As with most televison dramas about the beautiful game, Kay Mellor's Gifted keeps away from action on the pitch, but, in the light of recent events, it is nothing if not topical.

A Yorkshire first division football star player with lots of money, a flash car and big house is accused of rape by a single mother he picks up in a posh nightclub. A black player from the same team stands trial for assault following a racial attack in a restaurant.

These stories are all too familiar from today's newspaper headlines, which makes Kay Mellor's new TV film Gifted nothing if not topical. So hot that ITV is bringing forward the screening in the schedules.

Everyone concerned is eager to point out that Gifted is fictional. Leeds-based Mellor began writing the script two years ago, little realising that real life would catch up with her dramatic examination of the pressures and perceptions of celebrity status, fame and football.

Kenny Doughty stars as the young and gifted player Jamie Gilliam, whose team is on the verge of promotion to the Premiership. His star status makes him think he can have anything he wants - including two girls (played by Claire Goose and Christine Tremarco) he meets while partying in a nightclub.

Gifted, which was premiered at Leeds International Film Festival last weekend, has valid points to make about the corrupting power of fame, although it does rather goes to pieces towards the end when a thriller element clicks in.

The film features a limited amount of action on the pitch, but is more concerned with events away from the football stadium. This is wise as TV usually scores an own goal when dramas attempt to show football, with the beautiful game becoming an ugly mess on screen.

Even the movies have a poor record with soccer. You have only to recall Sylvester Stallone in goal, and a bulky Michael Caine huffing and puffing around the field in Escape To Victory to know that.

No wonder TV fights shy of football-based drama. Mellor has tackled football drama before in her BBC1 series Playing The Field. That time the players were women, members of Castlefield Blues, although the scripts were more concerned with the lives of them and their families away from the game in what was basically a soap with balls.

Match coverage was kept to a minimum, given that good actresses don't always make good footballers. C4's The Manageress adopted much the same line, following the commotion in the boardroom and dressing room when a woman (played by Cherie Lunghi) took charge of the club.

ITV1's Footballers' Wives, too, is more interested in the personal lives of the players and partners who have names like Chardonnay. They are rich and glamorous, snort cocaine and drink too much, open their home to glossy magazines - and aren't, of course, based on real people.

As for action outside the bedroom, the series' idea of covering a football match is to have the camera prowl along a line of bare bums as players shower after the match.

Back in the 1960s, the BBC attempted to make a football soap. United struggled on for two years before being relegated to the rubbish bin. This twice-weekly series followed the fortunes of struggling soccer club Brentwich United. Soccer pundit Jimmy Hill acted as the technical advisor, with Stoke City's ground used for match sequences.

Sky One's Dream Team, centred around a Midlands team called Harchester United, is in its seventh season and has provided employment for many a displaced soap actor. Mark Moraghan, for instance, passed through Dream Team after leaving Brookside and before joining Holby City. Nathan Constance has had the distinction of appearing in both Dream Team and Footballers' Wives. Occasionally, a real football personality will put in an appearance in a bid to add a touch of authenticity.

More likely, football is used as the backcloth for a drama. The play, An Evening With Gary Lineker, became a TV film with Clive Owen, Paul Merton and Martin Clunes playing fans holidaying in Ibiza, as England played Germany in the 1990 World Cup.

Similarly, Arthur Smith's TV drama My Summer With Des was a romantic comedy set during the 1996 European football championships. Neil Morrissey, Rachel Weisz and John Gordon Sinclair starred, and the Des of the title - Desmond Lynam - put in an appearance too.

As recent stories show, real-life football stories are so much more interesting and outrageous than anything script writers can dream up. If you want to see the real thing, BBC North-East/Cumbria is screening a documentary about Darlington FC's chairman George Reynolds next week.

He tells the programme that his motto for success is "never listen to the fans or manager because they never get it right". The colourful life of the former safecracker turned millionaire practically cries out to be turned into a TV movie - just as long as they keep the action of the pitch as brief as possible.

* Gifted is on ITV1 on October 29 at 9pm.

* George Reynolds: Playing By His Own Rules is on BBC North-East/Cumbria on Tuesday at 11.05pm.

Published: 18/10/2003