The Keeper - Trautmann film Sunday 5th Sept on BBC

[bladdered]

Hopefully it will fall into disuse as long as City are a dominant team.

Not much chance of that...

 

[bluesmith]

I can’t ever recall the term Man City being use before the 1970s. It was either Manchester City or more usually City. Even my Gradfather from Shropshire would use the term City. Birmingham City and Stoke City were referred to as Birmingham and Stoke.

I think that Manchester City are the only City from a two team area with a rival having the same geographical handle. Stoke had Port Vale, Birmingham had Villa as local rivals. Leicester, Norwich, d Coventry have no rivals from the same city. Neither have Bradford City since the demise of Bradford Park Avenue.

It works similarly with Manchester United as few refer to Leeds, Newcastle, West Ham, etc. as United. Sheffield United are the only likely conflict.

I suspect that the Man City name crept in as City started to become less relevant in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Hopefully it will fall into disuse as long as City are a dominant team.

Not likely considering the website and 3rd shirt

 

[JGL07]

The fact that Jock Thompson was still manager through to at least 1956 in the film when he'd left in 1950 and Les Mc Dowell took over was one bit. Also the circumstances of his young sons tragic death were completely different

It is a highly fictionalised version of Trautmann’s life not an exact true story and should be judged as such.

Aside from the Jock Thomson/Les McDowall issue, Bert was married after he signed for City not before. Bert was released from the POW camp before he played for St Helens. Jack Friar was never the yokel that John Henshaw portrayed him as. The list goes on.

Despite the above, it remains a great film. Just don’t take anything too seriously.

 

[JASR]

It is a highly fictionalised version of Trautmann’s life not an exact true story and should be judged as such.

Aside from the Jock Thomson/Les McDowall issue, Bert was married after he signed for City not before. Bert was released from the POW camp before he played for St Helens. Jack Friar was never the yokel that John Henshaw portrayed him as. The list goes on.

Despite the above, it remains a great film. Just don’t take anything too seriously.

Poetic license. The keeping of Jock as the manager throughout would have helped the narrative.

just watched it. Excellent. A good story even with blue tinted specs on.

I wonder if the portrayed Liverpool away bus argy-bargy was noticed by anyone else?
Presumably that’s not fictional, @Gary James , they are one of the ‘istree clubs after all, and violent tradition means a lot to them.

 

[ProofMCFC]

No history ay haha we have bundles of it

 

[Gary James]

After the film last night I went to Youtube to find the '56 cup final as I was irritated by the "Man City" references in the commentary.

The real footage referred to ourselves as Manchester who were playing Birmingham. At no point ever we we referred to as "Man City". I can only assume it was put down to "Artistic licence" though @garyjames I am suprised you allowed that to slip in under the radar.

You can be certain that I flagged absolutely everything, working significantly longer on this than the £500 they gave me justified. The bottom line is that I was only a consultant, not the author, not the producer and not the people providing the funding. ManCity was definitely something I flagged but then so was the fact Thomson was not the manager; that the badge was not the Manchester COA; that the black & white archive footage was not for the games suggested or chronological and much much more.

There were lots of things I sensibly told them were wrong, some of which they changed, some of which they did not. The Mancity thing in the end is much smaller than some of the factual errors/decisions, especially when Man City has been used in songs and chants such as ‘We’ve got an M an A an N a C-I-T-Y’ for decades.

 

[Gary James]

I think you are over estimating Gary's role in the film here! He wasn't the executive producer.

To be fair there’s so many other things I’d have changed first too. For example the whole reason why City took a gamble on Trautmann was not discussed and put across as a ‘Swift wants to retire’ piece rather than ‘shit. Swift’s replacements are crap or ill and Swift has said he’ll come back for 6 games and that’s it! We need a keeper. Any Keeper!’

There‘s one area I definitely changed… In the original script Trautmann’s in-laws and wife broke down on Claremont Road on FAC final day and had to run to the stadium to watch it. I pointed out that it was a long way from Moss Side to Wembley!

 

[Gary James]

Yes I know but thought as an adviser he may have had an input....? It really did sand out like a sore thumb to me, to the point of being bloody irritating and spoiling the film.

Perhaps the Executive Producer had rag leanings?

I definitely pointed this out so please don’t assume I didn’t. Personally I’m more irritated by the fact the war stuff is completely fabricated.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

I think that Manchester City are the only City from a two team area with a rival having the same geographical handle. Stoke had Port Vale, Birmingham had Villa as local rivals. Leicester, Norwich, d Coventry have no rivals from the same city. Neither have Bradford City since the demise of Bradford Park Avenue.

Bristol

 

[Gary James]

I thought that too, about the manager, missed it when I first saw it.
It is always an issue when folk very close to the subject or with a lot of knowledge of the subject see it all laid out in a film.
I watched that Morrissey (I know, I know) biopic the other year and picked holes in it (they used the house the other side of his semi-detached on Kings Road, Stretford for his house for example) and the next day I watched it again without getting worked up about "small things" and enjoyed it.

I flagged the Thomson stuff. The producer didn’t have a clue and the writers were German and based everything on what Bert told them. I kicked off about this quite a bit saying that Thomson was a bit part player in the story and should be replaced by McDowall. I was told ‘but we’ve picked the actor and he’s Scottish!’ I said ‘no problem, McDowall was Scottish too!’

They didn’t want to introduce other characters as they said audiences would struggle and so one manager was important. I lost that argument and kept moaning, going on about how you wouldn’t get Busby wrong.

In the end the bottom line to me was that I had to highlight everything to them and try and persuade them to make the changes BUT they had to make a film they believed would be popular to a wider audience. I consoled myself by saying that if the film could encourage people to find out more about Bert and City then it’s done it’s job. Ultimately, they had to satisfy their funders (hence why it was filmed in Ireland and Germany) and make something that was popular. As with all biopics much of it is not factually correct. Had I written the script it would have been but perhaps would never have been made. We‘d have had 30 minutes of McDowall telling Bert how the Revie Plan was going to work and Ken Barnes winding up Bert about his VW Beetle!