Mike Bassett: England Manager

Mike Bassett: England Manager

Mike Bassett: England Manager is a 2001 satirical comedy film directed by Steve Barron, following the fortunes of the manager of Division One football club Norwich City F.C., Mike Bassett, who having led his side to the 'Mr Clutch Cup', is appointed England manager.

The film takes the form of a fly-on-the-wall fictional documentary (mockumentary) following Bassett (played by Ricky Tomlinson) as he starts his international management career. Martin Bashir, well known as a journalist and presenter in real life, plays the interviewer and provides the voice-over, and the film features cameo appearances from Pelé and Ronaldo. The film satirises many targets, such as the mysterious figures who run the Football Association, the stereotypical view of an old-fashioned manager, and the tabloid press's unfailing habit of building the England team up so they can knock them down hard.

The film was followed by a TV series, Mike Bassett: Manager in 2006.

Synopsis

England manager Phil Cope suffers a heart attack during qualification for the World Cup, which started out well but has gone badly wrong of late. The FA heads meet to decide who should be the new England manager, but soon run into trouble. The most successful Premiership manager is Scottish (probably inspired by Sir Alex Ferguson), the second most successful is a former England captain and interested in the job, but the FA consider him too much of a "loudmouth" and refuse to consider him (a reference to the numerous times Brian Clough was refused the England job), while none of the other English managers in the Premiership are interested. They are forced to look to Division One, and Bassett.

Bassett takes over the England team and appoints his assistant manager Lonnie Urquart, who is very old fashioned in his beliefs, and Dave Dodds, an interesting character who once managed with Mike at Colchester United. The team need one win from three world cup qualifiers to get to the World Cup Finals in Brazil. With a squad featuring a pony-tailed goalkeeper, an alcoholic Geordie, a playboy midfielder and an extremely aggressive centre-back, he plays an old-fashioned 4-4-2 formation and attempts to bring football back to where it belongs. Unfortunately, he loses his first two games in charge and his managerial career is already on the rocks. Needing to beat Slovenia in the final qualifier to make it to Brazil, England can only manage a draw. However, a shock win by Luxembourg over Turkey sees them go through on goal difference. He and his team record the official England World Cup song with band Atomic Kitten, with compositions by "hellraiser" Keith Allen.

So England are on their way to Brazil. When they arrive, progress is not smooth as they start their tour by brawling with the Scottish and Irish teams. A difficult group stage sees them on the verge of heading home after they can only manage a goalless draw with unfancied Egypt before losing heavily to Mexico. Captain Gary Wackett is jailed for taking part in hooliganism, star striker Tonkinson accidentally gets involved in a drunken tryst with a transsexual, and when Mike mixes flaming sambucas with anti-depressants, it seems things can get no worse. To turn it around and get through to the second round, all England have to do is beat the old enemy, Argentina...

Character inspirations

While Mike Bassett is an amalgam of all the worst characteristics of football managers, his style is probably most directly inspired by Kevin Keegan, who was generally seen as desperately short of tactical acumen during his tenure as England manager. Lonnie Urquart could have been inspired by Ron Atkinson, however the inspiration behind the character of Dave Dodds could well have come from the depiction of Phil Neal, one of the assistant coaches during Graham Taylor's spell as England manager. In a Channel 4 documentary about Taylor's spell in charge (itself a clear inspiration for this movie), Neal was portrayed as always sitting next to Taylor on the bench and just repeating many of his tactical instructions. This characteristic is shared by Dave Dodds.

Many of the players are clearly inspired by real life characters. Gary Wackett is inspired by two footballing hard men, Stuart Pearce and Terry Butcher. Harpsie, supposedly with a glamorous wife and a playboy lifestyle, seems to be inspired by David Beckham. More obviously, Kevin Tonkinson, the Geordie footballing genius who's not renowned for his intelligence and has an unfortunate fondness for drink, owes his existence to Paul Gascoigne. The team's goalkeeper does not have a speaking role in the film, but bears a striking resemblance to David Seaman. Smallsy, seems to have a resembelance to Emile Heskey, as his fondness to score seems to have dried up.

Trivia

• At the end of the film, England progress through the group stage thanks to an unexpected victory over Argentina, before losing in the semi-finals to Brazil, who go on to win the World Cup. This actually happened in the real 2002 World Cup, though England made their exit a round earlier in the quarter finals.

• One of the England players is portrayed by former professional footballer Scott Mean, who played for Bournemouth and West Ham before becoming an actor. He has appeared in Dream Team as well as a number of commercials.

• Early in the film, a very brief football action clip is shown, supposedly of Mike Bassett playing in goal, where he fails to connect with a backpass which goes into his own net for an own goal. This was a real clip from a Football League match in the early 1990s, featuring Barnet goalkeeper Gary Phillips. Like Bassett, Phillips was portly and sported a moustache.

External links

• Mike Bassett: England Manager at IMDb