“The show is a beacon of hope”
“The show is a beacon of hope. It may put these kids into unusual circumstances, but the qualities it brings out of them – the energy, the humour, the desire to achieve – are not unusual at all. They are in every young person, not far below the surface. Organised sport brings them out, and Field of Dreams does not have to do much to demonstrate that.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian
“It is further testament to Flintoff’s quiet power as a motivator, which we saw previously when he took reluctant teens from his home town of Preston and created not only a decent cricket team but also a wonderful, moving piece of television about the magical, transformative qualities of sport. This series, like that one, will benefit from judicious editing and doubtless a certain amount of reality TV spin, with the usual ‘jeopardy’ and ‘what have I taken on?’ beats. But you can still see truculent, defiant, often underprivileged children change in front of you.”
Carol Midgley, The Times
“If Flintoff is spreading himself a bit thin here, the editors do their best to hide it. But he must rely more heavily on his assistants – former Lancashire fast bowler Kyle Hogg, England Women’s international Kate Cross, and a local Bootle coach who isn’t formally introduced. Still, he shows up as much as he can, and clearly feels as passionately as ever about the transformative power of team sport.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph
“Charismatic Freddie might not be able to sweep away centuries of class prejudice but he stands a good chance of putting an all-girls team together. At a youth club in Blackpool, he was the centre of attention, and a full squad of eager young female cricketers turned up to his first training session, even though most of them had never played before. So far, we’ve seen less of them, perhaps because the boys from Bootle were acting up more. Their batting skills were slow to develop, but they caught on to the art of sledging immediately.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
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