Politixia
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Welcome to the latest email for our podcast, Political Fictions: political drama on screen and on the page. Please do spread the word about the podcast to your friends, colleagues and even dastardly rivals who you want to distract from doing something else.
Now, on to the proper business of this email which this time is some bonus football-related content from Cory.
Once you’ve listened to our podcast’s latest episode and watched the Iranian football movie Offside, you will probably ask yourself whether there are more films about football you could watch to get into the World Cup spirit.
Who knows, perhaps we will talk about one of these during a future footballing tournament?
One of the most famous footballing films recently is The Damned United, based on the David Peace novel about Brian Clough’s spell in charge of Leeds United. It would be a bit of a stretch to include this as a political film, although you could use it to explore leadership, team culture and picking the right leader.
You could also use it to explore the nature of “truthiness” in fiction: does it really matter if characters, scenes or conversations are invented to prove a point that’s generally true?
With that in mind, here’s a teaser for our upcoming episode on The Death of Stalin in which Mark talks about his experience of watching The Damned United:
Similarly, Saipan has fine central performances and is inspired by, rather than based on, real events. The film uses the confrontation between Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane during the 2002 World Cup to explore the nature of Irish identity. Like The Damned United, it mixes the use of archive footage with real events. Also like that latter film, there has been some pushback from the players involved as to its accuracy. In particular, the comments that Roy Keane made about Mick McCarthy not really being Irish seem to be an invention of the film and not based on anything Keane said, but are there instead to ponder the meaning of Irishness.
Having loved Dear England when I saw the play as part of the National Theatre live release in cinemas, I was very excited to see the BBC adaptation. Unfortunately I’ve found the TV version slightly underwhelming. Perhaps something has been lost in the adaptation from stage to screen, not just in the staging but also in something of the politics. My recollection of the play is that there is a much more explicit link made that the malaise in England’s football team reflects a wider uncertainty in England generally, which isn’t really coming across in the two episodes I have watched.
Something all the fictions I’ve written about are carried by fine central performances. Dear England is no exception, but the TV version also focusses much more on Gareth Southgate, excellently played by Joseph Fiennes, to the exclusion of the other England players. Harry Kane, for instance, has a much more pivotal role in the narrative of the play from what I remember than he does in the TV series, where most of the players end up being walk-on parts.
From talking with other friends who also loved the play but were more ambivalent about the TV version, one made an excellent point about the narrative arc of the play being different. In the play, as it finishes with Southgate consoling players who have missed penalties, there is a clear redemptive arc which makes it satisfying for the viewer. That’s slightly missing in the TV version now it extends to the last World Cup, but I haven’t yet had time to watch it yet to comment. I have too much political TV to catch up on now for the podcast to finish it!
Having just written this after England’s magnificent win against Mexico, it strikes me that the collective culture Southgate worked so hard to foster has paid off. Not just the throwing of bodies in front of the ball, but also the collective singing of Wonderwall with fans after the final whistle, there is a sense of a playing unit enjoying themselves as a collective which I just don’t remember seeing in an England team before Southgate took over. To take nothing away from Thomas Tuchel, but if England do win the World Cup next week then maybe this would be a fitting ending for Dear England should James Graham wish to update his story one more time.
Mark here again. Of course, if you want a really cracking football movie, what you need is Escape To Victory (with Pelé! and, er…, Sylvester Stallone). One of our favourite podcasts, War Movie Theatre, has a great episode about the movie.
From the archives
At the NATO summit at the start of this month, Donald Trump has once again talked about his plans for Greenland. For a take on how the US/Denmark relationship has been played out in political fiction, listen to our episode on Borgen in which we focus on a plotline where Greenland features heavily:
The Greenland episode from Borgen
And finally…
Thank you for reading and hope you enjoy the episode. Feedback is always very welcome!
Best wishes,
Cory & Mark
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