I posted this on the Saints forum, but for those of you that don't go on there:

I can't wait - apart from the CC Final re-run that is

Cannot wait! Should be great viewing.

Sporting Life was on the other night, its depressing to think that most clubs were run in the same way right up to the first couple of Super League years (and some still are I am sure)

Nicely handled sporting passages but it isnt a film about RL, but rather a film about a bitter man wanting to better himself - he just happens to do that by being a good player.

Nice to see him refer to himself as a "footballer" and that the roundball game is called "soccer".

Best line of all though "We dont have stars in our game...we have people like me"

I read a story about the making of the film, which always amuses. At the beginning of the film Richard Harris' character Frank Machin is playing a match in Wakey's colours and gets flattened in a tackle. The Trinity squad were used as the extras for the playing scenes. Rocky Turner was used as the opposition Loose Forward and was dressed in Wigan colours.

Before the take Lindsay Anderson, the director, had a word with Rocky without Harris knowing. Anderson told Rocky that he wanted him to peel off the scrum early and tackle Harris as hard as he could, so he could get a more realistic shot. Sure enough, the camera started rolling, Rocky got in position, peeled off, flew at Harris, didn't hold back and walloped him. Shooting had to stop because Harris was sparko on the floor.

Should be a good nights entertainment.
Maybe Eddie & Stevo will pick up some good tips off Eddie Waring.....

Stevo is the new Eddie Waring

Looking at the IPlayer website it looks like everything will be available on there, apart from the 78 rerun.

Eddie Waring doc is really interesting. If only Dave Woods were as popular!

Very Enjoyable

It is sad to see how he ended up so to speak.

The Eddie Waring documentary was excellent.

Fantastic doc!!

An eye opener. This second one seems to me to be a league bash by union types.

Good documentary, didn't realize there was the resentment towards Eddie in his later years though.

K9 was as funny now as it was then

perhaps i need to see it again cos i thought it was a bit of a union bash by union types.

Yeah it was you are bang on. Laurie Gant is God!

Maybe I need to rewatch see if I misinterpreted it, not that it's important

god bless Eddie Waring what a shame he died the way he did Alzheimer's is a nasty thing and i would never wish that on anyone did a fantastic amount of work for rugby league and realy got the game in britain famous just wish he was around now to get the game a bit of life again

Why did no-one remove that dog from the pitch? Like, srsly.

Thats what I thought, even more so how the hell did a dog get into the ground in the first place.

Waring was universally popular, with television viewers that were only marginally interested in RL.

I suppose that if there had been a better appreciation of dementia issues then, and it had been known that he was suffering from dementia, there might have been greater sympathy for him. But the resentment amongst many RL fans was fairly intense. He started out as a decent enough commentator and his Challenge Cup Final commentaries, when he took the occasion seriously, were usually of a higher standard. His commentary at the end of the Don Fox final is quite rightly regarded as a classic.

But those saturday afternoon commentaries were mostly cringe worthy. He probably wasnt helped by the BBC's practice of only showing the 2nd half, which meant that many games were over as a contest before he came on air. But too often you find youself watching a very good game of rugby whilst he was prattling on in the background about completely irrelevant factors. He obviously believed his own publicity and ended up parodying himself and the game.

I thought the scene where David Coleman interviewed him before his last ever RL commentary was very poignant, Waring was obviously struggling to put coherent sentences together by that time and he looked a very lonely figure, his incarceration into High Royds Mental Hospital (nee "Asylum"icon_wink.gif was a sad indictment of the times, when you went in there you rarely came out and it was a case of "out of sight out of mind", Care in the Community has its critics but its far better than locking people into Asylums and throwing away the key.

the 2nd documentary that was filmed in 1969 could quite easily have been made in the Super League era.

Salford talking about stadium improvements that never happened, the Wigan Chairman going on about a brown envelope full of used fivers, Featherstone being described as grim.

The Featherstone training session and team talk was a classic - "they have a lad called Ogden playing who i've never heard of. anyone know him? no? oh well, im sure he is nippy so get him tackled when he gets the ball"

Very enjoyable on the whole.

"she'll be offside"



Absolutely brilliant from start to finish, worth the licence fee alone.