Sport

Sky commission new three-part ‘Darts’ documentary following record-breaking viewing figures

Britain's love affair with the arrows just deeper.

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 5th January 2024

Following a record-breaking year for darts and unparalleled numbers watching the 2024 World Championship Final, Sky Documentaries have now commissioned a three-part series taking fans behind the scenes of the ever-growing sport.

Announced just days after the World Darts Championship final, the PDC’s chief broadcaster has decided to capitalise on the buzz surrounding Luke Littler’s fairytale debut and all-round blockbuster tournament this year, not mention the recent trend of fly-on-the-wall sports documentaries.

Describing 2023 as “a year like no other”, the new docuseries simply dubbed with the working title, ‘Darts‘ will arrive later this year on Sky Sports and NOW TV, promising a more in-depth look at the arrows than viewers have ever seen before.

With the new season of Premier League Darts starting in February as well, it’s looking like the perfect time to double down on the

With over 4.8 million viewers tuning in for the 2024 final between Littler and Luke Humphries the competition saw a whopping 143% increase on the 2023 final, which has already firmly gone down as iconic in its own right.

ADVERTISEMENT

Boasting a peak audience of 3.71m as ‘Cool Hand’ claimed his first-ever World title after an unreal streak of 19 consecutive wins, it was up there with one of the most viewed sporting events in the channel’s history outside of football.

Social media has also exploded with darts fever as well. As detailed in a press release following the ‘Battle of the Lukes’, there were over 27.6m views of clips from the final and a total of 149.1m impressions across the whole tournament on X alone.

ADVERTISEMENT

For context, there were 16.5m views throughout the entire 2023 World Darts Championship. Even the Sky Sports App’s live blog had 307% more users during this January’s final compared to Michael Van Gerwen vs Michael Smith. Insane stats.

Read more:

Being produced by Dorothy St Pictures and Meadowlark Media, there is currently no projected release date at this early stage but the fans of Sky’s Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story and Pamela, A Love Story docs can expect a similar approach.

Sky Documentaries Commissioning Editor, Tom Barry, said of the project: “This year’s World Championship has shown how darts can captivate the nation.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Going beyond just the competition, for the first time, we are thrilled to be bringing audiences closer to the action and give them a glimpse of what it takes to make it to the top.”

You best believe we’ll be tuning in.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Sky Sports/Luke Humphries (via IG)/Sandro Halank (via Wikimedia Commons)

Sport

The player celebrations from Stockport County’s League Two trophy presentation are glorious

Danny Jones Danny Jones All Stockport County player celebrations from League Two trophy presentation

If you’re a Stockport County fan, you’ve had a very good year as the Hatters have just been crowned League Two champions and will be back in the English third tier next season – safe to say they’ve been making most of the trophy celebrations.

Players and staff very much included.

Edgeley was filled with flares and even people climbing on rooftops when they officially secured promotion back to League One for the first time in 12 years – the second time they’ve managed to go up in three seasons – and there was a great attendance in Stockport town centre for the bus parade.

But it was last week’s trophy presentation back at the stadium that produced some of the most memorable scenes, with County topping off a season of impressive and often high-scoring performances on the pitch with plenty more pageantry. Cue the music.

Kyle Knoyle giving Undertaker vibes.
He’s been red-hot all season.
No one ever takes those pitch invasion ‘warnings’ seriously – not even the players.

We still haven’t stopped laughing at Kyle Knoyle.

From bringing Isaac Olaofe’s ‘Tanto’s on fire!’ chant to life to hammering home puns on names like Fraser Horsfall, no matter how obvious, these are the kind of deeply unserious celebrations we expect from a trophy presentation.

County fan or not, you’ve got to admit it looks like a good party.

It’s moments like these that players, fans and staff work hard all season for; to prat around like muppets in front of their adoring supporters. They even got assistant coach, Clint Hill, in the mix and, as it turns out, he proved to be one of the biggest ring-leaders.

Clint was the real star of the show during Stockport County’s trophy celebrations.

Read more:

We sincerely hope the Hatters keep trickling out more of these party scenes as we know there’s plenty more that fans would love to watch back.

We’re still yet to see captain Paddy Madden, who won Player of the Month for April, and the gaffer himself, Dave Challinor, who has comfortably secured his legacy as one of the club’s all-time greats.

Challinor and the club have made no secret of seriously eyeing up the Championship and who knows what else at County’s momentum continues to build, especially with a huge stadium redevelopment kicking off soon.

What do you reckon, Hatters – do you reckon a third promotion could be on the cards?

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Stockport County (via X)

Sport

Erik ten Hag opens up on Man United’s failed Harry Kane and Frenkie de Jong transfers

Danny Jones Danny Jones Erik ten Hag on failed Harry Kane and Frenkie de Jong transfers

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has shed more light on his club’s failure to sign two key transfer targets in previous transfer windows, Harry Kane and Frenkie de Jong.

With Man United‘s interest in the proven Premier League star and England captain along with the former Ajax star turned Barcelona midfielder having been widely publicised last year, it was no secret that they were top of the wish list at Old Trafford but nothing concrete ever came of it.

Now, addressing the Kane and de Jong transfers directly for the first time, ten Hag not only admitted that he wanted to sign them but that he wasn’t given the full backing of the board to do so, suggesting that his squad therefore missed out two key talents that he hoped to build the playing style around.

Speaking to club legend Gary Neville in a Sky Sports exclusive, the 54-year-old was careful not to outwardly criticise the previous executives – the majority of whom have now departed – but confessed that they weren’t able to get either deal across the line.

As you can see, ten Hag revealed that he quickly identified Kane as the ‘proven’ striker who could have brought “30 goals” to the team but that they simply couldn’t get him, presumably down to the potential transfer fee and wage expectations.

The 30-year-old striker obviously went on to sign for German giants Bayern Munich and has now broken the record for the most goals in a debut Bundesliga season, not mention being on the verge of surpassing the highest-ever tally in a single campaign, held by Robert Lewandowski (41).

He went on to express that he has every faith in the striker they did manage to sign, insisting that 21-year-old Rasmus Højlund “will get there [to that level] but needs time” and was offered some of “the biggest potential” on the market when they snapped him up.

As for his fellow Dutchman, de Jong – who he previously coached as part of the hugely talented Ajax which impressed so many in 2018/19 – ten Hag hinted at the failure to sign him as being a key factor in why he couldn’t implement his tactics at United, telling Neville: “you have to bring in [the right] players”.

The three-time Eredivisie winner went on to explain, “You need the player with those typical assets and you can’t bring a player, say, here who has a [certain] style of play I don’t want to change his nature.”

With Neville naming de Jong specifically, ten Hag confirmed the name by adding that he envisioned a partnership between him and Casemiro or, indeed, Kobbie Mainoo eventually, adding: “They would have been really complimentary with each other, absolutely. That is the [type of player you need] if you want to play the Ajax style.

However, despite having reportedly agreed on a sizeable fee with Barcelona (the number of which has been much disputed), it came to be that de Jong seemingly didn’t want the move and preferred to stay with the Catalan club.

As a result, this meant that United had to continue experimenting with different midfield combinations and signing alternatives like Christian Eriksen and Mason Mount, who perhaps weren’t as high up on the list of transfer targets or as well suited to ten Hag’s desired approach on the pitch.

Read more:

ten Hag ultimately went on to add that a laundry list of injury problems this season has also derailed the progress of his squad as a unit, with the Red Devils having been forced to utilise 31 different back-four combinations so far.

There have been some rumblings that de Jong could be open to another potential move elsewhere again this summer, but it’s fair to say that even if they were in the running it will take more than one player to get his side back on track.

You can watch the interview with Gary Neville in full HERE.

It remains to be seen how well ten Hag will be backed by the new footballing administration this summer but it is said United are willing to consider serious offers for several members of their first-team squad as they look to raise funds for any prospective incomings.

Only three Manchester United players are said to be ‘off limits’ this summer transfer window

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Wikimedia Commons/Sky Sports (via YouTube)/Frenkie De Jong (via IG)

More Sport

Phil Foden and Bunny Shaw voted Footballers of the Year 2024 by Football Writers Association

Sport

Man City stars Phil Foden and Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw win 2024 FWA Footballer of the Year awards

Man City Andy's Man Club sessions

Manchester

Manchester City reveals details around the first Andy’s Man Club sessions at the Etihad Stadium

Lancashire Cricket Foundation offering free cricket to kids in Greater Manchester

Kids & Family

Lancashire Cricket are offering free programmes to 1,400 kids across the county and Greater Manchester

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches