''Bostock's Cup'' was a one-off British television comedy drama about a football team which appeared on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
on the eve of the
1999 European Cup final. It was written by
Chris England
Chris England (born 20 January 1961) is an English writer and actor. He is best known for the comedy play ''An Evening with Gary Lineker'', which he wrote with Arthur Smith (comedian), Arthur Smith, and the book ''Balham to Bollywood''.
Early l ...
, directed by Marcus Mortimer and produced by Mark Robson. It starred
Tim Healy as the club's manager,
Neil Pearson
Neil John Pearson (born 27 April 1959) is a British actor, known for his work on television. He was nominated for the 1994 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for '' Between the Lines'' (1992–1994). His other television roles include ''Drop the D ...
as a veteran sportscaster, and
Nick Hancock
Nicholas John Hancock (born 25 October 1962) is an English actor and television presenter. He hosted the sports quiz ''They Think It's All Over'' for 10 years. He also formerly presented ''Room 101'' (1994–1999) on TV, as well as its earlier ...
as his upstart rival. The film featured innovative use of old footage of 1970s football matches to recreate the era. It was aired on 25 May 1999.
Synopsis
Mike Tonker, a small-time sports journalist, is given the task of hosting a dinner gala honouring both Gerry Tudor, a well-known sports personality, and Bostock Stanley, a since-defunct football team. Tudor made a name for himself by producing and hosting a documentary about Stanley's
1973-74 season, which simultaneously saw them relegated from the Third Division with a record low points total, and yet getting to and winning that year's
FA Cup final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...
.
The film-within-a-film begins with Stanley appointing Bertie Masson, a journeyman old-school manager, with Masson's first act being to demote top scorer Alan Hardy from the captaincy and appoint hard man Mick Wallace to the position. Despite Stanley's hopeless league form, they manage to beat fellow Third Division strugglers
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.
Southport lies on the Irish ...
in the FA Cup, and then non-league Pontefract Athletic, despite the latter's 45-degree sloping pitch.
During the course of the dinner, Tonker gets a phone call from a mysterious informant, claiming to have information with which Tonker can ruin Tudor's career and advance his own. Tonker follows the instructions, and stumbles across an archive of unused footage from Tudor's film. When the film presentation resumes, it shows Stanley beating
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
in the fifth round, before recording suspicious victories against
Hull City
Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...
, where the Hull players suddenly become scared of the ball after Tudor arranges for a hypnotist to visit them, and then
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
, thanks in equal parts to a dazzling performance by a mysterious new player called Brian Parkinson (who is brought in at Tudor's recommendation after Hardy is pranked into submitting a transfer request, causing Masson to drop him from the team), and the referee demonstrating blatant bias against Leicester.
The FA Cup final sees Stanley coming up against First Division champions
Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...
, who are out to secure the Double. Against all the odds, and partly thanks to Wallace punching
Billy Bremner
William John Bremner (9 December 1942 – 7 December 1997) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. Regarded as one of the game's great midfielders, he combined precision passing skills with tenacious tackling and physical stam ...
in the groin just before kick-off, Stanley triumph 1–0.
After the film ends, Tonker reveals the additional footage, showing that Tudor bribed the referee in the Leicester match, illegally brought Brian Parkinson (actually an obscure member of
Brazil's 1970 World Cup squad named Nero) into the country, and then secretly exploited a loophole in the leasehold to buy out Stanley's stadium, which he then demolished and replaced with a hotel, leading to Stanley going out of business before the
1974-75 season. Tudor weakly denies the accusations and then leaves, with Tonker expecting a promotion for his actions, only for his bosses to instead fire him for ruining the reputation of their most bankable star, as well as his needlessly humiliating Masson by showing a clip of his wife, Margaret, having sex with Tudor on Stanley's pitch (in turn causing Masson to dejectedly realise that his son, Trevor, is actually Tudor's son). He then discovers that his informant was actually Alan Hardy, who was bitter at Tudor over costing him a place in the final squad by bringing in "Parkinson."
Masson and the former players angrily confront Tudor in a bathroom, with Masson demanding to know the full extent of his meddling. Tudor confesses to his various misdeeds, but says that the only matches he actually played a part in rigging were the ones against Hull and Leicester, revealing that it was actually ''Leeds'' who bribed the referee in the cup final, and yet still lost. The Stanley players leave to celebrate, knowing their victory was still legitimate, while Masson tells Tudor that he will have to live with the consequences of his actions. Tudor, however, is confident that his career will soon recover, predicting that the worst thing that will happen is that he'll have to start working for
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
.
Cast
External links
*{{IMDb title, 0201378
1999 television films
1999 films
1999 television specials
ITV comedy
London Weekend Television shows
Television series by ITV Studios