Rugby league: movies, stage and Dr Who

Soccer became more popular on tele a nd the crowds fell due to the power of the box - happened to a lot of sports below the top level...

Ray French the former Rugby Union and League player and commentator for the BBC Rugby League once said that crowds for English Rugby League games started to decline around 1963/64 ? hmm I wonder if This Sporting Life had anything to do with it.

Over the years there have been very few quality films with a sporting theme in the UK. The Sporting Life stands out and the casting of Richard Harris was inspirational. In many was he diid his best in his own life to act out the fictional character; heavy drinking, womanising and in your face attitude. However, his main sporting love being from Limerick was Munster rugby and I can recall the TV cameras picking him out when Munster played Leicester at the Milllenium Stadium with 30K Munster fans supporting their team. He was also renowned for his friendship with Peter O'Toole, another Irishman and together with Richard Burton they were renowned for the exploits on the drinking front and their combined love of rugby. Burton, according to others, was a decent player and probably would have wished to play for Wales at the Cardiff Arms Park.

Clipper, both Hull FC & Hull KR have been in the doldrums for a fair few years, while Hull City have had millions of pounds poured into them helping them rise to premier league. How long this lasts one just have to wait. Other notable league towns have seen their soccer sides rise to the big league only to go back down the division. But that aside rugby league hold its own in places like Leeds, Bradford, and Wigan. Premiership soccer comes and goes. All good for their respective towns & communities. Hull City's owner has apparently recently gifted Hull KR £1 million and a previous investor/chairman of City is the new owner of Hull FC, a club he has wanted for a long time. Who could forget the 1980 Challenge Cup at Wembley between the two clubs in front of the Queen Mother? 100,000 with most from the City deserting Hull. Even city fans left the streets empty and that was more recent than 1920. The two Hull clubs have dominated Hull's sporting scene for many years past the 20's.

Gilrocky, Hartnell was a notable actor before TSL of course, but this film helped him late in his career get a role he was probably best remembered for in Dr Who. After 3 years playing the Doctor I think he just about retired then.

Great stuff to bring TSL up for discusiion. The bOok is a great read by the way. For me the film is about class. How a working glass gorilla pit worker struggles to make it out of the s--t he was born into and believes he can do it by climbing onto the lowest possible rung of professional sport. As an advertisement for the game, while the brutal and exciting action scenes on the field are realistic are, at times, thrilling, there's no getting away from the fact that TSL was not a marketing coup for the game. The fact that its themes are still relevant today make it great art but definitely not an early 60s version of 'Simply the best'. Sport and pop music are the usual routes for anyone seeking a fast-track to a higher tax bracket. I'm always reminded of the former Pakistani cricket captain Wasim Akram when I watch TSL because he was someone who consciously used sport to escape his world. I thought that Australian film that came out a few years ago - The Final Winter was pretty good but riffed on TSL's themes. Again, thanks for writing a piece on one of my favourite films...although to say Hartnell got the role of the Dalek masher is a stretch - he was a well-established TV reliable go-to actor for many years before TSL.

Matt S, the average attendance is Hull FC 12,693 and Hull KR 8,118. The derby, of course inflates the crowd figures as they got 19,254. But this is by far the biggest game in town as Hull city Football Club got close to 25,000 average when in the premier league, and 21,169 average in the Championship league. Of course in the 20's the positions were probably reversed.

Actually that film inspired an American to bring rugby league to the USA. Unfortunately as has been alluded, international expansion took a backseat to club football. I wouldn't say playing in front of huge crowds and the odd tour would lead to no purpose in life. That is the stereotypical view of the Northerner. Watching a bit of Downton Abbey recently the upper classes, in my opinion, had as much less purpose in life than the working classes, if you consider gossip, jumping into bed with your cousin, and endless boring tea parties as purposeful? Give me the hard fought glory as a coal miners son on the theatres of Northern dreams any day.

@ Jaceman - the 1978 pre-season trial at Junction Oval's Festival of Footy didn't do much damge to RL's local reputation....almost all of the crowd walked out after the VFL and soccer games, and didn't stay for the RL game...and of those remained to see it, or read of it in the Melb press, they would only have said it accorded with their already long established views of what RL was! A State of Origin brawl on tv both attracts and repels in Melbourne - polarises views. There was expansion on minds in RL in the 1950s & early 60s - west coast of USA, Canada, Italy, Sth Africa - all saw RL played at one time or another. But, then as now, the pro clubs and their interests in Eng & Aust won out.

Sean F is right - This sporting Life (featuring that rugby union nut Richard Harris) was the most depressing film I have ever seen - the people in it led such purposeless lives. Came out in 63?? when World films turned from the optimism of the 50s to the grim realties of life yuk I'm not sure expansion was on the RL minds in 63 but wouldnt have helped nor did the Manly Wests battle at princes park in the 70s? -

I'm sure Hull FC are happy with their support now days. Once they challenge for the title they may even end up having the biggest average in Super League. The Hull FC v Hull KR Derby is still the biggest game in town :-D

The people in Dr Who do a lot of research to make it historically accurate. So in 1920's Hull, RL had a large following. Nowadays it's hull city football club which is the big game in the city. They even managed to get into the premier league in 2008 before being relegated last year, so it's understandable why they've taken over since the 20's.

Rugby league has such a rich history which also extends to film & stage. I'm told in a more recent Dr Who episode, the good Dr visits Hull and clearly visible him reading the local paper discussing the big Derby game between Hull FC & Hull KR :-D

And hey let's not forget the rugby league movie/play "Up n Under! Ha ha I've always found it interesting that the protagonist from 'This Sporting Life' is invited to try rugby league after belting the local team captain in a nightclub...wonder if Jarryd Hayne managed to get the number of the bloke from the Cross the other week??

Interesting piece Matt_S. Sydney RL journo Tom Goodman wrote (in The Sun Herald I think) when TSL came out, that it was worse thing that could have happened to RL in terms of its hopes of expansion into Melbourne & wherever else the film was shown, such was the on-field brutality (and off field repair jobs!) portrayed in the film. Some of the tamer RL action is in this clip > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTF6OjHVU0o& Speaking of RL related stage plays, there's a new one in the UK "Broken Time" > http://www.threestonesmedia.com/#/11

Brilliant actors, Harris and Lithgow are stage play masters, great voices both of them. I never heard of these plays, they sound interesting. Last time i talked about the theatre (opera), i got called a twat, so i had better sneak out the back door as they say. :)