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Ricky Tomlinson

He made his name as Bobby Grant in Brookside, before becoming a comedy legend as Jim Royle in The Royle Family. He’s even had a stint as England manager, albeit as fictional character Mike Bassett. Here he tells us all about jumping around in cinders with Liverpool legends, trials at Scunthorpe, and Bill Shankly’s charm…

Do you get to many football games these days?

I love the game but I have this one-man protest about paying £40 or £50 to go and see them. The last time I went to a match was when I was a guest for one of the TV channels so that I wasn’t taking anyone’s seat and for a couple of years I’ve been offered a seat at Wembley for the finals, and I said no. I can’t be taking someone’s seat, someone who’s gone every week in the wind and the rain, and for me to take it? I thanks but no thanks.

Fair enough. As a Liverpool fan, do you think Rafa will stay on as manager?

The man’s doing the job, and the fans are marching in support of him. And you talk about whether it’s a game or a business and unfortunately it’s a business but you know, he’s running that team, he’s doing it well, and he has the respect of the players, and more importantly he has the respect of the supporters. The team have knitted together and they’re playing for each other

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Les Ferdinand

He’s scored for six different Premier League clubs in a career spanning 20 years and 184 career goals, he’s now an expert TV pundit, a qualified helicopter pilot and he’s the only person to be called Sir despite having only an MBE. Meet SIR LES FERDINAND, football’s action man…

Put your neck on the line straight away. Who do you think is going to win the league?

It would take a really brave man to bet against Manchester United especially the way they’re playing at the moment. They have arguably the best player in the world at the moment in their team, and they’ve got another fella who plays alongside him who’s not far short of him who’s coming in to some form at this moment in time, Wayne Rooney is just finding his goal scoring feet again so it looks ominous for everybody else.

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