Watch an exclusive online clip from The Cup

The phrase “pushy parent”, normally reserved for middle-class mothers hovering over their toddlers as they practise Suzuki violin, is about to get a new twist when BBC Two blows the whistle on another class anti-hero - the Sad Dad.

The comedy The Cup revolves around Terry McConnell, a self-confessed “football dad”. For anyone who questions whether such an extreme character exists, I ask only that you stand on the touchline on any given Saturday and see for yourself. I have had the misfortune of witnessing the lies, the wheedling, the downright aggression that accompanies an Under 11s football training session, and it is ripe for comic exploitation. BBC Two were right to shoot this in a mock-documentary format, because the palpable (and almost violent) tension between most parents on the sidelines makes gritty viewing.

“Is that for real?” asked my 11-year-old son after watching the first episode alongside me. Usually his antenna for satire is acute, but he has been told so many lies himself on the football field that he could no longer distinguish truth from fiction. For this is a world where, as an incoming ingénue, I stood open-mouthed as a mother pushed forward her red-headed identical twins and showed off, as a badge of commitment, their Nike “tick” cut in the back of their shorn hair. Where a friend's boy was dropped from the team in favour of a builder's son, and that builder was giving the coach a cheap deal on his loft extension. And until you have heard the sickening sound of a man's hamstrings snapping (a bottom guitar-string twanging) because he was running too fast down the touchline to cheer on his child, you won't understand why the producer (formerly of Men Behaving Badly) is not exaggerating when a coach is stretchered off mid-game with an anxiety attack.

The Cup pinpoints exactly the sublimated desires of a nation of overweight and over-the-hill neverwouldbes. When the Football Association announced last month that parents are to be held back with barriers at junior football tournaments to stop them abusing match officials as part of a pilot scheme in Northumberland, it was a cry for help. From the beginning of next season, these barriers - wooden poles linked with ribbon - are to be rolled out nationally after the “behaviour contracts” signed by all players, parents and coaches proved ineffective. A spokesman for the London FA commented: “Referees quitting the game is one of the biggest problems we have.” Research suggested that 86 per cent of people involved in junior football had seen parents abuse match officials, and 70 per cent of those questioned said the worst behaviour was by adults.

In The Cup the most foul-mouthed character is 10-year-old Ali Farrell, the daughter of the club's founder. A defender with five red cards, Ali's appearance is met with a series of bleeps as she effs away at the ref or anyone else who questions her foul play. Her presence signifies the other darker side of junior football, twisted nepotism. So many clubs are run or coached by parents whose offspring have two left feet, that Sad Dads such as Terry are impotent against these unseen forces. When he goes begging to have his son reinstated in the team after missing one training session, Terry offers the coach free spare parts from his garage if he'll agree to let him play in an all-important cup game.

This isn't the Olympics, but the tension and fervour that underscore the programme are compulsive. When Ashburn United Football Club Under 11s do finally win their qualifying league decider, you find yourself screaming “yessss” along with the parents.

Despite the morally deficient characters, you are still carried along by the thrill of the game, the excitement of competition, that feeling of winning and losing. There will be some uncomfortable recognition going on in living rooms when The Cup airs next Thursday.

All of us harbour an inner Sad Dad. It's just that some are more sad than others.

The Cup, Thur, BBC Two, 9.30pm

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