Latest news with #sportsdocumentary
The Independent
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
And the Emmy goes to ... Phillies star Trea Turner? Documentary on Turner's ovation wins Emmy Award
Turner already won an NL batting title and a World Series championship ring in his 11-year MLB career. How about adding an Emmy Award to that trophy case? 'Trea Turner's an Emmy winner, absolutely,' sports documentary producer Kyle Thrash said. 'He definitely held it up like he owned it.' Turner may not actually have the award in hand to keep for good, but he got to hoist the real deal ahead of Friday's game against Toronto in a short celebration for the Emmy won for a best sports short documentary produced on the 2023 standing ovation credited with turning around his season. 'The Turnaround' won a sports Emmy in May and Thrash and Phillies fan Jon McCann — whose personal struggles with mental health and kinship with Turner were the heart of the film — attended the game to show off their new bling to Turner. 'Cuz, we did it, huh?! 'McCann said as he shook Turner's hand on the field after batting practice. 'Trea Turner, we share an Emmy together.' Turner read the inscription at the bottom of the Emmy and promised the fans he would wave to them in section 301 if he stole a base in Friday's game. 'We get to bring a trophy back to the ballpark tonight and share it with so many people that were involved in the standing ovation. It's pretty incredible,' Thrash said. Philly sports fans — often billed as some of the worst in sports — gave a slumping Turner standing ovations in at-bats throughout the weekend in an August 2023 series to show he had their full support. Turner was in the first season of an 11-year, $300 million deal with the Phillies but was batting just .238 with 11 home runs and 39 RBIs. He was even dropped to eighth in the batting order headed into that series against Kansas City. In three games over the weekend against the Royals, Turner went 4 for 12 with two doubles, a home run and five RBIs and he would eventually help lead the Phillies to the playoffs. Turner later helped pay for 'Thank You, Philly" digital billboards in the greater Philadelphia area. The documentary was produced by Higher Ground, the media company founded by former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama MCann, also known as 'The Philly Captain," is a Philadelphia based YouTuber and was one of the fans — along with a Philly sports talk radio host — credited with rallying the fans to get behind Turner. 'During the ceremony, one of the award presenters said, 'wWen you go up against the Olympics, you lose.' So I kind of thought we already lost,' McCann said. 'We didn't. It was a great, great shock.' ___
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
And the Emmy goes to ... Phillies star Trea Turner? Documentary on Turner's ovation wins Emmy Award
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — And the Emmy goes to ... Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner? Turner already won an NL batting title and a World Series championship ring in his 11-year MLB career. How about adding an Emmy Award to that trophy case? 'Trea Turner's an Emmy winner, absolutely,' sports documentary producer Kyle Thrash said. 'He definitely held it up like he owned it.' Turner may not actually have the award in hand to keep for good, but he got to hoist the real deal ahead of Friday's game against Toronto in a short celebration for the Emmy won for a best sports short documentary produced on the 2023 standing ovation credited with turning around his season. 'The Turnaround' won a sports Emmy in May and Thrash and Phillies fan Jon McCann — whose personal struggles with mental health and kinship with Turner were the heart of the film — attended the game to show off their new bling to Turner. 'Cuz, we did it, huh?! 'McCann said as he shook Turner's hand on the field after batting practice. 'Trea Turner, we share an Emmy together.' Turner read the inscription at the bottom of the Emmy and promised the fans he would wave to them in section 301 if he stole a base in Friday's game. 'We get to bring a trophy back to the ballpark tonight and share it with so many people that were involved in the standing ovation. It's pretty incredible,' Thrash said. Philly sports fans — often billed as some of the worst in sports — gave a slumping Turner standing ovations in at-bats throughout the weekend in an August 2023 series to show he had their full support. Turner was in the first season of an 11-year, $300 million deal with the Phillies but was batting just .238 with 11 home runs and 39 RBIs. He was even dropped to eighth in the batting order headed into that series against Kansas City. In three games over the weekend against the Royals, Turner went 4 for 12 with two doubles, a home run and five RBIs and he would eventually help lead the Phillies to the playoffs. Turner later helped pay for 'Thank You, Philly' digital billboards in the greater Philadelphia area. The documentary was produced by Higher Ground, the media company founded by former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama MCann, also known as 'The Philly Captain,' is a Philadelphia based YouTuber and was one of the fans — along with a Philly sports talk radio host — credited with rallying the fans to get behind Turner. 'During the ceremony, one of the award presenters said, 'wWen you go up against the Olympics, you lose.' So I kind of thought we already lost,' McCann said. 'We didn't. It was a great, great shock.' ___ AP MLB:
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Documentary celebrates success of Welsh cycling hero Emma Finucane
A documentary has been made about the young life and meteoric rise of Welsh cyclist and Olympic hero Emma Finucane. The cycling star, 22, made history in Paris last summer when she became the first British woman in 60 years to win three medals at the same Olympic Games and the first Welsh athlete to ever achieve that feat. The Paris Olympics was not the Carmarthen cyclist's first taste of success by a long shot - in 2022 she came home from the Commonwealth Games having won two bronze medals for Wales, while in 2023 she won a gold medal at the World Championships in Glasgow, a feat she repeated last year at the 2024 championships in Denmark. It's all a far cry from when Finucane used to whizz around the historic velodrome at Carmarthen Park as a young girl with Towy Riders cycle club, a group which is still going strong today. Stay informed on Carms news by signing up to our newsletter here. READ MORE: Man dies in Cardiff city centre READ MORE: Two arrests after fatal quadbike crash on A465 Heads of the Valleys road Now, a Cardiff-based student has made a 'powerful short documentary' capturing Finucane's rise to the top of world cycling. The film - Pedal to Paris: The Emma Finucane Story - has been created by Cameron Hitt, who is studying a sports broadcast masters degree at Cardiff Metropolitan University. It will premiere at Nantgaredig Rugby Club, in partnership with Towy Riders, on Monday (June 2). The film will then be made publicly available the following day, on Tuesday, June 3. We caught up with Finucane at Carmarthen Park last year, just weeks after she returned home from Paris with three Olympic medals around her neck. 'I remember, when I was seven years old, coming here with my brother and sister,' she said. 'We lived just across the road. I would go round and round the track on my little pink bike with tassels on it. That was it - I was hooked.' On her success, she said: 'It has changed my life. I'm still the same old Emma, but you are kind of in a bubble at the Olympics so you don't really see what's going on around you. "But then you come back home and I've been asked for pictures in Tesco a couple of times and people say: 'Ooh, I've seen you on the telly!' 'I love it. I love being home and coming back to see everyone. I'm very honoured to be asked to attend events. I don't come home often and to be recognised for what I've done at the Olympics is amazing. 'As athletes we obviously have our own ambitions in terms of winning but I want people to watch us and get on their bikes. I want to inspire people to get out there and cycle - it's a healthy way of life. "Sport is amazing, it gives you energy, and I want to use my platform to help young girls and boys get into sprint cycling.'
News.com.au
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
What to watch this week: Ryan Reynolds' return to Wrexham; musical madness from Eurovision
We've sifted through the latest offerings from TV and streaming platforms to find the best shows you should be watching this week. WELCOME TO WREXHAM FRIDAY, DISNEY+ Hardcore football fans will already know whether Wrexham FC – the Welsh team owned by Hollywood heavyweights Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney – achieved the unprecedented feat of three consecutive promotions in their quest to one day join the elite English Premier League. But watching this funny and uplifting sports documentary spoiler-free is even more rewarding in its fourth season, although it's always been about so much more than the results on the pitch. Having been promoted to League One – the country's third top tier – last season, the owners and management are faced with the dilemma of consolidating their rapid rise or spending an eye-watering amount of money on players, staff, facilities and infrastructure to have a real crack at moving up again. The fans are split, with some daring to dream and others already managing expectations, but the formerly down-at-heel mining down is buzzing with the new lease of life courtesy of the spotlight the show has brought. While the snarky banter from celeb pals Reynolds and McElhenney is always welcome, the show truly shines with the personal stories that demonstrate the bond forged between teams and the communities when sport is at its best. EUROVISION SONG CONTEST WEDNESDAY, 5AM, SBS Even a decade after Australia's surprise acceptance into the world's biggest song competition, I have to confess that I still don't carry the Eurovision gene but have nothing but respect for the passionate fans who'll drag themselves out of bed at all hours for the musical mash-up of kitsch, class and downright craziness. Our representative at this year's event in Switzerland is singer-songwriter Go-Jo, with his track Milkshake Man, and steering viewers through the wildly eclectic genres and looks will be Tony Armstrong and Courtney Act. The Grand Final will go out live at 5am on Sunday and there will be Access All Areas wrap-ups on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 7.30pm. THURSDAY, 8.50PM, ABC Having already done documentaries on Britain, Australia, and America, Doc Martin star Martin Clunes is becoming quite the island expert and this time sets his gaze on tiny specks in the vast, pole-to-pole Atlantic Ocean. His first stop is the island nation of Sao Torme and Principe, off the coast of Africa, with a combined population of less than a quarter of a million people. The wry and self-deprecating Clunes makes for a wonderful guide, barely containing his joy at shepherding endangered baby turtles into the ocean, while also showing the appropriate respect and gravitas while talking to locals who endured the islands' dark slavery past thanks to Portuguese colonists and the rapacious sugar plantations that exploited them. DUSTER THURSDAY, MAX Come for Alias and Lost legend JJ Abrams first foray into the TV world in six years and stay for the fast and furious wheel work and fabulously funky soundtrack (there's also an excellent official soundtrack playlist on Spotify). Abrams, who co-wrote the '70s set crime thriller with LaToya Morgan, has smartly tapped his Lost star Josh Holloway to play Jim Ellis, a cocky, good old Southern boy and the best wheelman in Arizona in his cherry-red Plymouth Duster muscle car. Jim plies his trade at breakneck speed (with nary a seatbelt to be seen) for local gangster Ezra with no questions asked, until Nina (Love, Victor's Rachel Hilson), the FBI's first black female agent – who has battled sexism and racism her entire career – makes him question his loyalty in her mission to make him an informer. MURDERBOT FRIDAY, APPLE TV+ If this sci-fi comedy adapted from the book series The Murderbot Diaries isn't the best thing that Alexander Skarsgard has done since True Blood, it's certainly the most fun. The shredded Swedish hunk is fabulous with an awkward, nerdy inner monologue as the title character, a cyborg who has hacked his code to become self-aware, and thereby developing a love for cheesy soap operas (the Star Trek meets Days of Our Lives show-within-a-show is hilarious) and a contempt for the vast bulk of humanity. When he's reluctantly hired to protect a bunch of clueless hippy scientists on a hostile planet – and haunted by memory flashes of terrible past deeds – he has to hide his true nature, or risk being scrapped. LONG WAY HOME APPLE TV+, NEW EPISODES FRIDAYS Actor Ewan McGregor and his bestie Charlie Boorman conquered some hostile, remote terrain and brutal conditions in their previous motorcycle treks across Eastern Europe, Africa and South America. As befits their advancing years – and the fact that Boorman nearly died in a 2016 bike crash – their latest jaunt around Europe on refurbished vintage motorcycles is a much more genteel affair. But what it lacks in drama as they travel through Holland, Germany, the Arctic Circle and the Baltic States, it makes up for in humour as the affable pair lean more into travelogue territory, investigating local customs, like the obscure Dutch sport of far-leaping and having surprise encounters such as the German shooting and drinking club. What could possibly go wrong? ROUX DOWN THE RIVER SATURDAY, 7.30PM, SBS FOOD Never mind the Michelin starred restaurants and the gastronomic marvels whipped up by French-English chef Michel Roux as he floats down the Thames, the true MVP of this new cooking-travel series is the saliva-inducing, heart-attack-beckoning cheesy chips dish, available at pub that's only accessible by boat. Roux's own version looks even better and his enthusiasm for food and family is infectious as the retraces the steps of his famous father and uncle, who founded The Waterside Inn and helped turn the tiny riverside village of Bray into the high-end food capital of the UK. Watching him cook with his cousin Alain is a joy and his Roux's easily ability to put at ease the nervous chefs cooking for him is charming. FA CUP FINAL SUNDAY 12AM, OPTUS SPORT It's been a bit of a dud season for Manchester City by their own lofty standards of recent years, with no shot at winning the league and bundled out early in the Champions League. But a win in the oldest national football competition in the world would give Pep Guardiola's billion Euro squad some consolation and a guaranteed place in the Europa League. In their way is Crystal Palace, who are currently in the bottom half of the Premier League and haven't won a major trophy in more than two decades. But the FA Cup final has rich history of upsets (and one day I'll get over unfancied Wimbledon knocking off mighty Liverpool in 1988, but probably not this century) so anything can happen. Game on! THE UNBELIEVABLE WITH DAN AYKROYD MONDAY, 8.30PM, SBS VICELAND Spook enthusiast and former Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd, who claims to have had four alien encounters himself, is exactly the right person to host this documentary about strange experiences and phenomena from around the world and beyond. His clipped tones and matter-of-fact delivery – backed up by news reports and various experts – make the extraordinary stories of people bossed around by nature somewhat more credible. There's close encounters with meteors, tornado survival tales, fish and gelatinous blobs falling from the sky and the man who apparently had his sight restored by a lightning strike. It veers into woo-woo territory occasionally, but does it in a briskly entertaining fashion. TUESDAY, 8PM, 7MATE This doco might be aimed at squarely as the gunzel community (that's trainspotters to you and me) but anyone who's ever stepped on to a train might be astounded by the amount of work and tech that goes into keeping your daily commute on track. This week's first episode spotlights a group of mostly blokes living their best lives by working on the Ghan, Brisbane's passenger train network and at the heritage-listed Ipswich Rail Workshop, home to Queensland's longest running steam locomotive. There's a lot of animated talk about flange rollers, gudgeon pins, keeper plates, capdabblers and smendlers (I might have made a couple of them up) but their passion, knowledge and skill can't be faulted.
New York Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Welcome to Wrexham series 4 review: Birmingham rivalry, potty mouths and things get serious
Keeping a long-running TV show fresh is not easy. Far too many series start brightly only to then fizzle out and lose the viewer long before the studios decide to cancel. Only those able to maintain a strong story-telling narrative and characters the audience care about will survive and thrive. Which brings us to Welcome to Wrexham, the documentary charting Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's ownership of a British football club. Series four starts this week on FX in the Unites States and Disney+ in the UK, nudging the show towards the elder statesmen bracket of sports documentaries. Advertisement Sunderland 'Til I Die, the inspiration behind McElhenney's original seed of an idea following a recommendation from Humphrey Ker, lasted just three series spread over seven years, with even the final part of that trilogy early last year feeling like something of a tag-on. Amazon Prime's All or Nothing has featured Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, but none went beyond a first series, while the decline in the once-excellent 'Class of 92', which charts Salford City's fortunes under the ownership of former Manchester United stars, has been marked. As reported by The Athletic this week, though, David Beckham and Gary Neville are taking over the League Two side. Welcome to Wrexham's attempts to avoid falling into the same trap are helped by their celebrity co-owners knowing a thing or two about longevity. Not only did Reynolds' film Deadpool & Wolverine last year earn more than $1.3billion at the box office as fans flocked to watch the third instalment, featuring cameos from Wrexham duo Ollie Palmer and Paul Mullin, but McElhenney's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is the longest-running sitcom in the U.S., with a 17th series on the way. As executive producers, the pair bring that know-how to Welcome to Wrexham in its fourth year. There are new characters from the community to bring the human element that has made the show such a success. Wrexham, gearing up for a first season in League One for 19 years as series four gets underway, no longer being the biggest fish in their divisional pond is another topic explored in the two episodes made available to the media before the May 15 launch in North America. Series four also has familiar elements. So the audience again gets to meet breakout stars such as Wayne Jones, the landlord of The Turf pub, and Declan Swans lead singer Michael 'Scoot' Hett. Advertisement Ker, now the club's community director after stepping back from day-to-day operations, also makes a return, this time training for a marathon that Reynolds and McElhenney have mischievously entered him for in the name of charity. 'I hate Rob and Ryan,' Ker deadpans to the camera when being put through a pre-training medical by club staff. 'Nothing to do with running — just got to know them.' Then, of course, there's the owners. Work commitments meant visits to Wrexham were restricted during the 2024-25 season covered by filming, with McElhenney attending five games and Reynolds four. But they are still front and centre here, linking the narrative with a series of quips when interviewed side-by-side in the States. There are also the board meetings that are invariably conducted over Zoom due to how various directors are in different time zones. Like the dressing-room footage featuring Phil Parkinson in various stages of potty-mouthed anger that proved so popular with viewers, this peek behind the curtain as to how a sports club is run is both insightful and fascinating. Again, there's plenty of humour. 'Is the grass human hair?' asks an incredulous Reynolds after being told a planned new pitch will cost £1.7million. But this is also clearly a serious business, with chief executive Michael Williamson warning his bosses: 'If this goes wrong, it's a very expensive wrong.' The stakes being so high makes the football no laughing matter. This, though, doesn't prevent there being a few amusing moments, with manager Phil Parkinson unwittingly channelling his inner Danny Dyer an early highlight. 'A proper tear-up,' predicts the Wrexham manager in the away dressing room before kick-off at big-spending Birmingham City, by way of warning his players what to expect. Close your eyes and it could be Dyer's character Tommy Johnson, a football hooligan who lives for fighting at the weekend in the British film The Football Factory, issuing pre-match instructions to the team. Sadly for Wrexham, it was they who took the battering at St Andrew's as the home side ran out comfortable winners. Advertisement Parkinson, in fact, is calmness personified in these first two episodes. Certainly compared with those X-rated team-talks the producers dubbed 'Parky's Enthusiasm Levels' in series one. This is likely to be only temporary. These first two instalments in an eight-part series cover only the opening six games of the League One season, at the end of which Wrexham still topped the fledgling table despite that loss to Birmingham. Those who relish Parkinson's dressing-room tirades — and surely that's most of us — will be served well in the weeks to come as the pressure mounts. Birmingham, of course, feature strongly. A decent-sized chunk of episode two, 'High Hopes', focuses on the September meeting at St Andrew's that was attended by McElhenney, Tom Brady — in his guise as a minority shareholder in the home club — and David Beckham. There's a 'George Orwell 1984' moment when Brady greets McElhenney on the pitch, as the Welcome to Wrexham camera crew film the camera crew following the all-time NFL great for an Amazon Prime documentary on Birmingham, just as the two clubs' respective media teams also capture the moment on their phones. The exchange also offers McElhenney, on being presented with a blue Birmingham jersey, the opportunity to later tell the camera: 'I can't find a trash can big enough.' A criticism The Athletic has had in the past, particularly with regards series three, was the product placement of sponsors. We get why. As one supporter succinctly put it when taking us to task over a review at an early season match: 'They can put a shot of a United Airlines plane on screen for the full half-hour if it keeps the money coming in.' But it can still grate. Sports documentaries tread a thin line between entertainment and advertisement, and the moment viewers feel turned off, then there's a big problem. Happily, any shoe-horning of sponsors into the narrative this time around feels less crude and more part of the storytelling. Advertisement Welcome to Wrexham has been central to the club's rise from non-League. Wrexham have never earned a penny from the show directly, but the global spotlight provided by the cameras has helped bring in all those blue-chip sponsors that, in the latest accounts (2023-24), helped turbo-charge turnover to a club record £26.7million. This huge commercial value explains why the club, through Wrexham Holdings, made a £2.4million contribution towards promoting the show across that same 12-month period to June 30, 2024 (£1.3million of that sum remained outstanding at the financial year end, according to the accounts). The commissioning of a fifth series would, therefore, be news worth toasting at the SToK Cae Ras. Viewing figures will no doubt be the deciding factor, but — spoiler alert — a third consecutive promotion to move to within one level of the Premier League surely can't do any harm. Let's hope so, as moving into the land of parachute payments and arguably the most competitive division around means there's plenty more to come from this remarkable story. Welcome to Wrexham, series four, launches on May 15 in the U.S. on FX, streaming the following day on Hulu. The UK premiere is May 16.
