If you are one of the millions of football fans suffering World Cup withdrawal while waiting for the Premiership to start then help is at hand.

Actor and comic Owen O'Neill is bringing his new one man show, My Son The Footballer, to Wimbledon Studio Theatre next week in the first of a series of Edinburgh Festival previews coming to the venue.

As a boy, Danny Mulligan's dreams of soccer stardom collapsed when his psychopathic games teacher pulled a knife on him for playing football and terrorists threatened to remove his knee-caps.

However, his love of the beautiful game remained undiminished and while living in London in his 20s, football ruined every relationship he had.

But then his son was born.

If ever a child was born destined to play for his club and country, then it was Danny's son.

But he's a boy born with premiership talent only to be let down by his third division father.

O'Neill made his name on the TV show Saturday Night Live alongside Ben Elton and can currently be seen in the BBC drama Paradise Heights, alongside Neil Morrissey.

Other plays in the pre-Edinburgh season include Rite Of Passage, with acclaimed Greek actor Nikos Dionysios, a fusion of drama and physical theatre incorporating works by Shakespeare, Euripedes, Beckett and others.

Another Thing is a new show from the team which brought you the Fringe First Award- winning comedy Danny's Wake. This new piece centres on three men killing time and a wheelchair.

July 17, 2002 15:30