First in a new, six-part fifth series of the drama that revolves around the trials and tribulations of a women's football team.

Jo is now the proud mother of baby Jessica but finds herself on the Blues subs bench thanks to new coach Gordon.

[Photo caption] The Castlefield Blues women's team return for a new season, but can they kick their rotten menfolk into touch?

Playing the Field 9.00pm BBC1
Passions off the football pitch long ago supplanted any on-field conflicts in this soapy drama, which returns tonight for its fifth series.
We pick up exactly where we left off. Dave is about to go on trial for the attempted murder of his awful brother, Rick. But the two women really responsible for the "accident" that sent Rick sprawling headfirst down the stairs, Geraldine and Rita (the splendid Lorraine Ashbourne and Melanie Hill), are on tenterhooks. Should they go to the police to tell the truth? Of course not, because then we wouldn't have that staple of just about any long-running drama series, the courtroom scene. As you'd expect, there's absolutely no decorum as the two sides of the family alternately rant and simmer. Everything explodes when the paternity of Geraldine's baby is publicly called into question from the witness box.
Honestly, you have to wonder why these women bother with men at all, though presumably it's because they are incapable of independent life and need emotional sustenance in their attachment to rotten fellas. Soap lovers will recognise this as the Bet Lynch school of romantic liaisons.
We do actually get to see a bit of football among all these eruptions, but it's incidental. And what little we do see is dominated by another rotten fella, the abusive and sexist team coach. (Again, why do they put up with this?)
Fans of the series will rejoice at its return, and anyone who loves high melodrama would do well to tune in.

The mellower Kay Mellor: page 10