Maddog was recently in Leeds, and in Leeds in more than a little intimidating circumstances: sat in a cinema, surrounded by several ex-Leeds United players and a television reporter, who were all about to be depicted on the screen in a not-too likeable fashion. Sitting alongside them, and keen to gauge their reaction, was an equally nervous director, Tom Hooper, fresh from the Emmy and Golden Globe success of his $110 million television epic for HBO, John Adams. The event was the northern premiere and ‘homecoming’ of The Damned United, based on a novel of the same name by David Peace, which depicts controversial football manager Brian Clough and the events surrounding his incredibly short 44-day stint as manager of Leeds United football club in 1974.

Peter Morgan, who adapted the book, and Michael Sheen, who plays Clough, have a convincing history of impersonations together: Sheen was David Frost in Morgan’s Frost / Nixon, and Tony Blair in both Morgan’s TV drama The Deal, and, more famously, The Queen. Sheen, whose own father is a Jack Nicholson impersonator, has, to some, made a career out of impersonations: he has also played both Kenneth Williams, and HG Wells.

The difference with this role is that the Clough character is not a broadly drawn caricature, as some of the other roles might appear. All his mannerisms, from the way he sits and smiles, to his northern drawl, are finely drawn. Secondly, there is simply more screen time for Sheen – this is what is fascinating, a large part of what makes the film a success, and why it is Sheen’s finest film yet.

The film begins with Clough driving with his children towards Leeds United’s ground for his first day at work, singing to the radio as he drives. Clough’s brash 1960s suit, his bouffant quiff, the impromptu press conference he holds in the Leeds United car park, and the half-arsed training session he spies taking place above him, all introduce us to a harsh, grey world of football before media training, money and sponsorship took over. This period detail – in the set, clothing, and casting, stays and runs throughout the film with great accuracy.

The film’s dramatic edge is sharpened by two strong relationships: firstly, Clough’s obsession with beating the previous Leeds manager, Don Revie (excellently played by the near-identical Colm Meaney), and secondly, his partnership with his co-manager Peter Taylor, a little-known bit part in the Clough story, who is superbly brought to life by Timothy Spall. These relationships operate throughout the film like a love/ hate triangle: pulling and pushing in different directions, and producing some excellent scenes. Before he reaches Leeds, Clough is shown working at Derby County with Peter Taylor, and there is a great scene where his ambition to buy more players and beat Don Revie’s Leeds nearly gets the better of him, and he argues ferociously with Derby’s chairman Sam Longson, an elderly northern chain-smoker well drawn by Jim Broadbent. Spall’s Taylor is shown waiting in the wings, stepping in to calm things down.

It is scenes like these that show the passion, and hatred that football can inspire, and it is why – despite very little football being shown – the producer Hugo Heppell may be right to suggest the film is ‘the best football film’ ever. I’d go slightly further, and put it in a category alongside great actor-led character studies like Nixon and Carrington, and films about people with obsessions, missions and distractions: its focus on relationships also makes it a film with much wider appeal than might initially appear. The director, Tom Hooper, commented afterwards how strange it seemed to be reading The Damned United script when he was still in America, working on his epic tv series, having just spoken to his producer Tom Hanks. In actual fact, his film has plenty of good and relevant connections to his other work: the scale, and the era are different, but Clough, like the protagonists of his TV series on Elizabeth 1st and John Adams, is shown as a driven, but powerful, contradictory character. Sheen, like Clough, should have the final say: he is the centre of this film, and for him, this is easily his best film performance yet, and worth the admissions price alone.

Words > Stephen Sharrock