Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
IT’S GAME ON
Class conflict, snobbery – and football. Julian Fellowes on his first Netflix drama, which comes hot on the heels of Belgravia
Julian Fellowes turns his hand to the birth of football in his first drama for Netflix – but fear not, he says, there’s no shortage of class struggle and snobbery
Julian Fellowes is many things – author, actor, historian, Conservative peer, social commentator, pillar of the British period drama industry – but a football man he is not. He does know Manchester United play in red, he points out, when we try to establish how much (or little) he knows about the beautiful game. ‘I know that because when my son Peregrine was a boy we had to decorate his bedroom in the colours. He had a Man U duvet cover, lampshades, bin. He’s obsessive.’
Lord Fellowes has been to watch the Red Devils. They were playing, erm, another team. ‘A great friend of my wife’s was working at West Ham. East Ham? Which one is the football club? Anyway, we had lunch in the owner’s box, it was fascinating.
‘There’s something interesting in watching almost anything when it is done superlatively well, whether it’s show jumping or pottery. I found that with football. It sounds a little rude to West Ham or whoever, but they were like a crowd of blunderbusses against these ballerinas from Man U coming down the field in perfect order.’
Suffice to say it’s unlikely the rather fabulous Mr Fellowes will be adding ‘Match Of The Day presenter’ to that groaning CV any time soon. There is a reason for the football talk though. His new drama, hot on the heels of the sumptuous Belgravia, is called The English Game. Set in the mid-1800s, it tells of the battle to professionalise the game. Billed as ‘part Etonians, part factory workers coming together to create the world’s most popular sport’, the six-part series tells the real-life story of two footballers – Arthur Kinnaird (played by Kingsman’s Edward Holcroft) and Fergus Suter (Fantastic Beasts’ Kevin Guthrie), who were from opposing teams in every sense. Old Etonian Kinnaird (who went on to play in nine FA Cup finals) belonged to the society that claimed credit for creating the game – a society that thought making it professional would be vulgar. Suter was a Glaswegian stonemason who knew he could play at the highest level – but could he afford to?
‘The story isn’t that well known, even among football fans, and I came to be fascinated by it,’ Julian admits. ‘The grip the Etonians had on the game was really quite unfair. The working class were never going to get up to the standards of the southern teams just because they didn’t have enough time. They were working six days a week. Things had to change and Kinnaird was astute enough to realise it. He was an extraordinary man.’
Once you get past the baggy shorts, you realise this drama actually is vintage Fellowes. At its heart are themes of class conflict, snobbery and fear of social change. He nods. ‘It’s football as a device, but it’s really about what was happening in that society at the time. About bigger things too – the idea of not being confined by what is expected of you, of pushing through some barrier.’
The English Game does vividly capture that era when some of the best footballers in the country were penniless.
‘I wanted to chart that. They had nothing, then they were allowed to become professional and that went on until suddenly you have footballers earning five million a year and driving Lamborghinis.’
Which, his expression suggests, does veer on the vulgar. ‘As a teenager I was watching the World Cup with people like Bobby Charlton. Those players were very much admired. They had huge followings – but they weren’t very rich. They got to the end of their working lives and bought a butcher’s shop or a gentleman’s outfitters and that was about it. But they were heroes. I mean, up at the same level as war heroes.’ Aren’t today’s footballers as respected? He believes not. ‘I do sound like Colonel Crusty, but I don’t feel that people like that are as respected as they were.’
Perhaps this is because we know about all the scandal now? ‘There are so many different elements. We probably didn’t know about the scandal then, but also I don’t think there was as much scandal because, on the whole, people kept their belts fastened rather more than they do now. I think society in the 50s and 60s was more disciplined. Now, any discipline is an imposition. Are there any footballers who are held in the same reverence as Bobby Charlton? Maybe David Beckham, but I can’t think of many more.’
Interestingly, The English Game is the first of his dramas to be commissioned for Netflix, which might seem a surprise since Downton Abbey and Belgravia were very much products of traditional terrestrial TV. Is there more money sloshing around when you work for Netflix? ‘Actually, there’s a lot of money sloshing around all over the place,’ he says conspiratorially. ‘I’m making another show for HBO and that’s not done in a penny-pinching way, I can tell you. It’s rather wonderful really. I feel quite what they call... supported.’
He says that while in common with many in his generation he struggles with the technology involved in modern TV viewing, he recognises that it’s the future. So should others, he insists, particularly those responsible for deciding who watches what and when. ‘The ordinary terrestrial channels are being left behind and they’ve got to rethink their game a bit. As we know this is a sort of crisis period for the BBC, but it’s a crisis period for all terrestrial channelling. They still think in terms of whether or not they can get on air straight after Strictly Come Dancing. Nobody under 40 now watches a programme because of the time it’s on. Firms like Netflix are entirely constructed on that different appetite, and they understand a modern market. In the end, that’s the way it’s all going.’
And he’s going with it, although he does joke about how it’s hard to keep up. Belgravia is airing with an interactive option for viewers – press a button and they can explore some of
Continued on page 12
‘The grip the Etonians had on the game was unfair’
with young pupils, and (right) Fergus with a friend
Continued from page 11 the historical facts associated with the drama. It defeated him. ‘Everyone kept saying, “Oh, it’s so interesting to go in and out of this site.” I would smile and say, “Yes, wonderful”, but I couldn’t do it. I had to get Peregrine to do it for me. I think your brain can only take a certain amount of technical development and then it shuts down.’
Julian’s delightful company, a natural raconteur and a man who’s interested in everything and everyone. He is, and always was, impeccably connected. His full title is Baron Fellowes of West Stafford. His wife, Emma Kitchener, is the great-great-niece of the first Earl Kitchener (he of the Your Country Needs You posters of the First World War) and a former ladyin-waiting to Princess Michael. ‘As my wife is a member of the royal household I’m not allowed to talk about the royals,’ he says. ‘That gets me told off. So God bless them.’
Obviously such connections make people assume he’s a crashing snob, but if anything this football drama is about championing the working classes. ‘Well, it was very unfair what was happening,’ he says. It still is, he believes. They filmed in Yorkshire and he was appalled at the state of some of the towns. ‘I hope this government is going to be true to its word and there’s going to be massive northern investment. I went to school in Yorkshire and my grandmother’s family comes from the border of York so I feel I’m more north aware, if you can put it like that. I’ve seen what’s going on, and the difference from my own childhood is shocking. You go into these towns where once it was lace or shoes or gloves, and it’s all gone. No won er coming out of the EU, the investment was centred on the cities.’
At 70 he’s as steady as they come mentally, but a little shaky physically. He suffers from an ‘essential tremor’, a nerve disorder which leads to uncontrollable shaking. He gave Mr Carson, Downton’s butler, the same condition. Carson couldn’t pour wine. Ditto with Julian. ‘I was out the other night and startled this lady by throwing a glass of wine around myself. I told her I try not to do it too often.’
What is interesting is that at an age where most people would be considering retirement Lord Fellowes is at his most prolific. He won’t be drawn on whether there will be a sequel to the Downton film, but he’s certainly not planning to step away from the historical dramas. ‘I think I am a bit pigeon-holed, but on the other hand thank God for it, you know, because these lovely projects keep coming for me. David Hare writes a lot about left-wing anger, and he’s very good at it. Scorsese does a lot about the underworld in America, because he does it well.’
Perhaps the secret of his success is that he’s not afraid of the future either. When we finish our interview, someone comes to collect him to go and record a podcast. ‘Wonderful,’ he says, as we make our way to the lift. ‘I have no idea what a podcast is, but I’m sure I will find out.’
‘Iamabit pigeon-holed but thank God for it’