“The English Game”, a six-part Netflix original miniseries blends fact and fiction to dole out the fictionalised origin of football in Northern England circa 1879. It showed the wee origins of the sport and how it united the masses, especially the working class and the struggle to wrestle it out of the controlling grasp of the aristocrats. It shed light onto the class struggle that existed in England with the oppressed masses using football as a weapon against the higher classes.
The English Game starts off in Lancaster, a small mill-town in Northern England during 1879; a time when football was strictly an amateur sport as dictated by the aristocrats who controlled and dominated the game and called it- a gentleman’s sport. The FA Cup was the only major tournament existent at the time with the Old Etonians , an aristocratic club the reigning 3-time champions captained by Arthur Kinnaird (Edward Holcroft), son of a bank-owner and their best player. The owner of the Darwen club James Walsh (Craig Parkinson) brings in Fergie Suter (Kevin Guthrie), a working-class Scotsman and his best friend Jimmy Love (James Harkness) all the way from Scotland to bolster Darwen’s hopes in the FA Cup all while covertly paying them as it was strictly against the rules laid down by the Football Association (the upper-classes).
Until then football was a show of brute strength with little or no tactics. Fergie quickly pounces on that chance to teach his teammates about passing and space, valuable tactics that weaved magic on the pitch much to the surprise of the Old Etonians who were left dumbfounded but due to their influence managed to eke out the victory by following the rules laid down in their favour. This gave birth to the tussle between the working class players spear-headed by Fergie Suter and the Football Association consisting entirely of the upper-class. Suter was hailed as a hero in Darwen and the future of the club looked bright with him at the helm.
But Suter’s love for the town soon gave in to his duty towards his family as he had to save his family from the grasp of his abusive and alcoholic father. Seeking better prospects, the Blackburn head John Cartwright offers him much higher pay for his services and thus, Fergie joins Blackburn much to the distaste and hate of his beloved Darwen people.
And so the clashes between various parties ensue- Fergie’s struggle to save his family and reconciling the lost love from his friends in Lancaster, Walsh’s struggle to maintain the well-being of his mill-workers by battling the wage-cuts demanded by the superiors and preventing a full-blown riot and Arther Kinnaird’s struggle to stray away from the ignorant habits of an aristocrat by recognising the problems faced by the working-class. All of these clashes led up to the enthralling finale where Blackburn and the Old Etonians played the FA Cup final and Fergie Suter-led Blackburn became the first working-class team to lift the coveted FA Cup.
The English Game focuses on the struggles that surrounded the people and the classes at the time with the workers bearing the brunt of the economic downslide. It showed how a sport could galvanise the masses and become a beacon of hope when everything else is destitute. This miniseries is certainly well-made and is recommended for viewing.
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