Mike Bassett: England Manager

Mike Bassett: England Manager

Mike Bassett: England Manager is a 2001 satirical comedy film directed by Steve Barron, following the fortunes of the manager of Division One football club Norwich City, Mike Bassett, who having led his side to the 'Mr Clutch Cup', is appointed England manager.

The film takes the form of a fly-on-the-wall fictional documentary (mockumentary) following Bassett (played by Ricky Tomlinson) as he starts his international management career. Martin Bashir, well known as a journalist and presenter in real life, plays the interviewer and provides the voice-over, and the film features cameo appearances from Pelé and Ronaldo. The film satirises many targets, such as the mysterious figures who run the Football Association, the stereotypical view of an old-fashioned manager, and the tabloid press's unfailing habit of building the England team up so they can knock them down hard.

The film was followed by a TV series, Mike Bassett: Manager in 2005.

Plot

England manager Phil Cope suffers a heart attack during qualification for the World Cup, which started out well but has gone badly wrong of late. The FA heads meet to decide who should be the new England manager, but soon run into trouble. The most successful Premiership manager is Scottish (based on Sir Alex Ferguson), the second most successful is a former England captain who is interested in the job, but the FA decide that he's too much of a "loudmouth" and refuse to consider him (a reference to the numerous times Brian Clough was passed over for the England job), while none of the other English managers in the Premiership are interested. They are forced to look to Division One, and Bassett.

Bassett takes over the England team and appoints his assistant manager Lonnie Urquart (Philip Jackson), who is very old-fashioned in his beliefs and still acts like a used car salesman, and coach Dave Dodds (Bradley Walsh), a spineless "yes-man" who once managed with Mike at Colchester United. The team need one win from three World Cup qualifiers to get to the World Cup Finals in Brazil. With a squad featuring a pony-tailed goalkeeper (based on David Seaman), an alcoholic Geordie (based on Paul Gascoigne), a playboy midfielder (based on David Beckham) and an extremely aggressive centre-back (based on Stuart Pearce, he plays an old-fashioned 4-4-2 formation and attempts to bring football back to where it belongs. Unfortunately, he loses his first two games in charge and his managerial career is already on the rocks. Needing to beat Slovenia in the final qualifier to make it to Brazil, England can only manage a draw. However, a shock win by Luxembourg over Turkey sees them go through on goal difference. He and his team record the official England World Cup song with band Atomic Kitten, with compositions by "hellraiser" Keith Allen.

So, England are on their way to Brazil. When they arrive, progress is not smooth as they start their tour by brawling with the Scottish and Irish teams. A difficult group stage sees them on the verge of heading home after they can only manage a goalless draw with unfancied Egypt before losing heavily to Mexico. Captain Gary Wackett is jailed for taking part in hooliganism; midfield playmaker Tonkinson accidentally gets involved in a drunken tryst with a transsexual; assistant manager Urquart is sacked after punching Bassett for berating him as useless and when Mike mixes flaming sambucas with anti-depressants, it seems things can get no worse. To turn it around and get through to the second round, all England have to do is beat the old enemy, Argentina. England succeed when Tonkinson punches the ball into the net. This goal pokes fun of the infamous Hand of God goal that Diego Maradona scored against England in the 1986 World Cup. England advanced to the knock-out stages where they beat Romania and France. Rufus Smalls scored a hat-trick against Romania and became England's top goal scorer with 52 international goals. Because England lost in the semi-finals, they would have taken part in the third place/fourth place match. The match is not shown, however Bashir states that England had equaled their best performance since they won in 1966. He is referring to the 1990 World Cup in which England finished in fourth place. Presumably England lost their last match. The film ends on a high when the team return to England to a cheering crowd and Bassett announces that he will not quit.

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 ... Rufus Smalls
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

This section requires expansion.

Trivia

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Making of Mike Bassett: England Manager

• At the end of the film, England progress through the group stage thanks to an unexpected victory over Argentina, before losing in the semi-finals to Brazil, who go on to win the World Cup. This actually happened in the real 2002 World Cup, though England made their exit a round earlier in the quarter finals.
• One of the England players is portrayed by former professional footballer Scott Mean, who played for Bournemouth and West Ham United before becoming an actor. He has appeared in Dream Team as well as a number of commercials.
• Early in the film, a very brief football action clip is shown, supposedly of Mike Bassett playing in goal, where he fails to connect with a backpass which goes into his own net for an own goal. This was a real clip from a Football League match in the early 1990s, featuring Barnet goalkeeper Gary Phillips. Like Bassett, Phillips was portly and sported a moustache.
• Rather than film the opening celebration sequence on location in Norwich, the producers decorated parts of St Albans in yellow and green bunting, as Ricky Tomlinson and the team are shown riding though the City centre on an open-top bus after winning the Mr Clutch Cup (right). This was because Norwich City Council would not allow the filming to take place in Norwich.
• England vs. Mexico, according to the narrator, took place in La Bombonera Stadium (which is in Buenos Aires, Argentina), which along with Boca Junior's famed stadium is another name for Nemesio Diez Stadium in Toluca, Mexico due to its similar suffocating dimensions. However, the shot actually shows Morumbi Stadium, in São Paulo.
• Bassett's press conference after the Mexico game, where he accuses the assembled press of being "wankers" and storms out, was actually based on Prince Edward's storming out of a press conference after It's a Royal Knockout rather than any particular incident in the world of football.

England's known record under Mike Bassett

External links

• Mike Bassett: England Manager at the Internet Movie Database