By Susan Granger
With World Cup enthusiasm at a four-year high, Netflix’s “The English Game” traces the origins of ‘association football’ in England, which evolved into the sport known as soccer in the United States.
Prolific screenwriter Julian Fellowes (“Gosford Park,” “Downton Abbey,” “Belgravia,” “The Gilded Age”) combines fact with fiction in this six-part historical mini-series set in a Lancashire mill town in the late 19th century when two ‘hired’ Scottish players catapulted the local Darwen working-class football club into contention for the coveted FA (Football Association) cup.
In 1879, football was dominated by aristocratic gentlemen – former players from Eton, Harrow and Charterhouse. Passionate sportsman Arthur Kinnaird (Edward Holcroft), heir to a London banking fortune, leads the Old Etonians team.
Short, wiry Fergus Suter (Kevin Guthrie), whom fans call ‘Suter the Shooter,’ and his childhood pal, Jimmy Love (James Harkness), are recruited by Darwen mill owner James Waksh (Craig Parkinson), making them the first professional football players in history – at a time when FA rules permitted only amateurs to play the game.
A former Glasgow stonemason, Suter introduces strategic tactics and tricks on the pitch, completely changing his squad’s approach to both attack and defense. Inevitably, another team, Blackburn, poaches him – offering more money just as his mother and sisters are desperate to escape from his abusive, alcoholic father.
But town rivalry ignites violence and Suter’s crisis-of-conscience – with Jimmy, his teammates and loyal supporters of the Darwen club – along with feisty Martha Almond (Niamh Walsh), an unwed mother who waits tables at the elite Cotton Masters’ Club.
Admittedly, the predictable class skirmishes and exploitation of downtrodden mill workers are corny and contrived, and the multi-faceted romantic aspect gets a bit melodramatic with Arthur’s lonely wife (Charlotte Hope).
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The English Game” is an idealistic, scrappy 7, streaming on Netflix.
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Susan Granger
Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.
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