Latest news with #TheDamnedUnited
Wales Online
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
BBC iPlayer adds iconic sports comedy film with beloved Welsh star completely for free
BBC iPlayer adds iconic sports comedy film with beloved Welsh star completely for free One of the most beloved sports films of the century is now available totally free on BBC iPlayer 'Mesmerising' sports comedy film currently streaming for free (Image: BBC ) BBC iPlayer has just added a critically acclaimed sports comedy film you won't want to miss out on this week. Football fans and cinephiles alike should definitely check out this compelling modern classic based on a uniquely British true story. It stars one of the UK's most beloved screen stars as a revered sporting figure from the 1970s during one of the most tumultuous periods of his career. Starring Michael Sheen as Brian Clough, The Damned United follows the former Derby County manager's notorious 44-day stint with Leeds United in 1974 as well as his rivalry with fellow manager Don Revie (played by Colm Meaney). Helmed by The King's Speech director Tom Hooper and written by The Crown showrunner Peter Morgan, this masterpiece of the sports genre is not to be missed by anyone looking to get lost in a gripping slice of British history. Michael Sheen portrays legendary football manager Brian Clough (Image: COLUMBIA PICTURES ) Article continues below The film received rave reviews upon its release in 2009 and currently holds a staggering 92 percent Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences lapped up the drama, too, awarding it an impressive 85 percent score. It's currently available to stream for free after being aired on BBC Two last night. One rave five-star review on Google reads: 'Right up there as one of the finest sports mini biography film. 'Based on the controversial and yet mesmerising & brilliant Brian Clough - the best football manager the english national team never had or ever could have had. 'The movie is about the making of a superb football manager starting from the dungeons of lower english football leagues to becoming champions of England.' Someone else gushed: 'Brilliant portrayal of Brian Clough and his bitter relationship with Don Revie and how his tenure at Leeds United was destined to fail [from] the start. The Damned United lays bare one of the most notorious rivalries in football history (Image: COLUMBIA PICTURES ) 'A film with the heartache and happiness of being a football manager but also a family man and his personality at its best and I have seen now on 8 occasions, football fans will love it.' Someone else added: 'I'm not even a soccer fan but this movie was brilliant, great cast and Michael Sheen at his best. Great story and great acting, loved it!' And a final fan declared: 'I'm enchanted. One the best movies I've ever watched. 'It's a must for every football lover and a beginner's course for those who wanted to be football managers.' Fans all agree The Damned United is an essential watch, so make sure you find time for this essential British film on your schedule this week. Article continues below The Damned United is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
North Wales Live
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Live
Michael Sheen shares dad's poingnant final words about Welsh town
Michael Sheen has opened up about the touching last words his father spoke concerning the Welsh town he called home. Michael, 56, was born in Newport and moved to England at the age of five. Wales beckoned however and the family settled down in Baglan, Port Talbot, three years later. Despite Sheen's ascent to Hollywood fame, his parents, Irene and Meyrick, remained living in the house where Sheen grew up. It meant the actor, famed for playing figures such as Tony Blair, Brian Clough, and David Frost, would regularly return to Port Talbot to see his parents. Previously, Michael said: "As soon as I see the steelworks, there is no feeling like it for me. I get emotional coming back to this town." Tragedy struck when Meyrick, after a prolonged struggle with Alzheimer's disease, passed away last year, leaving Sheen, alongside his mother Irene and sister Joanne at Meyrick's bedside during his final moments. Given the chance to reflect on their last exchange, Sheen chose to convey a simple yet profound message to his father, telling him "I love you" before his passing. Following Meyrick's death, who was known for his work both as a respected steelworker and as an impersonator of Jack Nicholson, heartfelt tributes flooded in. A mural dedicated to Meyrick now stands in Port Talbot, accompanying one of Sheen himself—a tribute the acclaimed actor of 'Good Omens' fame described as "amazing", reports Wales Online. Meyrick held a deep affection for his local area, dedicating years to community involvement in Port Talbot, which notably was on his mind during his final conversation with his son. In an interview with The Times, Michael shared: "But the last thing he said to me was about Port Talbot. By the end, he was confusing and conflating things, but the spirit was clear." Michael recounted: "I was telling him about the possibility of a project in town and he wasn't able to say very much, but the last thing he said to me wasn't about acting. He was so passionate about his community, where he grew up and lived all his life, so communicating that to me was the most important thing to him at the end." He added, reflecting on the significance of his father's last words: "It was very telling. He just said, 'Get it done, Michael. Get it done.'". In talks with WalesOnline, Michael, celebrated for his roles in Frost/Nixon, The Damned United, and The Deal, expressed his profound connection to his Welsh heritage: "My Welsh roots are everything, it's where I come from, the people I come from, the land I come from. In my own lifetime it's made me who I am." Michael, also a family man, shares daughter Lily, 26, with Kate Beckinsale, and has two younger children, Lyra, five, and Mabli, three, with his current partner, actress Anna Lundberg, aged 30. He believes that the Meyrick mural will serve as a lasting tribute for his children to remember their grandfather and for Irene, Meyrick's partner of nearly seven decades, whom he met when she was just 14 years old.
Wales Online
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Martin Sheen shares dad's emotional final words were about Welsh town
Martin Sheen shares dad's emotional final words were about Welsh town Hollywood actor Michael Sheen's dad, Meyrick, died last month following a long-term battle with Alzheimer's disease, but he had some poignant words for his famous son Michael Sheen pictured with his late father Michael Sheen has shared the poignant last words his father had about the Welsh town where he grew up. The 56-year-old was born in Newport before moving to England when Michael was just five years old. Three years later however the family returned to Wales, settling down in Baglan, Port Talbot. Michael's mum Irene and dad Meyrick lived in the house where the actor grew up even after he became a Hollywood star. The actor, famed for playing figures such as Tony Blair, Brian Clough, and David Frost, would regularly return to Port Talbot to see his parents. Previously, he said: 'As soon as I see the steelworks, there is no feeling like it for me. I get emotional coming back to this town.' Disaster struck for the actor however when Meyrick died last year. Michael was at his father's deathbed along with Irene and his sister, Joanne. Michael sheen shared his dad's final words (Image: Getty Images ) Article continues below It came after a long-running battle with Alzheimer's disease. It meant Michael had time to think about how their final conversation would go. Michael says he opted to simply say 'I love you' to his father before his death. After his passing, tributes poured in for Meyrick, who was a much-loved steelworker as well as working as a Jack Nicholson impersonator. A mural was unveiled for him in Port Talbot, sitting alongside one of Michael. It was something the Good Omens star called 'amazing'. Meyrick was passionate about his local area, spending years engaging in and supporting local community projects. Port Talbot was even the final thing he thought about when speaking with his son. Speaking to The Times, Michael said: 'But the last thing he said to me was about Port Talbot. By the end, he was confusing and conflating things, but the spirit was clear. Michael grew up in Port Talbot (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror ) 'I was telling him about the possibility of a project in town and he wasn't able to say very much, but the last thing he said to me wasn't about acting. He was so passionate about his community, where he grew up and lived all his life, so communicating that to me was the most important thing to him at the end. 'It was very telling. He just said, 'Get it done, Michael. Get it done.'' Michael, who starred in films such as Frost/Nixon, The Damned United and The Deal, has spoken of his pride for Wales. He told WalesOnline: 'My Welsh roots are everything, it's where I come from, the people I come from, the land I come from. In my own lifetime it's made me who I am.' Article continues below Michael is himself a father. He shares daughter Lily, 26, with Kate Beckinsale, and has Lyra, five, and Mabli, three, with his partner, the actress Anna Lundberg, 30. He says the mural of Meyrick will help his own children remember their grandfather. He also believes it will help Irene, who met Meyrick when she was just 14, remember her partner of almost seven decades.
The Guardian
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Red or Dead review – Peter Mullan never walks alone as Liverpool FC hero Bill Shankly
In 2016, an adaptation of David Peace's The Damned United was staged in Leeds and Derby where its pugnacious subject, Brian Clough, is still viewed as villain and hero respectively. Peace's next football novel was Red or Dead, a 700-page opus about Liverpool FC's eternally beloved manager Bill Shankly. It is similarly adapted on home turf: the Royal Court has laid out the red carpet, serving Shanks pies and Shanks pints, honouring the man who transformed the club. The Damned United had a cast of 11 and was bulked out with human-size Subbuteo-style mannequins. Red or Dead assembles a whopping 52-strong ensemble who almost continuously fill the stage, adapter and director Phillip Breen evidently taking his cue from the anthem You'll Never Walk Alone. In the lead role is film and TV star Peter Mullan, finally returning to the stage in a casting coup that gains resonance from a career as entwined with socialism as Shankly's. There are no spotlit soliloquies: Shankly is consistently accompanied by players, boot-room staff, board members or by his wife, Ness (Allison McKenzie), who is given more prominence than in the novel and beautifully sings Robert Burns's poetry. Mostly it is the fans, so often sidelined in footballing dramas, who flock around him. Peace's novel is punctuated with poetic match reports, accompanied by a precise record of the thousands in attendance. It is an inspired move, then, to use a community company who switch from narrators to chorus to Kopites. They hang on Shankly's words: when he calls chairman Tom Williams (Les Dennis, measuring out fatigue and frustration) to accept the job, leaving his post at Huddersfield in 1959, the ensemble draw close with pricked ears and bated breath. The play captures the sense of a life lived in the public eye, each move scrutinised. Emphasising the all-consuming nature of the job, Max Jones's spare set design serves as the Shanklys' home, Anfield's dressing rooms and boardroom, the training ground and occasionally the pitch – though match action is usually described not choreographed. After all, how could it compete with strikes such as Kenny Dalglish's 1978 European cup winner – a clip of which is projected across the set to cheers from the audience. Peace's novel finds Shankly returning to the kitchen table, strategising with cutlery – here those utensils are also used to recreate a match, ending with a knife stabbed in a block of butter. Peace's sentences are short. Short and repetitive. Repetitive and maddening at first. Maddening but with a momentum from the repetition. A momentum that is methodical. It's representative of day-to-day training, game-by-game slog, the drive and stamina of Shankly. It becomes incantatory in the manner of Peace's Red Riding quartet. But sharing the lines across a huge cast gives them colour and lightness, emphasising Shankly's collectivism encapsulated by his belief that Liverpool was Liverpool's best player, not one individual. Chants merge with pop songs, including Jhanaica van Mook singing as Cilla Black, and a group rendition of the Beatles' She Loves You that bleeds into a match commentary, 'yeah! yeah! yeah!' becoming a cry on the Kop. In a fittingly unshowy performance, often still amid a whirl of movement, Mullan captures the manager's rapid patter, warmth and no-nonsense approach, his voice switching from assertion to whisper in lines like 'First is first, second is nowhere.' Some of Shankly's witticisms don't have the space to land, and while his Desert Island Discs appearance is recreated to sketch in some backstory, you miss his extended meeting of minds with Harold Wilson from the novel (although various political upheavals are pithily recorded). This Shankly can be inscrutable and the second half, which finds comedy in his inability to fully retire, needs a touch more tragedy. Still, it establishes a quietness that contrasts with the frantic first half. A coda deftly reflects on how fans have been priced out of the game. The cast take on multiple roles including Kevin Keegan (Matthew Devlin in a fright wig), Brian Clough (a preening Paul Duckworth) and Ian St John (George Jones, capturing the player's sense of betrayal when dropped). Dickon Tyrrell is excellent as Bob Paisley, Shankly's deferential yet triumphant successor. Admirably ambitious, Breen's production is both inspired and inspiring, told with the quick humour, community spirit and full force of the Kop. At the Royal Court, Liverpool, until 19 April
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sheen hopes to get children talking about homelessness
Hollywood actor Michael Sheen has said he hopes his new children's book will get the next generation talking about homelessness. Sheen is launching A Home For Spark The Dragon, which tells the story of a dragon who loses his home and then goes on a quest to find a new one. He said he hoped it would help children to start thinking about ways they could make a difference in future. "I've always believed that telling stories is an important way to make change in the world - and in the long run, stories for children can make the most change of all," said Sheen. Sheen says banks force people to use loan sharks Sheen to fund new national theatre for Wales Michael Sheen writes off £1m of debt for 900 people Sheen has co-written the book with Jess Webb and with illustrations by Sarah Massini. The book will help to raise funds for homelessness charity, Shelter, when it is released on 5 June. Sheen, 56, said: "I feel very fortunate that I got to grow up in a safe and happy home, but knowing that for many people this isn't the case, has increasingly made me want to do what I can to help." He said he hoped children would enjoy reading about Spark the dragon and his animal friends who live in "a magical woodland world" as they embarked on "a quest to find a new place to call home". "I hope Spark's adventure is fun to read and at the same time, that his story gives a way in for young readers to talk about what it is to be homeless - and to start to think about ways to make a difference," he added. The Welsh actor said he was proud to be publishing the book in partnership with Shelter, "supporting the important work they do to fight the housing emergency". Publisher Puffin and Sheen will give £1 from the sale of each hardback copy and 50p from the sale of each paperback copy of the book in the UK and Ireland to Shelter. The charity said that the latest statutory homelessness statistics showed that over 164,000 children were currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation in England. The charity said the figure had increased by 21,650 (15%) in just one year. Sheen has played historical figures such as former Nottingham Forest and Derby County manager Brian Clough in The Damned United, former British prime minister Tony Blair in three films including The Queen, and comic actor Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa! on BBC Four. The actor has more recently been seen on Michael Sheen's Secret Million Pound Giveaway on Channel 4. In this documentary he used £100,000 of his own money to wipe out £1m-worth of debt for 900 people in south Wales. In January, Sheen announced he would be funding a new theatre company to fill the gap left by the folding of National Theatre Wales. He will be the artistic director of Welsh National Theatre, which will aim to tell "big stories on big stages for big audiences". Sheen: I broke down hearing kids' care stories Sheen donates £5k for boy with genetic condition
