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Mike Bassett: England Manager

Mike Bassett: England Manager
Mike Bassett cover.jpg
Directed by Steve Barron
Produced by Steve Barron
Neil Peplow
Written by John R. Smith
Rob Sprackling
Starring Ricky Tomlinson
Amanda Redman
Bradley Walsh
Edited by Colin Green
Production
company
Distributed by Entertainment Film Distributors
Release date
  • 28 September 2001 (2001-09-28)
Running time
89 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Box office £3,443,174

Mike Bassett: England Manager is a 2001 satirical comedy film directed by Steve Barron, following the fortunes of the manager of Division One football (English football's second tier) club Norwich City, Mike Bassett, who having led his side to the 'Mr Clutch Cup', is appointed England manager. It received mixed reviews.

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 voiceover, 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 World Cup being played is referred to in the film as 'World Cup XVII'; the 17th World Cup was the tournament played in 2002. The film was followed by a television series, Mike Bassett: Manager in 2005.

And in 2014, a second film, Mike Bassett: Interim Manager, attempted to get £250,000 funding on the website Kickstarter. After the time limit for the funding expired, the campaign was cancelled, and there has since been no further news of this second film.

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.


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