Bostock's Cup
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''Bostock's Cup'' was a one-off British television comedy drama about a football team which appeared on ITV on the eve of the 1999 European Cup final. It was written by Chris England, 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 ...
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 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 events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...
. 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 resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...
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 in the fifth round, before recording suspicious victories against
Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...
, 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 status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
, 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, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...
, 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 Association football, footballer who played for Leeds United F.C., Leeds United, Hull City A.F.C., Hull City, and the Scotland national football team, Scot ...
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 broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...
.


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