Footballers' Wives Lucker, Sarah Barrand, Laila Rouass, Halacy Kurenski and Ben Richards, who played their respective roles, with "Sport Relief" host Graham Norton playing new Sparks captain Brendan Spunk. Between the third and fourth series of "Footballers' Wives", Zöe Lucker's character Tanya Turner crossed over to Shed Media's "Bad Girls" for three episodes of that programme's sixth series. In "Bad Girls", which centres on a women's prison, Tanya is convicted for drug possession and sent to jail for six months. After stirring up mischief in the prison and even being arrested for poisoning inmates, Tanya is eventually released when a series of
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