''The English Game'' is a British historical sports drama television miniseries set in Lancashire, but filmed in Yorkshire, developed by
Julian Fellowes
Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford (born 17 August 1949), known professionally as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, writer, producer, film director, and Conservative peer. He has received nume ...
for
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
about the origins of
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
in England. The six-part series was released on 20 March 2020.
Premise
In the 1870s, football in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
was a sport for the wealthy. A working-class star and his upper-class counterpart come together to change the game forever.
Cast
Main
*
Edward Holcroft as
Arthur Kinnaird
*
Kevin Guthrie
Kevin Guthrie (born 21 March 1988) is a Scottish former actor. His best known roles are Ally in '' Sunshine on Leith'' (2013), Ewan Tavendale in Terence Davies's '' Sunset Song'' (2015), and Abernathy in the first two ''Fantastic Beast'' film ...
as
Fergus Suter
*
Charlotte Hope
Charlotte Hope (born 15 October 1991) is an English actress. She first achieved recognition for her recurring role as Myranda in the third to fifth seasons of the HBO fantasy series '' Game of Thrones'' (2013–2016). Hope gained further pro ...
as Margaret Alma Kinnaird
*
Niamh Walsh as Martha Almond
*
Craig Parkinson
Craig Parkinson (born 11 March 1976) is an English actor and podcaster. He has played Shaun in the E4 series '' Misfits'', twins Jimmy and Johnny Kray in the ITV series ''Whitechapel'', and DI Matthew "Dot" Cottan in ''Line of Duty''. He has a ...
as James Walsh
*
James Harkness as
Jimmy Love
Supporting
*
Ben Batt
Ben Batt (born 7 February 1986) is an English actor, best known for his role as Joe Pritchard in Channel 4's comedy drama '' Shameless''. He has also appeared in ''Scott & Bailey'' as DC Kevin Lumb, Alf Rutter in '' The Village'' and in ''Sire ...
as John Cartwright
*
Gerard Kearns
Gerard Kearns (born 4 October 1984) is an English actor. He is best known for playing Ian Gallagher in the British version of the comedy-drama series ''Shameless (British TV series), Shameless''.
Career
Kearns starred in the film ''The Mark ...
as
Tommy Marshall
*
Henry Lloyd-Hughes
Henry Alexander Lloyd-Hughes is an English actor. He is known for his roles in ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' (2005), '' Unrelated'' (2007), ''The Inbetweeners'' (2008–2010), '' Miliband of Brothers'' (2010), '' Weekender'' (2011), ' ...
as
Alfred Lyttelton
Alfred Lyttelton KC (7 February 1857 – 5 July 1913) was a British politician and sportsman from the Lyttelton family who excelled at both football and cricket. During his time at university he participated in Varsity Matches in five sport ...
*
Kerrie Hayes
Kerrie Hayes (born 13 March 1987)[Profiles – Kerrie Hayes – hellom ...](_blank)
as Doris Platt
* Joncie Elmore as Ted Stokes
* Mary Higgins as Ada Hornby
*
Sam Keeley as Smalley
* Harry Michell as
Monkey Hornby
*
Philip Hill-Pearson as Tom Hindle
Recurring
*
Daniel Ings as
Francis Marindin
Colonel Sir Francis Arthur Marindin, KCMG (1 May 1838 – 21 April 1900) served with the Royal Engineers and was a key figure in the early development of association football. He was later knighted for his work in public services.
Early life ...
*
Kate Phillips as
Laura Lyttelton
* Kelly Price as Lydia Cartwright
*
Anthony Andrews as
Lord Kinnaird
*
Sylvestra Le Touzel as Lady Kinnaird
* Sammy Hayman as Davy Burns
*
Lara Peake as Betsy Cronshaw
* John Askew as
Jack Hunter
*
Michael Nardone as Douglas Suter
*
Eilidh Fisher as Moira Suter
*
Kate Dickie as Aileen Suter
Episodes
Production
In April 2018, it was announced ''
Downton Abbey
''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV (TV network), ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United St ...
'' creator
Julian Fellowes
Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford (born 17 August 1949), known professionally as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, writer, producer, film director, and Conservative peer. He has received nume ...
would write and executive produce his first
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
series. Birgitte Stærmose and
Tim Fywell are directing, Rory Aitken, Eleanor Moran and Ben Pugh of 42 are executive producing, and Ben Vanstone is co-executive producing.
The cast was announced in May 2019 as production began in England, mostly in the North.
The epilogue reads: "In 1885 the FA changed their rules to allow professional players. An amateur team never won the FA Cup again. Arthur Kinnaird became President of the FA, serving 33 years until his death in 1923. Fergus Suter and Jimmy Love are recognised as pioneers of the modern game, which now has over four billion fans across the world."
Historical accuracy
Football
After the first couple of episodes the exact dates of events is not explicitly mentioned, though it is suggested that the entire series takes place over just over one season, with Suter winning the cup with Blackburn the year after he joined Darwen. In fact Suter did not win the FA Cup until his sixth season in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
.
At the time, Blackburn had two teams:
Blackburn Olympic and
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
. ''The English Game'' appears to merge the two sides, with the club only ever referred to as "Blackburn Football Club" or just "Blackburn" and shown playing in maroon shirts – both Blackburn Olympic and Blackburn Rovers instead played in a combination of blue and white. The maroon colour may have been chosen to differentiate Blackburn from the
Old Etonians
This is a list of notable former pupils of Eton College, a 13–18 public fee-charging and boarding secondary school for boys in Eton, Berkshire, England. Former pupils of the school are known as Old Etonians.
Former pupils Politics
*Robert ...
, who are always shown wearing
Eton blue
Eton blue is a shade of greenish blue or bluish green used since the early 19th century by sportsmen of Eton College. It is similar to the colour Cambridge blue used by the University of Cambridge.
Chelsea FC wore Eton blue from its founding ...
shirts. Blackburn Olympic were the first club of working-class background to win the FA Cup, triumphing in the
1882–83 season. Of the two teams, Suter in fact joined Blackburn Rovers, with whom he lost the
1882 FA Cup Final 1-0 against the Old Etonians before winning the cup three times in succession later in the decade.
The matches depicted in the show most closely resemble Blackburn Olympic's
1883 victory. Old Etonians' and Blackburn Olympics' matches in the quarter-finals, semis and the final are all referenced accurately except for Old Etonians' quarter-final where they in fact played
Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...
. Darwen are shown as being eliminated from the competition by
Derby St Luke's but the Derby club did not actually participate in the FA Cup until the
1884–85 season, and the two sides never met in a competitive fixture.
The first episode depicts
Darwen
Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners".
The A666 road, A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to ...
playing just one replay against the Old Etonians in the
1878–79 FA Cup
The 1878–79 Football Association Challenge Cup was the eighth staging of the FA Cup, England's oldest football tournament. Forty-three teams entered, although five of the forty-three never played a match.
The Quarter final matches between the ...
and losing. In fact, Darwen took the Old Etonians to two replays – after the first match was drawn 5–5, the first replay finished 2–2 before Old Etonians finally beat them at the third attempt by a score of 6–2.
Personal
Fergus "Fergie" Suter and James "Jimmy" Love joined Darwen separately, with the former joining second in 1878 – Suter was a stonemason, not a mill worker, and would not have come to Darwen to work in a mill. Jimmy Love did not join Darwen to be a paid player, but in fact fled his home in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
when a warrant was put out for his arrest over debts he owed.
There is no evidence that he ever joined a Blackburn team permanently, though he did appear for Blackburn Rovers in a friendly against Darwen in 1879.
His footballing career was ended in 1880, though not because of a bad tackle but instead as he was recruited into the
Royal Marines
The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...
. Three years later he died of
enteric fever
Enteric fever is a medical term encompassing two types of salmonellosis, which, specifically, are typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever. Enteric fever is a potentially life-threatening acute febrile systemic infection and is diagnosed by isolating ...
while garrisoned with them in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
.
A recurring storyline in the series is Arthur Kinnaird's failure to have a child and the resulting effects that it has, particularly on his wife who sees child-raising as her
raison d'être
is a French expression commonly used in English, meaning "reason for being" or "reason to be."
''Raison d'être'' may refer to:
Music
* Raison d'être (band), a Swedish dark-ambient-industrial-drone music project
* Raison D'être (album), ''Rai ...
. In reality, Arthur and his wife had no such problems. They had their first child in 1876, several years before the start of the show, and went on to have another six children over the following quarter of a century, most of whom survived childhood.
Alma Kinnaird is shown as having a miscarriage in the second episode, which – though not specified – must have taken place in late 1879. This could not have happened as Alma in fact gave birth to the couple's second child in August of that year.
Release
A trailer was released on 5 March 2020.
Reception
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the series has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on four critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:English Game, The
2020s British drama television series
2020s British television miniseries
2020 British television series debuts
2020 British television series endings
Association football television series
Television series created by Julian Fellowes
Television series set in the 1870s
Television shows filmed in the United Kingdom
Television shows set in England
British English-language television shows
Netflix television dramas
Films directed by Tim Fywell
Television shows shot in Bradford
Television shows shot in Liverpool
Television shows shot in Yorkshire