This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life

1963 British film
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This Sporting Life
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This Sporting Life is a 1963 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson. Based on the 1960 novel of the same name by David Storey, which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award, it recounts the story of a rugby league footballer in Wakefield, a mining city in Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting life. Storey, a former professional rugby league footballer, also wrote the screenplay.

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This Sporting Life by David Storey
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Release date
7 February 1963 (London, West End)
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Running time
134 minutes
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Country
United Kingdom
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Language
English
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Budget
£230,000
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Frank Machin: We don't have stars in this game, Mrs Weaver, that's soccer.
Mrs. Anne Weaver: What *do* you have?
Frank Machin: People like me.
  • It was William Hartnell`s appearance in this film that brought him to the attention of Verity Lambert, producer of "Doctor Who" (1963).
  • At the time of filming, Arthur Lowe and Anne Cunningham were appearing together in Coronation Street.
  • Glenda Jackson appears briefly in the group singing round the piano at the Christmas party.
  • When Richard Harris is roughed up behind the scrum, rugby league legend Derek Turner, who was playing the character who punches him, was asked by the director to make the contact look real. So he did. He punched Harris for real and knocked him out completely, shooting for the day had to be stopped while Harris recovered.
  • Because the budget would not stretch to the thousands needed for the rugby league match scenes at Belle Vue, director Lindsay Anderson deployed hundreds of wooden dummies to stand amongst the human extras for the crowd scenes.

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