So as one feelgood soccer sitcom ends another one begins. Following on swiftly from the final whistle blowing on Ted Lasso here's Changing Ends, Alan Carr's coming of age comedy about being an 11-year-old growing uo in Northampton in the 1980s. The title and football connection comes from the fact that Alan's dad Graham (Shaun Dooley) is manager of the local Fourth Division team.

 

There is nothing lower league about the quality of Changing Ends though, which is co-written by Two Doors Down’s Simon Carlyle. From the kick-off this feels like a winner. Alan Carr pops up and provides the narration, but the real star is Oliver Savell as his younger self, who is torn between fitting in and sticking out. While his mates are having kickabouts he wants to watch Murder She Wrote.

 

Some of the dialogue does stick out a bit. Would even a precocious 11-year-old really say "I've got a good mind to down tools and have a Mars bar" when he doesn't want to do something? But that hardly matters as Savell is so cheekily charming in the role of the future stand-up star. We can already see him turning into someone who grew up to have, as Carr puts it "the eyesight of a mole and the voice of an elderly lady."

 

The feel good subtext here is just be what you want to be. While dad is a bit embarrassed by him, mum Christine (Nancy Sullivan) gives him plenty of love and support. Never mind what the neighbours think. Along with the positive message there are also plenty of 1980s gags about mullets and unreconstructed attitudes of the times.

 

There are echoes here of other comedies as well as Ted Lasso. Liam Williams' Ladhood, Jack Rooke's Good Grief. But Carr has such a distinctive voice that if you like his sense of humour and eye for quirky detail you will clearly love this. Hold the front page. ITV in funny sitcom shock.