Archbishop finds parable in 'Footballers' Wives'

With their bottle-blonde highlights and fast, flash cars, they have a reputation for being young, rich, good-looking, and extremely selfish, the head of the Anglican Church says.

Footballers' Wives, the television series chronicling the sexual exploits and jealous spats of the low-list celebrity circuit, has been cited by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a modern-day parable of all that is wrong with morality in Britain.

The Archbishop's Easter message in his diocese magazine was scathing about the on-screen tales of greed, vanity and adultery.

Referring to the words of St Paul, he wrote: "The 'works of the flesh' are almost all to do with different kinds of selfish behaviour, behaviour that is destructive of other people's welfare or safety or reputation.

"The 'works of the flesh' are what you see on Footballers' Wives, a world in which charity and fairness, generosity, a sense of perspective about yourself are all swept aside."

Brian Park, of Shed Productions, the show's executive producer, said the characters were designed to reflect the amorality and vanity of a sector of society inhabited by those new to the fame and fortune game.

"The series is intending to hold a mirror - albeit one smudged with cocaine - to the indulgences and antics of the world of F-list celebrities."