Stare-Out is a series of animated sketches written by Paul Hatcher and animated by Chris Shepherd

Chris Shepherd

Chris Shepherd is a BAFTA nominated television/film writer and director. Born in Anfield, Liverpool in 1967. He is mainly known for combining live action with animation. His work fuses comedy with commentary on the darker side of human nature....

, composited and additional animation by Rhodri Cooper and Jeff Goldner of Animation Post, that first appeared in the first series of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 sketch show Big Train

Big Train

Big Train is a surreal British television comedy sketch show created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, writers of the successful sitcom Father Ted...

. It is a satire of televised sporting events coverage (and over-excited commentators), inspired by events such as the World Chess Championship

World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....

 and the football World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

. The sketches are set during the World Stare-Out Championship Finals, a staring match which is described as a global event broadcast all over the world.

After the success of the Stare-Outs, Hatcher created two follow-up books, The World Stare-out Championship Final and Chang Jin-Ming's Guide to Refereeing Stare-out under the name of Chang Jin-Ming.

The television sketches concerned the 43rd World Stare-Out Championship Finals. All of the events were commentated by John, and David Joyce, voiced by real life commentator Barry Davies

Barry Davies

Barry George Davies MBE is a British sports commentator. He has covered a wide range of sports in a long career, primarily for the BBC.-Broadcasting career:...

 and impressionist

Impressionist (entertainment)

An impressionist or a mimic is a performer whose act consists of imitating the voice and mannerisms of others. The word usually refers to a professional comedian/entertainer who specializes in such performances and has developed a wide repertoire of impressions, including adding to them, often to...

 Phil Cornwell

Phil Cornwell

Phil Cornwell is an English comedian, actor, impressionist and writer. He is probably best known as being part of the Dead Ringers television and radio series...

. Each episode followed a different match, the last one being the grand final between the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 Alessandro Kampagnola and the previous champion, the Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 Sigmund “Siggy” Spatsky, with Siggy emerging as the victor.

Often the stories told by the commentators echoed those of real sporting events, such as performance-enhancing drugs, streakers, and a tale about the trophy based on the theft of the World Cup

Theft of the Jules Rimet Trophy

The Jules Rimet Trophy, awarded to the winner of the football World Cup, was stolen in 1966 prior to the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England. The trophy was later recovered...

in 1966.