In the Middle review - the true grit of grassroots referees

Canny football doc addresses a spectrum of social issues

In the Middle profiles 10 football officials who referee and run the line of lower-league games in south-west London and north-east Surrey. Pondering what drives these apparently sane individuals to do such an onerous job, director-producer Greg Cruttwell's documentary is a vibrant study in diversity and concomitant prejudice that benefits from his light touch.

Munich Games, Sky Atlantic review - superbly crafted thriller races to prevent a terrorist attack

★★★★ MUNICH GAMES, SKY ATLANTIC Superbly crafted thriller races to prevent terrorist attack

'Fauda' writer Michal Aviram delivers the set pieces alongside subtler detective discord

A black box with a red blinking light is being stashed in a cabinet under the seating of the Olympic stadium in Munich. Then a hoodie-ed man is seen in silhouette, the stadium in the background. We are about to be plunged into the darker corners of the prosperous Bavarian city where, 50 years earlier, as the footage in the opening credits recalls, the infamous massacre of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team by PLO gunmen took place.

The Three Kings review – saluting Busby, Shankly and Stein

★★★★ THE THREE KINGS How a trio of Scottish pitmen became football legends

Moving documentary about a trio of Scottish pitmen turned football legends

If Shakespeare had lived in post-war Britain, he surely would have dramatised the careers of the three towering contemporaneous Scottish football managers whose visions of how football should be played and its importance to ordinary people left a greater impact on the nation’s selfhood than any 20th century political leader, excepting Churchill.

Harry's Heroes: Euro Having a Laugh, ITV review - jokey documentary delivers painful emotional truths

HARRY'S HEROES: EURO HAVING A LAUGH, ITV Jokey documentary delivers painful emotional truths

It's back to the Nineties with Redknapp's band of brothers

Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly famously commented that football is far more serious than a matter of life and death. This couldn’t quite be said of Harry Redknapp’s renewed adventures of footballers reunited (ITV), yet behind its jokey facade of a bunch of Nineties-era England veterans drinking their way across Europe, Harry’s Heroes is strangely poignant and delivers some painful emotional truths.

The English Game, Netflix review - it's the toffs versus the workers in this version of sporting history

★★ THE ENGLISH GAME, NETFLIX Toffs versus the workers in Julian Fellowes's version of sporting history

Julian Fellowes's fanciful recreation of the birth of the Beautiful Game

Julian Fellowes admits he knows little about football and has always hated sport in general, but this hasn’t prevented him from writing a TV series (for Netflix) about football’s 19th century origins.

Freedom Fields review - Libya’s next freedom fighters

★★★★ FREEDOM FIELDS How Libyan women use football to break boundaries

Insightful documentary shows how women use football to break boundaries

Set in the months and years after the Libyan revolution, Freedom Fields follows several women aiming to compete in international football. The documentary finds the players excitedly preparing for their first overseas tournament.

Cannes 2019: Diego Maradona review - entertaining but skin-deep

★★★ DIEGO MARADONA Entertaining but skin-deep study of a tragic idol

Asif Kapadia concludes his trilogy of tragic idols with mixed results

Director Asif Kapadia's documentary on the controversial 1980s sporting legend Diego Maradona premiered at Cannes this week, and there's something unsatisfying about the fact it doesn't have a one-word title. It would have created a neat synchronicity with his previous two films (Amy and Senna), but we soon learn why this is the case.

Diamantino review - loopy satire slaps Brexit

★★★ DIAMANTINO How a childlike Portuguese football superstar turns refugee-saviour

How a childlike Portuguese football superstar turns refugee-saviour

Imagine Cristiano Ronaldo, virtuosity intact, as buffed, blinged, and coiffed as ever, but with the sophistication and sexual maturity of an average seven-year-old, and you have a fair idea of Diamantino’s protagonist.