Footballers' Wives Footballers' Wives Footballers' Wives (stylised as footballers wive$) is a British television drama surrounding the fictional Premier League football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives. It was broadcast on the ITV network from 8 January 2002 to 14 April 2006. The show initially focuses on three very different couples, but from the third series onward it revolves around a complex love triangle between Tanya Turner (Zöe Lucker), Amber Gates (Laila Rouass), and Conrad Gates (Ben Price). The show is centred on the fictional Earls Park Football Club (nicknamed "Sparks"). The series, based on the book, "Footballers' Wives
ITV Encore attributed the closure of the channel to poor ratings, in part due to its Sky exclusivity, and an over-reliance on repeats. ITV Encore closed at midnight on 1 May 2018 as part of Sky's major EPG reshuffle. The last programme shown on the channel was "Agatha Christie's Poirot" The Plymouth Express. Its Sky EPG slot was taken by Sky Two. The idea of replacing the television channel with an online service is similar to a direction BBC Three took in 2016. ITV Encore broadcasts some of ITV's most successful drama series of recent years. Since January 2015, ITV Encore also