Mike Bassett: Manager is a British TV comedy series, which began transmitting from 29 September 2005 on ITV. It is a follow-up to the film Mike Bassett: England Manager, and stars Ricky Tomlinson in the title role, Steve Edge as his assistant, and Amanda Redman as his long-suffering wife, Karine. Neil Maskell, known from the Football Factory film, appears as a clubzine reporter. The series picks up some time after Mike took England to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup. The side's attempt at qualifying for the 2004 European Championships ended in disaster, resulting in Mike being sacked. Since then, a spell at Newcastle ended in similar fashion after getting them relegated two seasons in a row, while his returns to former clubs Norwich and then Colchester fared little better. Mike decides to retire, but at the last minute is offered the manager's job at Wirral County F.C., for whom his father was a player. They seem doomed to be relegated to the Football Conference. Not helping his job is the fact that the chairman is senile, the chief executive is eagerly awaiting relegation so that he can sell their ground and Karine isn't pleased with the idea of retiring in Ellesmere Port rather than Spain.