Karl Fletcher

Karl Fletcher was a character in the Sky1 drama Dream Team played by Terry Kiely. He is the only character to have appeared in every series of the show (and its subsequent spin-off, Dream Team 80's) until the death of the character in the 2004–05 series, at which point he has appeared in a flashback, and most recently, a ghost.
Fletcher has the honour of being the most popular character in the show's history winning every fan poll to decide the most popular character at the end of each season minus season 8 (not counting seasons in which he made limited appearances and was not eligible to receive votes), and in the show's last season, was voted as the most popular character in the show's 10 year run.

He started at Harchester United as a schoolboy, then played in the reserves . He broke into the first team after the club's first season in the Premier League.

Biography

Early life at Harchester

At the end of the first season, he was suspended after being found to have taken cocaine.

From then on, he was part of the furniture at Harchester, until the end of the second series, when he was on his best form, helping Harchester to the FA Cup, having defeated Manchester United. His form did not go unnoticed, and in a big move, he joined Real Mallorca.

Karl spent several months in Spain until he realised he wasn't happy there and arranged for a transfer back to Harchester. In this second spell at Harchester, he fell in love with Lynda Block, and they had an on-off affair for several years. At one point he asked her to marry him, but she declined by laughing in his face.

Accused of murder

At the end of the fourth series, owner Prasant "Prash" Dettani was found murdered in the board room. In the build up to this event, Prash had been aggravating Fletch, which to those outside indicated a motive for Fletch killing Prash. To further compound this, Fletch had just been substituted off in the game. Angry at this, he punched the tunnel wall, making his hands bleed.

All of this led to Fletch being accused of Prash's murder, for which he was tried. Following a large campaign by fans, Fletch was bailed to play in possibly his last game for Harchester United & his career. Fletch played as if he were indeed never going to play for Harchester again & finished the game as captain. At the final whistle, an emotional Fletch stayed on the pitch, receiving a standing ovation from the grateful Harchester fans, as he thanked them for the support throughout his trial. He was found guilty of murder, but at that point, Lynda Block admitted that she killed Prash, and Fletch was innocent.

Fight against Patrick

He was involved in the coach crash at the end of the fifth series on the way to the UEFA Cup final, and spent several months in hospital. Whilst in hospital, he met Abi Fletcher (maiden name: O'Leary), whom he quickly fell in love with, and married in the first episode of series six. This was at the start of the sixth series, when Patrick Doyle became manager. Karl discovered Patrick's plan to relegate Harchester, and became the main fighter against it alongside Henry Leslie.

This included a stunning performance where Karl scored a hat-trick against Patrick's wishes, who thought he had brought him on board to help Harchester get relegated.

In the ongoing fight, Karl was voted Dragon of the Year by the supporters, but on the same night he had his drink spiked with cocaine. This was part of a plot, as Patrick later had a drugs test conducted, making Karl ineligible to play.

All the while this was going on, Karl did not realise that it was his best friend, Jamie Parker, who was the main person helping Patrick. When Jamie died, Karl was at first reluctant to forgive him, but after hearing all of the evidence, he realised that Jamie was manipulated against his will.

He later delivered a moving eulogy at Jamie Parker's funeral, Quote; "We will beat Everton, and we will stay in the Premiership...and we will do it for you, Jamie". Fortunately the Dragons went on to win the match and were saved from relegation when star striker. Karl had a son, Louie Block, through his affair with Lynda Block; because Lynda was incarcerated, she let Karl and Abi look after him.

Move to Saudi Arabia

Karl had had money troubles throughout the sixth series; although he was on in excess of £20,000 per week, his extravagant lifestyle and crippling tax bills led him to struggle. When new superstar Luke Davenport arrived at the Dragon's Lair, Karl was no longer needed. He took the opportunity to move to Saudi Arabia, playing football over there for large sums of money in order to solve his money troubles.

This meant leaving his wife Abi behind with his son Louie Block, appointing teammate Marcel Sabatier to look after them. This later led to problems, as Marcel and Abi became closer, eventually sleeping together. When Karl found out about this, he ended the relationship with Abi.

Last stint at Harchester

In 2004, Dean Boyle had asked for Fletch's help in buying Gabriel Batistuta, because Fletch was friendly with Batistuta's cousin. The deal with Batistuta never materialised and after promising a big-name signing for the Harchester fans, Dean Boyle had to recruit an overweight and unfit Fletch for yet another stint in Harchester. Fletch had a new girlfriend this time, Gina Moliano, the sister of Fletch's good friend & ex-Harchester player Eddie Moliano.

Karl never got on with Harchester's manager at the time, Don Barker, and after weeks of build-up and on the day of the Championship Play-Off final (they did manage to get to and from the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff exceedingly quickly as various characters went back and forth a number of times on the morning of the game all before kick-off!), Fletch was murdered by Don in the changing room of the Dragon's Lair... with the help of a clothes peg to the back of the head. His body was found in the back of Don's BMW at the Millennium Stadium just minutes before Don drove his car, with Fletch's body inside, into the Harchester coach.

Spiritual Redemption

Surprisingly, Fletcher would be instrumental in helping Harchester win their game against Chelsea in the form of a "spiritual advisor" to the troubled player Jason Porter in the tenth and final series. Fletch stays with Porter, either badgering his troubled conscience or encouraging him, leading Porter to make the final pitch of the series in the closing minutes, as Porter scored the final goal, his body superimposed into Fletch, who smiled as the crowd erupted in cheers and jubliation. Dream Team ended its ten year run with the image of its most popular character smiling at the win he had helped influence.

Statistics

Records

In his time at Harchester United, Karl became one of the club's most prolific goal scorers, scoring (In his own words) "172 Premiership goals... Bosh!" during his time at the club. In addition to this, with the goals Fletch scored in the FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and UEFA Cup, his total tally was an impressive 235 goals for the club.

Appearances per Season

Season 1 (1997–98 Football Season): 1–64 (All episodes)
Season 2 (1998–99 Football Season): 1–76 (All episodes)
Season 3 (1999–2000 Football Season): 7, 48–62 (16 episodes)

• Fletcher left Harchester to join Real Mallorca between seasons 2 & 3. He returned in the seventh episode of season 3 to pay his respects to the Harchester players who died in a plane crash. In episode 48, he re-signed for the club.

Season 4 (2000–01 Football Season): 1–26 (All episodes)
Season 5 (2001–02 Football Season): 1–32 (All episodes)
Season 6 (2002–03 Football Season): 1–32 (All episodes)
Season 7 (2003–04 Football Season): 1–2, 19–20 (4 episodes)

• In the second episode of season 7, Fletcher was sold to a club in Saudi Arabia. He reappeared in episodes 19 & 20, assisting a Saudi sheikh in his attempt to buy Harchester

Season 8 (2004–05 Football Season): 10–32 (23 episodes)

• Fletcher re-signed for Harchester in the tenth episode of season 8. He was killed off in the episode 31, but his body was seen in episode 32

Season 9 (2005–06 Football Season): 11 (1 episode)

• A 23 year old Fletcher reappeared in a flashback set in 1994 during the ninth episode of season 9. He was not played by Terry Kiely in this episode

Dream Team 80's (Aired 21 May – 4 June 2006): 1 (1 episode)

• A young Karl Fletcher is seen as a troublesome young mascot for the Dragons. He famously stated "My Dad said one day I will be the best striker this club has ever seen"

Season 10 (2006–07 Football Season): 24–32 (9 episodes)

• In episode 24 of season 10, Jason Porter began seeing visions of Karl Fletcher taunting him. Throughout this ghoulish stint, Fletch was mostly seen as an aggravator to Porter, however in the final three episodes of the season, he revealed he was actually helping him, right to the point in the series finale, where Porter volleyed a shot that could have won Harchester the Premier League towards goal when the camera switches away from Porter and back onto him only this time it's Fletch shooting at the goal. Whilst we never see the full outcome of the shot, the sound of the crowd cheering and Fletch smiling mean that Porter could have scored albeit through an assist from his hero Karl Fletcher. However, we soon learn that the shot actually hit the underside of the crossbar and Harchester missed out on the league title to Man Utd. ^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Karl Fletcher at Harchester.net
• HarchesterUnited.org
• Karl Fletcher's 1st reign profile at Harchester.TV
• Karl Fletcher's 2nd reign profile at Harchester.TV
• Karl Fletcher's 3rd reign profile at Harchester.TV