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Vardy V Rooney: A Courtroom Drama centres around Rebekah Vardy (Natalie Tena) and Colleen Rooney (Chanel Cresswell – Des), from the vacuous world of the ‘WAGs’, aka ‘Wives and Girlfriends’ of footballers, in this case, wives of Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney.
Personally, I don’t follow football, so came across this spat occasionally during the news reports, but didn’t look too deeply into it. However, it’s made it into a TV drama, so I figured I’d take a look at it.
It begins on October 9th 2019 (yes, do you remember a time before the pandemic?), as Ms Rooney accused Ms Vardy of leaking information about her from her private Instagram account to the Scum newspaper… I mean, The Sun… I mean, no, I was right the first time. It led to the Vardys being subject to abuse – even though Rebekah Vardy denied the accusations.
Who will win? Well, that’s what watching the two-part drama is all about. I know I will have heard the outcome on the news (and you can look it up, as well), but with me, it will have gone in one ear and out the other. In fact, during this, I’m reminded that the news came out on the same day as the Neighbours finale, hence why I completely overlooked it.
Representing them in the courtroom, where most of this takes play is Hugh Tomlinson QC (Simon Coury – Channel 5’s Intruder) for Vardy, and David Sherborne (Michael Sheen – Last Train To Christmas) for Rooney, the latter bringing up when Ms Vardy gave an interview about sleeping with pop star Peter Andre. However, if you’re that fussed about following the sex lives of others, you’ve clearly not got enough to occupy your day.
We’re told the drama is based on facts and court transcripts, but which have all been condensed for the purposes of TV. After all, you don’t really want this going on for a week of episodes, do you? Well, some people might, but there’s just two, the first of which is Mr Sherborne quizzing Ms Vardy, and the second seeing Mr Tomlinson doing the same to Ms Rooney.
Perhaps you’ll be more into this if you’re into the real-life situation betwen these two, but for me, the discussion about following/unfollowing each other wasn’t of interest, and referring to personal and private Instagram confused me, since I signed up but hardly use it, so wasn’t aware there were two different types.
This trial was dubbed “WAGatha Christie”. However, the biggest mystery is: How come this is filmed in Budapest?!
One plus, though: The music featured in episode 2 is Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns and Money. That’s a great tune.
Vardy V Rooney: A Courtroom Drama begins on Channel 4 on Wednesday December 21st at 9pm, after which it will be on All 4. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Director: Oonagh Kearney
Producer: Catherine Donohoe
Writer: Chris Atkins
Music: Kieran Kelly
Cast:
Rebekah Vardy: Natalie Tena
Coleen Rooney: Chanel Cresswell
David Sherborne: Michael Sheen
Hugh Tomlinson QC: Simon Coury
Wayne Rooney: Dion Lloyd
Jamie Vardy: Marton Nagyszokolyai
Harpreet Robertson: Kim Vithana
The Hon. Mrs Justice Steyn DBE: Georgiana Neilson-Toy
The Hon. Mrs Justice Steyn DBE (voice): Karen Archer
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.