ITV s Clive Tyldesley ds the double tonight

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ITV's Clive Tyldesley does the double tonight

First Clive commentates on Chelsea's Champions League Semi-Final on ITV; then in Warren United, new animated sitcom on ITV4.

Tyldesley breaks into acting: plays himself in new animated football sitcom, Warren United.

- Produced by Baby Cow, the team behind Alan Partridge, Gavin and Stacey.

- Other voices by Johnny Vegas, Darren Boyd, Nitin Ganatra, Morgana Robinson.

- Written by Simon Nye, David Quantick, Dominic Holland.

Clive Tyldesley, ITV's main football commentator, will be putting in a double shift tonight, Tuesday 22nd April first providing ITV's live commentary on Chelsea's Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid, then switching sides to make his acting debut in Warren United, a new animated sitcom that kicks off straight afterwards on ITV4.

Tyldesley will play an unnamed commentator who sounds uncannily like...Clive Tyldesley, in Warren United, a new animated sitcom about family, football and the passion of being a fan.

Straight after commentating on Chelsea's match in Madrid, Tyldesley will switch channels to commentate on a vital relegation match for the fictional Brainsford United, in the opening episode of Warren United (www.warrenunited.net).

Tyldesley will feature in five of the show's six episodes but makes his debut by immortalising Brainsford's miraculous escape from relegation on goal difference through an opposition own goal in the sixth minute of added time.

The commentaries on Warren United are hopefully just an ever so slightly exaggerated version of me , says Tyldesley. I guess commentators spend much of their broadcasting lives in danger of parodying themselves; so, I didn't want to get too precious about stepping over the line into actually doing so.

Warren United is co-written by Simon Nye, whose many previous credits include Men Behaving Badly, and fellow top writers, David Quantick and Dominic Holland. It's co-produced by Baby Cow, the company behind Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, Gavin and Stacey, Mighty Boosh and Uncle.

It follows the fortunes of Warren Kingsley, an overweight kitchen salesman and fervent football fan, as he stumbles through life trying to juggle his two passions football and family.

Warren, aged 37 and , is a fan for all seasons and a bloke of two halves: both a devoted husband and dad and a diehard fan of Brainsford United, a chronically struggling club, known to its long-suffering fans as The Meringues .

While Tyldesley is not afraid of performing a slightly exaggerated version of himself, he has been careful not to ham things up too much. If I tried to sound like Alan Partridge or some manic Brazilian broadcaster, the performance' of the commentator would start to detract from the plot of the show itself the more conventional the sound of the commentary, the better.

The ITV man also had an input in editing his dialogue on Warren United. There's an assumption that commentators talk only in clich s about bursting onion bags' and leaping like salmons', when no employable commentator would ever use such phrases', he says.

I wanted to convince executive producer Bill Freedman that the original script just needed toning down and normalising' here and there and he bought into the most of the revisions straight away.

Not that he'll enjoy hearing himself: It's odd, but rather like someone watching a home movie for the first time, I dread the bits with me in them.

Appearing in Warren United is not Tyldesley's first acting role. I also wrote and performed in university review at the Edinburgh Fringe back in the day, and would love to create time to write seriously or seriously from my point of view, anyway. All broadcasters are performers some better than others at fooling themselves to the contrary.

Written by Simon Nye, David Quantick and Dominic Holland

Production company: Baby Cow, producers of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, Uncle, Gavin & Stacey, Mighty Boosh

Directed by Tim Searle (2DTV, Have I got News For You, I'm Not an Animal)

Produced by Jeremy Diamond and Denny Silverthorne

Co-production with leading Canadian animation house, Smiley Guy Studios

LINK:	http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/itv%E2%80%99s-clive-tyld...
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