RAFA BENITEZ is not about to insist Newcastle United’s players watch one of his favourite British sitcoms, Dad’s Army, on their Premier League travels this season, even if he has already dished one of his favourite lines: “Keep calm and carry on.”

That was what Benitez kept instructing to his team during an early season slump that left them bottom of the top-flight, and now he can enjoy some of his other favourite programmes from yesteryear happier that the Magpies are four points above the relegation zone.

Since moving to England in 2004 with Liverpool, Benitez has become a huge fan of some of this country’s best comedy sketches on TV, served up by characters such as Basil Fawlty to Captain Mainwaring and Del Boy.

Fourteen years later, the Spaniard still loves them but he has resisted the temptation to play the episodes in the dressing room so far as a form of motivation – or even to lighten the mood when things aren’t going so well.

“Normally you have to be the captain,” said Benitez. “I see a lot of sitcoms which I enjoy. I love the ‘Don’t panic! Don’t panic!’ When I first came I enjoyed watching Father Ted, Fawlty Towers with the waiter who was supposed to be Spanish but sounded more Italian.

“Only Fools and Horses is a big favourite of mine. I used to watch My Family, Blackadder, and the Vicar of Dibley, I watched them all.

“They were great fun. They helped me relax and now I watch them all.

“My English was poor when I first arrived, as it still is, but I used to listen to the Beatles to improve it. I watched the sitcoms for that as well but I couldn’t always understand the Peckham accent”

With Benitez pushing for more money to spend during the last few transfer windows, and in the up-coming January one too, he was asked who had more money, Del Boy or him?

The Newcastle boss said: “It depends which series you’re asking about – the first or the last!

“But we don’t put these things on the coach because these days players are on their own phones or tablets, or playing video games against each other. There isn’t too much time because we fly everywhere.

“I don’t think I’ll be getting any boxsets for Christmas. Everyone seems to buy me hampers and more hampers. Don’t get me hampers, give me strikers all the time! The hampers – I get wine and I don’t drink. I get chocolate and I eat too much of it as it is!”

What matters more to him on a more serious note with Christmas approaching is staying clear of the relegation zone. Bottom club Fulham are at St James’ Park this afternoon looking to inflict a third straight home defeat on Benitez’s side.

Newcastle are four points clear of the bottom three after the recent improvement in results, but the reality is that at St James’ they have only won two of their nine games so far so he is not taking anything for granted.

Benitez said: “I think we are doing well, but always when I talk about this league, the top sides are so strong that when you have a bad run because you play two or three of them in a row, then everything seems difficult.

“But after, maybe you have two or three games that you can win and you get the points and it seems that everything is fine.

“Now we are in a good position. Hopefully we can win against Fulham and if we do that, then we have a very difficult run again and we’ll see what happens.”

And the former Real Madrid boss, who did not have anything to add on his contract or a potential takeover of the club, is satisfied with where Newcastle are because he didn’t expect much better given the difficult start they were handed.

He added: “It could have been totally different, winning one game in between – Cardiff, where we missed a penalty in the last minute – and winning one of those games, it could have been totally different.

“But because we were losing these games, the mood was quite negative, but now it’s quite positive.

“We still have to stay calm, don’t panic – like Dad’s Army – don’t panic and carry on doing your job because it’s a long, long season.”