The REAL Jossy's Giants

For those of you old enough to remember it (or young enough, depending on how you look at it), Jossy’s Giants was for a while the pinnacle of after-school children’s entertainment. Or so it seemed at the time anyway. At least it was a must for any self-respecting football-mad eight year-old. The show first hit our screens back in 1986, when a no-hope kids football team by the name of Glipton Grasshoppers got taken over by ex-Newcastle United star player Joswell ‘Jossy’ Blair. The bumbling Jossy, with more dodgy tracksuits than your average Liverpudlian, renamed the team Jossy’s Giants, and thus footballing history was made.

After that the memory becomes a bit hazy as to the exact content of the two series of the show that followed. Suffice to say that the stars of the team, Ross Nelson and Ricky Sweet, were more likely to be found chasing after the girls (Tracey and Shaz) than a football, and thus the team were never quite the dominant force of English football that they might have been. Jossy had problems of his own... as well as the tracksuits, he was constantly being chased by Councillor Glenda Fletcher, along with trying to convince the disbelievers (ie. everybody) that he had actually played for Newcastle United. Classic Geordie entertainment, just like Ruud Gullit’s spell in charge at St James’s Park. Wednesdays have never been the same since Jossy left our screens... (Picture above: Glenda & Jossy, Tracey, Ross, Ricky and Shaz) Listen to the theme tune... (The team)