Review - The Damned United, Islington Vue

Glory,Glory Leeds United!
scene one int. north london

woman ( indeterminate age, fading looks, English teeth, Emma Thompson with water retention, perhaps) first drink of the evening in hand.. looks out window and jumps up in excitement.

scene 2 ext. street north london

man ( mid thirties, tall , floppy hair, Oxford educated, Julian Rhind-Tutt in my dreams) sitting on wall. woman gingerly approaches...

W: Are you Tom Hooper?

M: Yes ( fear in eyes)

W: I'd just like to say, we loved The Damned United.

M: Oh, thank you very much

W: No thank you, it was very good

M: When did you see it

W: Yesterday, at 11.30 in the morning

M: Wow, in the morning! You're my perfect audience

W: Guaranteed no kids, you see. And I loved John Adams, and Longford, and that last series of Prime Suspect you did.

M: Bless you

W: Of course, I'm not sure why you changed the televised interview with Don Revie, especially as it's on Youtube and every one can see it, and I don't believe that Clough would watch such an important match from his office and not know the final score - but it was a beautifully filmed scene.

Michael Sheen is a minor miracle but we thought we could detect traces of David Frost still clinging to his jaw and the Silver-Fox identified hints of Blair at the hairline. The evocation of early seventies Yorkshire was spot-on and I should know, even though I was brought up in the posh part, and well done for not flooding the sound-track with random 70's pop.

The hair-dos on the footballers were a bit dodge, but having the Leeds team names on the backs of their trackies, as written in the book -The Damned United by David Peace, should be adopted by other film-makers as a way of shortening character exposition.

Speaking of the book-The Damned United by David Peace, you obviously lightened the mood in your version, made Cloughie more likable and less of a Jacobean revenge character racked with paranoia and bile, but nevertheless you portrayed a man consumed with ambition and a sense of injustice. The sweet ending in the car with his boys, was maybe a little too easy, d'you think?

The relationship between Clough and Peter Taylor, it's beautiful..Brokeback Mountain with out the sex but with more balls.

Jim Broadbent/Sam Longson, Timothy Spall/Peter Taylor, Colm Meaney/Don Revie, Henry Goodman/Manny Cuzzins, Maurice Roeves/Jimmy Gordon ... don't it make you feel proud to be British? Oh by the way, don't employ Brian McCardie/Dave MacKay again. I went on a date with him once and he's a cocky so-and-so.

M: You seem a very perceptive young woman, are you interested in helping me in my next project, I am looking for someone just like you and nobody I have met 'til now has your critical facility and you are so right about Brian McCardie. Would you be free to start work tomorrow and ..........

Oh well, it nearly went like that, all the way up until "Bless you" and then I thanked him a little more for just "being Tom", he started to look a little scared, and I left the next winner of the Bafta for Best British Film to enjoy the rest of his evening.