The Real Rooneys

“It’s not as blatant as Michael Owen’s aggressively cynical recent series Meet the Owens, which quickly descended into one long promo for his racehorse trading business – and which failed in its secondary mission to dispel Owen’s reputation for being boring, because it involved footage of him talking. Here, Coleen comes across as honest, self-aware and, crucially, someone who doesn’t seamlessly fit into the role she has been given. When the producers hand her a tablet with a photo gallery charting the history of the questionable outfits she has worn in public, her self-deprecating reactions are endearingly genuine.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“’We may live in a massive house, but at heart me and Wayne are still a couple of kids from Liverpool,’ Coleen insists. And it rings pretty true on the evidence of this 10-part series. The show is a Victoria Beckham-style brand-building exercise, as we follow Coleen’s efforts to design a fashion range, albeit full of things that Victoria wouldn’t do (eat fried food, smile, admit to marriage problems). But they’re a likeable pair and it’s a fun watch thanks to Wayne, who turns out to be sharper and funnier than you’d expect.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“In fact, [Wayne] admitted in 2023 that he used to drink till he ‘almost’ passed out. And last year he told the BBC that he’d ‘struggled massively’ with alcohol and, without the intervention of his wife, ‘I’d be dead’. This show was the perfect opportunity to lay those difficulties bare, in ways that might be genuinely useful to other couples facing the same problems. Instead, we are force-fed footage of the Rooneys charging around their 40-acre gardens on electric bikes and go-karts, belting a ball on a five-a-side pitch, playing snooker and diving into their two swimming pools (one indoors and one outside, as far as I could see). The longer it goes on, the more the falseness of it all jars.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail