Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001)

Director:

Steve Barron

Writers:

John R. Smith (writer)
Rob Sprackling (writer)

Release Date:

28 September 2001 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

He Knows F.A. About Football.

Plot:

The manager of England's national football unexpectedly succumbs to a heart attack, and suddenly the search is on for a replacement...

Plot Keywords:

England | World Cup | Manager | Bus | Pool

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Ricky Tomlinson	...	Mike Bassett
Amanda Redman	...	Karine Bassett
Bradley Walsh	...	Dave Dodds
Philip Jackson	...	Lonnie Urquart
Phill Jupitus	...	Tommo Thompson
Dean Lennox Kelly	...	Kevin Tonkinson
Martin Bashir	...	Interviewer
Robbie Gee	...	Smallsy
Pelé	...	Himself
Kevin Piper	...	Norwich newsreader
Robert Putt	...	Jack Marshall
Malcolm Terris	...	Phil Cope
Philip Dunbar	...	Sussex rep
Ulrich Thomsen	...	Dr. Hans Shoegaarten
Lloyd McGuire	...	Midlands rep

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Portuguese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:PG | Iceland:L | Australia:M (DVD rating) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Apollo Pub, Harrow, Middlesex, England, UK

Company:

Artists Independent Productions

Trivia:

During the film it shows that English F.A. is based at Lancaster Gate, they moved away to Soho Square several months ago during the filming, and Wembley Stadium has been shut down for almost 7 month's upon the release of the film.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The second match on the final tournament is played June 19, and the third match is played July 7, which is 18 days later. The break between two group games on the World Cup is usually between 3 and 5 days.

Quotes:

Mike: How am I supposed to know. Just do whatever you want.

Movie Connections:

Features "Dream Team" (1997)

Funny Mockumentary, but not for everyone

This mock documentary about an England World Cup campaign has many funny moments, but it can only fully be appreciated by people with a good knowledge of English football.

The film is clearly modeled after the famous Channel 4 documentary "Graham Taylor: The impossible job", it only had to ever so slightly caricature its real life model to turn it into farce. As a result, the film has moments where it is hilarious and strangely realistic at the same time. Proof of that came a few years after the film was made, at Euro 2004, when David Beckham missed a penalty in almost exactly the same way (and by the same margin) as the England striker in this film.

Not all the jokes work, e.g. the car salesman turned England coach trying to flock Korean cars to England players just did not not ring true, but others were close enough to real life to make me laugh out loud, e.g. the video tape incident or the Pele interview.

The film will probably find it hard to find an appreciative audience outside Britain (certainly outside Europe), because there are too many footballing in-jokes. For example, when we hear about Mike's playing career with stints at Doncaster Rovers and Crewe Alexandra then this is very telling to a British audience, and the avid football follower in the rest of Europe can just about get the gist of it, but everybody else would be left bemused.