Nina Muschallik - a sexy blonde who loves the beautiful game but would never upstage you down the pub. Oh, and she does a nice line in on-screen hookers... Before Footballers' Wives came along, there was Dream Team, Sky One's gripping drama based around Harchester United. The show has had its fair share of gorgeous women, lots of sex & plots moving even faster than Michael Owen.
But one point where Dream Team differs from its rival is that it actually features football on a regular basis. It even boasts ex-West Ham player Scott Mean, who was forced to quit the game through injury, as midfielder Robbie Walsh. "The boys all have to pass a football test before they even get to the acting audition," reveals Nina Muschallik, who plays the team's sexy, yet down to earth co-coordinator Nikki Peggs. But don't start getting ideas that Miss Muschallik's just a sexy blonde who would be happy accompanying you to the match every Saturday. She passes the 'sexy blonde' bit, but Nina's not quite as football-crazy as her character. "I'm a girly girl," she says, "I do love football. I can really get into the atmosphere, especially is England are playing and I loved it when the World Cup was on, but I'm afraid I don't support my local team."
Does she even know what the offside rule is? "You know I don't. I've been on the show for two years, but managed not to find out," she laughs. "But it's not like we talk about football the whole time on set. The boys do but the girls are often gossiping about something completely different." Perhaps this is ideal. Admit it - how much do you really like it when your girlfriend gets into football? We can complain till we're blue in the face about how women never take an interest in our beloved team but, when they actually do, it can feel a little like they've stolen something.
Perhaps Nina is the ideal woman - she's gorgeous but would never claim to know more about football than you do although, crucially, she can feign interest if necessary. Sadly, she's already spoken for. She and co-star Terry Kiely, who plays Harchester's womanising striker Karl 'Fletch' Fletcher have quietly started seeing each other over the last few weeks. "I was quoted in all the papers saying 'I need a man'," says Nina indignantly. "But I never said that. I've got one now, so no need for any more, thanks." Terry's a lucky man and let's hope for Nina's sake he doesn't share his character's Casanova tendencies. Even if he does, the blow might be softened by the knowledge there would be a very long line of admirers waiting to comfort the poor girl. Not that we want that to happen.
So Nikki may be shouting from the terraces every weekend, but it's a safe bet Nina isn't. "I work really long hours thinking about football," she says. "In my time off, I like to relax and get away from it. I'll go for a meal with my friends or go to the cinema, maybe do some yoga. I trained as a dancer so I might go to a dance class."
If you're thinking that you don't have Sky, yet she looks strangely familiar, put your mind at rest - between seasons of Dream Team she moonlighted as the Pot Noodle girl, the only hooker who would 'do' the filthy snack in the notorious 'Slag of all Snacks' adverts. "I was quite surprised when it came back on air recently," she says. "Someone told me it had been banned. But it was such a laugh to do." With that figure though, I'd put money on the fact that she isn't constantly dehydrating freeze-dried noodles for her own consumption. "I'll eat them, but I can think of things I'd rather have for lunch," she admits. "It fills you up. I mean it's not like they ever claimed they were good for you."
It's not the only time Nina has played a hooker. She also appeared as one on the big screen. "I was a high class whore in The World is Not Enough. I was perched on Robbie Coltrane's desk being fed caviar, when Bond strides in and tells him to get rid of the girls." Does she hope for a bigger role in the future? To maybe stop being a ball girl and start being a Bond girl? She won't say, but it's certainly a thought. She could combine the two characters to make the dream woman: a Bond girl who likes football.
Nina is committed to Dream Team until the end of the season in March, but very much hopes not to be dropped from the squad after the three month break. There seems to have been an enormously high death count surrounding one football team, what with a tragic coach crash and various murders, but like Inspector Morse's Oxford, no-one seems to have noticed that people keep dropping like flies. With any luck though, Nikki will survive the strange curse of Harchester and bring the gorgeous Nina back to our screens before too long.
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