Special 1 TV (formerly known as I'm on Setanta Sports) is a satirical football television programme, produced by Blue Elf Productions and Caboom Entertainment.
The stars of the show are puppet caricatures of various football personalities: namely José Mourinho, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Wayne Rooney, Fabio Capello and Arsène Wenger.
The final episode under the IOSS format was aired on 10 January following Setanta's live coverage of Stoke City v Liverpool.
[4] On 17 January 2009, however, a special transition episode aired, with various characters begging the José puppet to reverse his decision to quit the show.
The show began airing under the title Special 1 TV from 31 January 2009, with changes consisting of a new title sequence and graphics (removing, in the process, all visual mentions of "Setanta Sports", other than the copyright line in the end credits, and replacing the channel's trademark yellow and black colour scheme with a predominantly green one).
On 20 August 2009, it was reported that no new regular episodes would be produced after Setanta's UK operations ceased trading on 23 June 2009.
[5] The show returned on 11 June 2010 for a special six-part series on BBC Three to tie in with the 2010 World Cup, along with web-only sketches.
A 17-part second series, to coincide with the Premier League season, began on BBC Three on Saturday 16 October 2010 and broadcasts on a fortnightly basis.
[9] The last of the 2010/11 episodes ("All in") in May 2011 ended with Jose declaring that the show "would not come back unless Manchester United could beat Barcelona in the Champions League final".
Self-assured and arrogant, he is the anchor of the "news programme" who reads viewer emails, takes phone calls on the air, and introduces video segments.
In a parody of the Richard Keys and Andy Gray sexism saga, Sven was dismissed from the show for not knowing the offside rule in Episode 11 of the 2010–11 series.
Sven FM also had calls from Mick McCarthy, David Beckham, Ian Holloway, Roy Keane and Ban Ki-moon.
Wayne is childlike but incredibly talented in ventriloquism (with a puppet of Cristiano Ronaldo, known as "Puppet-Ronnie"), chess, vocabulary, blindfolded Rubik's Cube, keepy-uppies, singing the first line to "Ave Maria", and playing the violin amongst other things.
In the final episode of the first Special 1 TV series, Barack Obama was announced as Jose's new signing for the start of next season.
There are also characters which have appeared partially, either with their face blurred or unable to see : Roberto Mancini, Peter Crouch, Avram Grant, Robbie Keane, Mick McCarthy.
Other non-football callers which have phoned in to the programme, besides Barack from Washington (Barack Obama), are: Nelson from South Africa (Nelson Mandela), Willie from Texas (Willie Nelson), Tom from L.A./South Africa (Tom Cruise), Graham from London (Graham Norton), Simon from Barbados (Simon Cowell), Cheryl from Newcastle (Cheryl Tweedy), Liam and Noel from Manchester (Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher), Stephen from London (Stephen Fry) and Mick from South Africa (Mick Jagger).