PLAY ON JIM
The curtains will never close on McLean’s legacy as new show captures the legendary United boss warts ’n all
THE light may have dimmed in a Dundee care home but the achievements will forever remain ablaze in Scottish football memory.
Phil Differ is flippant, although only momentarily, when asked for his reasons for writing a play about the life of Jim McLean.
Typically, for a writer who has always had his finger pressed firmly to the pulse of the Scottish football psyche, he doesn’t miss a beat.
He laughs out loud and says: “We all love a maddie, don’t we? We’re Scottish after all. We hold them in such respect. When they speak, we all tend to listen.”
Differ, the award-winning playwright, scriptwriter and contributor to shows such as Not The Nine O’Clock News, Spitting Image and Only An Excuse, has captured perfectly the voice of McLean in all its contradictory tones.
They pitch in volume from the expletive-laden rants outside the ref ’s room at Tannadice after games to the moments of quiet contemplation, of which there were many.
In one poignant scene in the Dundee Rep production, ironically and yet somehow fittingly entitled ‘Smile’, wee Jim reflects with sadness at his failure to ask his beloved Doris to dance more often when they were kids at the Hamilton Trocadero.
Sadly, Old Father Time is now leading with the slow waltz of inevitability as Jim, now 82, lives out his final days with dementia in a care home in his adopted city, where he built United into a powerhouse of the domestic and European game.
Differ added: “Jock Stein once said that in football they’re all destined to become yesterday’s men. They end up becoming mere mortals. They all get old and lose their powers.
“The ending of the play is sad but dementia is sad. Our heroes may fade away but the memories remain. Jim McLean’s CV and his achievements will always remain astonishing.”
Two stories. Yours truly penned wee Jim’s column in Record Sport for the best part of a decade and every Christmas, without fail, a card arrived with a cheque for £150 and the demand it be spent on a good meal with the missus.
Eamonn Bannon was told the story once at Tynecastle and joked: “You got more out of the auld b ****** than he ever gave us.”
On another occasion, on an impromptu visit to Broughty Ferry with my four-year-old, Doris and I blethered in the kitchen over a cuppa and soon became aware of silence from the front room.
We entered to find Jim on his hands and knees with my boy, both transfixed at a bag of pin badges from United’s Euro exploits that had been poured on to the white carpet.
We stood unseen in the background and watched Jim patiently explain to the lad about Barcelona, Werder Bremen and Borussia Monchengladbach before Lewis was gifted a handful of the precious souvenirs to take home.
Differ added: “I met Jim twice – the first time at a Q&A in Glasgow when he and Bill McMurdo started having a real go at each other on the stage.
“Dougie Donnelly took it to a break and behind the scenes I watched as Jim Jefferies and George Fulston held Jim back from having a physical go at Bill, who was standing back and enjoying the wind-up.
“Jim also did Off The Ball once and in the green room talked to me about the theatre. Doris later told me Jim would never have gone to see a play but he was intrigued by actors having the guts to go on stage and perform.
“His life was due an exploration. His shyness was crippling and he never felt comfortable in the spotlight and yet he created a team that was, in many respects, world class.
“I mean, a team from Dundee that was only a corrupt referee away from a European Cup Final? It’s amazing.”
The play, with the outstanding Barrie Hunter dazzling as the lead, is attracting sell-out audiences at the Rep and was written with the full backing of Doris and Jim’s sons, Gary and Colin.
Differ said: “Doris and Gary were initially wary but she laughed when I told her I was thinking about calling it ‘Smile’. She also laughed when I asked if Jim was vain about his hair.
“We talked and talked. To everyone else he was Jim McLean but to Doris and the boys he was husband and dad. I explained from the start I didn’t want to make it a play about Saint Jim and they didn’t either. They wanted it to be balanced and authentic. “Jim’s legacy has been entrusted to them and they’re delighted with how the play has been received. There have been a lot of tears shed. Even United fans are saying they see him in a different light now.” Jim’s time at Tannadice, where he served as everything from manager to chairman between 1971 and 2000, ended in ignominy when he attacked BBC reporter John Barnes.
Differ doesn’t shirk confronting the yin and the yang of a character whose temperament ranged from the volcanic to the deeply introverted but who still inspired absolute loyalty and dedication from a title-winning team who remain friends to this day.
The majority of the squad from 1983 took in the show last week and the reception they received from the audience was as rapturous as their reaction to all they had seen on stage over the previous 70 minutes.
Differ said: “The players were bowled over. Paul Hegarty said, ‘You’ve got him, you’ve got him!’ Archie Knox came to a performance and said, ‘How the **** did you do it?’
“It’s not just for United fans. We maybe expected the audience to be like a football crowd and shout things out but they’ve been very reverential until the end, then they go mental.
“We have had standing ovations every night, as much for the memory of Jim as the production itself – and I’ll take that. More than anything I’d just like to thank the McLean family for trusting us with the wonderful story of Jim.”
● Smile by Phil Differ is at the Dundee Rep until March 7.
Our heroes may fade away but the memories remain