Time to kick off your summer binge-watch!

With the World Cup kicking off today, it's the perfect time to discover or rewatch some of those shows that wouldn't have been made were it not for the beautiful game.

Whether that's the iconic Footballers' Wives, hit comedies Rovers, Ted Lasso and Twenty Twenty Six, Netflix's The English Game, or James Graham's recent drama Dear England.

Here are six TV shows set in the world of football, to watch right now....

Dear England

BBC iPlayer

James Graham's four-part drama, Dear England, launched last month, and all episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer. It's based on his hit National Theatre play of the same name, as Gareth Southgate must face up to the years of hurt to take the team and nation back to glory.

With the worst team track record for penalties in the world, Gareth takes over as manager of the men's team and knows he needs to open his mind and face up to the years of hurt to take England back to the promised land.

The country that gave the world football has delivered a painful pattern of loss. Why can’t the England team win at their own game?

The cast includes Joseph Fiennes as Gareth Southgate, Jodie Whittaker as team psychologist Pippa Grange, Jason Watkins as former FA chairman Greg Dyke, John Hodgkinson as former FA chairman Greg Clarke, Daniel Ryan as Steve Holland, former assistant manager for the England men’s team and Sam Spruell as fictional coach, Mike Webster.

The English Game

Netflix

Airing on Netflix in 2020, was Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes' six-part 19th-century drama The English Game, which follows two footballers on opposite sides of a class divide as they navigate professional and personal turmoil to change the game and their home country forever.

In 1879, modern football was in its infancy, a game created by, and for, the upper-class elite in the UK. But that year, Darwen FC, a working-class team made up primarily of factory workers, became the first club of its kind to make it to the quarterfinals of the Football Association cup.

The English Game stars Edward Holcroft, Kevin Guthrie, Charlotte Hope, Craig Parkinson, James Harkness, Niamh Walsh, Gerard Kearns, Joncie Elmore, Sam Keeley, Daniel Ings, Kate Dickie, Henry Lloyd Hughes, Kate Phillips, Ben Batt, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Harry Michell and Anthony Andrews.

Footballers' Wives

ITVX

Few TV shows sum up the early noughties and WAG culture better than Footballers' Wives, the hit ITV drama which ran for five wonderfully wild series and starred the likes of Zöe Lucker, Gillian Taylforth, Suzie Amy, Gary Lucy and Laila Rouass.

Footballers’ wives are young, rich, beautiful and have everything that money and fame can buy. The designer gear, the palatial homes, the flash cars, the platinum credit cards and the handsome celebrity husbands.

They should be having the time of their lives, but are actually struggling to keep their marriages intact while their men dazzle the crowds on the pitch and the girls in the nightclubs.

Memorable moments across the five series include Tanya's shocking baby swap, Katie Price's cameo appearance at Shannon and Harley’s wedding, Chardonnay’s boobs catching fire and, of course, the unique way in which Tanya saw husband Frank off!

Rovers

Sky and NOW

You'll be forgiven for having never heard of the 2016 comedy Rovers, which was about the loves and lives of a lower-league football team's fans. Created by Joe Wilkinson and written by him and David Earl, the show only ran for one series and aired on Sky One.

Rovers followed the community of Redbridge Rovers supporters, who often gather at a rundown clubhouse where they share their passion for their team. It reunited The Royle Family's Sue Johnston as Doreen, the club's matriarch and chief barmaid, and Craig Cash as Pete Mott, an overenthusiastic devotee of the Rovers.

Other cast members include Steve Speirs as Pete's childhood friend Tel, Seb Cardinal as Tel's love interest Mel, and Diane Morgan as Mandy, the club's resident Vamp. And writers Joe Wilkinson and David Earl also star as Pete's archrivals, Bruce and Lee.

Across the series, things heat up between Mandy and Willy, Pete struggles at the clubhouse's fundraising night, and things don't go entirely as Pete hoped when he brings his young son Stanley to his first-ever Redbridge Rovers game.

And in the final episode, Pete has a huge surprise for Doreen as she celebrates 25 years of working at the Rovers' clubhouse.

Ted Lasso

Apple TV

With a fourth season of Ted Lasso arriving on the 5th August, there's never been a better time to discover or rewatch this superb comedy on Apple TV from 2020, based on a character from a 2013 NBC Sports promo.

Jason Sudeikis stars as a small-time college football coach from Kansas, who's hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having no experience coaching soccer. But what he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for with optimism, underdog determination... and biscuits.

In the show's second series, Ted deals with the fallout from the decision he made after the game against Manchester City at the end of series one. Can Ted pull off one of football's greatest comeback stories?

Series three, then thought to be the final outing of Ted Lasso, sees the newly promoted AFC Richmond face ridicule as media predictions widely peg them for last in the Premier League.

Meanwhile, Nate has to deal with the shock decision he made at the end of series two, Ted deals with pressures at work as he continues to wrestle with his own personal issues back home, Rebecca is focused on defeating Rupert, and Keeley navigates being the boss of her own PR agency.

In the upcoming fourth series, Ted returns to Richmond to take on his biggest challenge yet: coaching a second division women’s football team.

The series also stars Hannah Waddingham, Nick Mohammed, Brett Goldstein, Juno Temple, Phil Dunster, Brendan Hunt and the late Anthony Head.

Twenty Twenty Six

BBC iPlayer

Earlier this year, and probably deliberately scheduled to avoid the World Cup, came the third instalment of the BBC comedies starring Hugh Bonneville as Ian Fletcher.

In Twenty Twelve, he was the Head of Deliverance of the Olympic Deliverance Commission; in W1A, he became Head of Values at the BBC; and now, in Twenty Twenty Six, he joins the Oversight team in Miami behind the 2026 FIFA World Cup as the Director of Integrity.

Hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico, with 48 countries taking part and 16 venues thousands of miles apart across the whole of North America, what could possibly go wrong? Ian Fletcher is about to find out.

On his first day, Ian's first challenge is to decide which cities should host the semi-finals, and later on in the series, he and the team must deal with a damning report on global heating, rumours about a famous footballer, conspiracy theories about the dangers of the ball’s advanced new technology and more!

And in the series finale, after a visit from its creative director, a boycott and politics threaten the opening ceremony, and it’s time for Ian to think about life after football.