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Two comedians - who hate football - try to discover the attraction in the ‘beautiful game'

Jake O'Kane and Colin Murphy will appear in a BBC One programme looking at the 'beautiful game'
Jake O'Kane and Colin Murphy will appear in a BBC One programme looking at the 'beautiful game' Jake O'Kane and Colin Murphy will appear in a BBC One programme looking at the 'beautiful game'

WITH just weeks to go before the start of the European Championships, two Belfast-based comedians - who both loathe soccer - set out in a bid to discover just what is the attraction of the "beautiful game".

While fans will be dusting off their replica kits and getting ready for a month of back-to-back football, Colin Murphy and Jake O'Kane have attempted to understand what has Northern Ireland and Republic football fans so excited.

In a new BBC programme 'Murphy and O’Kane Do... Le Football', the two comedians meet fans who support both teams and visit Paris to see what lies ahead for supporters travelling to France.

The pair travel to Ballyclare to meet Gary Wallace and his long suffering wife Dee. He is a taxi driver who has been a Northern Ireland fan for over 35 years with a room full of memorabilia to prove it.

In Lisburn they meet Republic of Ireland fan Kenny Murdock who comes up with a new use for his well-travelled flag and they also join a bus load of Republic fans on their way to a match in Dublin.

Murphy and O’Kane also join Jackie Fullerton en-route to a game at Windsor Park on a beer bike with some fans singing songs.

In Paris, they test Northern Ireland sayings on an unsuspecting hotelier as well as introducing a French restaurant owner to examples of some of the north's finest food and drink.

The pair also attempt to drive around Europe's most dangerous roundabout in Paris.

Murphy said: "We gave this film 110 per cent but, all things being equal, at the end of the day, it was a show of two halves but it's all about the fans".

O'Kane said: "I will never, I do mean never, allow Colin Murphy to drive me around a roundabout ever again. I'm still not over the terror of the Arc de Triumph".

Murphy and O'Kane Do...Le Football is on BBC One on Saturday at 10.35pm.