For 15 years, Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville were fierce rivals, figureheads of the long-standing enmity between Liverpool and Manchester United. These days, they’re going abseiling and skydiving together.
The punditry pair have been working alongside each other on Sky Sports for some time now, first linking up for the 2013-14 season - their double act has been so successful that it’s spawned The Overlap On Tour, an expanded version of Neville’s Overlap show, where the former England full-back interviews star names.
In a new four-part series, which begins on Sky Max at 9pm tonight (Wednesday, June 14), Neville and Carragher are joined by fellow Sky pundit Roy Keane as they head to Dublin, London, Liverpool and Manchester for shows at packed arenas.
The weekly episodes also feature the trio visiting the places where each grew up - in an entertaining first programme, they head to Keane’s boyhood clubs Rockmount and Cobh Ramblers, as well as making the trip to kiss Ireland’s famous Blarney Stone and learning how to play hurling at Croke Park, with mixed success.
In later episodes, they have a go at becoming a referee on Hackney Marshes (with help from Mike Dean), abseil at Anfield and even jump out of a plane. It’s all a far cry from the days when they were at each other’s throats on the pitch for their respective clubs.
“If you’d said to me 10 years ago I’d be going on tour with Jamie Carragher, I’d have said ‘You’re f**king mad’,” Neville jokes, prompting laughter from his former rival, as both chat to FourFourTwo. “But things evolve. The camaraderie between all of us is the strongest part of the show.
“The live shows have been amazing - the idea for those came from us, but it was Sky who wanted the road trip element of it and it’s worked really well, with nostalgic moments visiting where we grew up and other different challenges, which have made it exciting.”
The arena shows have already been a big hit with live audiences - Neville’s presence at the Liverpool show and Carragher’s appearance in Manchester adding spice to the occasion. “Going into each other’s patch brings something to the atmosphere straight away,” Carragher smiles. “It’s good cop, bad cop - I’m the bad cop in Manchester, Gary and Roy get all the cheers.
“We’ve just been filming the last episode - we went to Gary’s home town Bury, after going to Roy’s in Cork before that, seeing their family members, friends and where they grew up, things I hadn’t seen before.
“We’ve also gone out of our comfort zone - skydiving, not things I’d ever have done before I did this show. It was a bit terrifying, but I’m sure it’ll make good TV!”
As will the abseiling at Anfield. “That was brilliant, one of the best moments of my life,” Neville chuckles. “I don’t like heights and I’d never done anything like that. Before we did it, I was terrified.”
“Basically, he wasn’t as terrified as me though!” Carragher says.
“He bottled it at the top and wouldn’t go down!” Neville laughs. “So I went down and just started screaming. It was so enjoyable.”
Given that he was a Manchester United treble winner, abseiling at Anfield, was he paranoid that someone might cut his rope? “There’s always that…” Neville laughs. “I was a bit more fearful though that the parachute wouldn’t open going out of the plane when we went skydiving!”
An afternoon refereeing on Hackney Marshes was rather less fear-inducing, thankfully. “Carra was the best at it, according to Mike Dean - but Mike Dean’s from the Wirral, by the way…” Neville smiles.
“I think I enjoyed it more than the others and maybe was a little bit fitter than the others - I think that helped me get the nod off Mike Dean,” Carragher laughs. “But it was helpful as well for our roles on TV, to understand what officials go through, the communications between each other to get to decisions. We learned a lot.”
Neville has interviewed a long list of people for The Overlap since it began in 2021, including David Beckham, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. “I’ve interviewed Vincent Kompany recently too and enjoyed that - I’d spoken to him before of course, but it was really interesting to listen to him now in his post-football career,” the former Manchester United defender says. “There are quite a few people I’d still like to interview - we’re going to have a quieter summer, we’re ready for a break, but then we’ll go hard again for the start of the season.”
* There will be more from Carragher and Neville on nearly a decade together at Sky, and their thoughts on Liverpool and Manchester United ahead of the 2023/24 Premier League campaign, in the season preview issue of FourFourTwo.
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