Michael Sheen and Stephen Graham’s 2009 film The Damned United has been shown on the BBC for the first time since July last year, which means that it’s once again available to stream on iPlayer. But, as is typical for the service, it’s only available for the next 29 days.
The film, loosely based on real-life, stars Sheen as football manager Brian Clough as he takes charge of Leeds United in the 1970s. Having previously criticised the team pretty harshly, it’s safe to say things start off on the wrong (pardon the pun) foot.
Graham sports some curly blonde hair as Leeds captain Billy Bremner, while Joe Dempsie, Jim Broadbent, Colm Meaney, and Martin Compston all pop up, too.
The film didn’t do all that well at the box office, making only a tad over $4 million from a reported budget of $6.4 million.
However, it fared a lot better with critics, sitting at a hugely impressive 92% positive from 138 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sony Pictures
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The Seattle Times noted its “splendid” cast, while the late, great Roger Ebert praised the film for the way it “avoids all sports movie clichés”.
Variety similarly appreciated that the focus was on the characters, rather than the football, while The Guardian said that the story was “really a tempestuous love story” and that Timothy Spall’s “lovely, warm performance” as Peter Taylor serves as a perfect foil to Sheen’s Clough.
Sony Pictures
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It’s got a slightly lower, but still strong, average rating of 7.5/10 from over 48,000 user reviews on IMDb.
“A fantastic film with brilliant performances by Sheen and Spall,” wrote one fan, who added that the supporting cast “are all great actors, and their presence means that this film is worth watching even if you don’t particularly like football”.
Another fan said: “[Peter] Morgan’s script keeps up the dry wit and humour, and [Tom] Hooper’s direction carries the colourful scenery of 1960’s and 1970’s Britain.”
The Damned United can be streamed on BBC iPlayer, as well as Sky/Now Cinema.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.