky Sports footage and licencing would have to be renewed – and that’d be pricey. Then, there are no DVDs as they’d have to pay a fortune in royalties for all the music used – there were typically ten songs an episode. Plus, in the era of VHS, the producers didn’t see a way hundreds of episodes could ever be played at home. It meant the public selling rights were never written into contracts. So, the best thing we have is YouTube – and many of the episodes are blocked. It’s another thing I’m after – alongside kit and memorabilia – the remaining Dream Team episodes. It’s an ongoing quest.
“Anyway, Sky are in a different era now. Football was more fun back then – look at how Soccer AM has moved with the times. Dream Team was very much of its day: the Noughties players featured against Harchester United are now grey-haired pundits and managers. You realise, ‘Wow, it was so long ago.’
“I’ve always thought it’d be great to have an update to the show – the Premier League is even bigger now. There are so many stories they could get out of it. There’d be more foreign players in the side and social media would be a big deal. In fact, the final big storyline was the Dragonslayer, a Harchester player bitter about the end of their career, waging war on the club’s online message boards. It was ahead of its time.
“If the Dragons were in the Premier League now, I’d hope they’d be doing well – both as a fan and for the sake of the storyline. Realistically though, they’d probably be yo-yoing and routinely stuck in relegation fights.
”They’ll always have a special place in my heart. Harchester United are my football club, just as others have a real team they support. I love rewatching old games and episodes – it just reminds me of great, great times.”