Line #44 Film/MikeBassettEnglandManager


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mike_bassett.jpg]]
2	A {{mockumentary}} released in 2001, based around the rather stressful job of the England national [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football]] manager. It was inspired by a real fly-on-the-wall documentary, ''An Impossible Job'', which followed England manager Graham Taylor and England's ultimately unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.
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4	England manager Phil Cope has suffered a heart attack during England's stuttering campaign to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Brazil. None of the English managers in the [[UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague Premier League]] are interested in taking the job (well, one is, but the Football Association aren't interested in ''him''). No high profile manager abroad wants the job, either.
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6	In desperation, the FA turn to Mike Bassett (Ricky Tomlinson), manager of second tier club Norwich City, and it soon becomes apparent that while Mike has all the enthusiasm in the world, he lacks the necessary managerial nous. England's qualifying campaign goes [[FromBadToWorse from bad to worse]], and they're forced to rely on a flukish combination of results to get through to the World Cup itself. Things eventually get better once they arrive in Brazil, but not before they get a whole lot worse...
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8	The film was followed by a TV series, ''Mike Bassett: Manager'', wherein Mike returns to take charge of his childhood heroes, Wirral County. Unfortunately it got stuck in development hell for four years due to money wrangles, meaning that it was released to a somewhat decent reception, but unimpressive viewing figures.
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10	A second film, ''Mike Bassett: Interim Manager'' was in development, but appears to have dropped into DevelopmentHell following the failure of a Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign.
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13	!!The ''Mike Bassett'' series contains examples of:
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15	* AlienAutopsy: [[PlayedWith Referenced]]. Mike's son, Jason Bassett, has a poster on his bedroom door designating the space an "Alien Life-Form Autopsy Room."
16	* TheAllegedCar: Every car that Lonnie Urquart sells, though the one he sells Mike is apparently particularly bad.
17	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: England's game against Mexico takes place in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Bombonera La Bombonera]] - which would be an almost criminal insult for a World Cup in Brazil, given that the stadium is in ''Argentina''.
18	* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Nobody nowadays would self-identify as a "Fenian", and a Scotsman definitely would not. Historically the name of a 19th century Irish nationalist movement, today it is used only as a derogatory term, for Irish Republicans or for Catholics in general.
19	* ArtisticLicenseSports:
20	** At the time the film was made it was known that the 2002 World Cup would be held in Japan and South Korea. Brazil had to wait until 2014 to stage a World Cup.
21	** The second World Cup group game is played on 19 June and the third one on 7 July, 18 days later. There is normally only three to five days between games at the tournament.
22	** The team fly home after losing the semifinal. In reality, they would have to stay for the third-place match.
23	* AsYouKnow: References to Mike's career between the film and the series are treated like this, particularly England's failed European Championship qualification campaign (and Tonka's role in it).
24	* AxCrazy: Gary "Whacko" Whackett, England captain, who's gotten sent off in nearly every game he's played. He's seen at the World Cup leading football hooligans against the Brazilian police.
25	-->'''Mike''': Okay, Whacko, lead 'em out!
26	-->'''Whacko''': LET'S FUCKING KILL 'EM! ''[punches a wall]''
27	* BatmanGambit: An agent pulls one on Mike, sending him a tape of a striker who is shown to score five goals in a single game. Mike quickly signs him for Wirral County, only to discover that he's actually signed the ''goalkeeper'' from the tape. An incompetent goalkeeper who can't speak English, and is knocked out by the regular goalkeeper within 30 seconds due to an argument.
28	* BigDamnHeroes:
29	** With England failing to win their final qualifying game against Slovenia, it looks bleak...and then Luxembourg beat Turkey to send England through.
30	** Wirral lose the last match of the season 2-0. But Mansfield had 6 put past them.
31	* BungledHypnotism: Bassett brings in a hypnotist to help Carlton Dawes break his long goalless streak in ''Manager''. In the next match, Dawes ends up scoring a hat-trick... [[EpicFail of own goals]]. Subverted when the hypnotist later shows up demanding to know why he hasn't been paid, and Bassett instead has him hypnotise a businessman who intends to buy the club's ground and build a furniture store on it. This time it works as intended, causing the businessman to publicly insult the local residents, who chase him out of town. Mike and Doddsy are then hypnotised into paying double to the hypnotist, indicating that it wasn't so much as a case of the hypnotist being incompetent as Dawes just being ''that'' bad.
32	* TheCameo: Lots. In ''England Manager'', Pele, Ronaldo, Natasha Kaplinsky, Sue Barker, Dickie Bird, Keith Allen, Atomic Kitten, Gabby Logan and Barry Venison. In ''Manager'', Jimmy Greaves and Jeff Stelling.
33	* CantHoldHisLiquor: Subverted in both the film and the TV series. Mike actually seems to have a pretty good level of alcohol tolerance; unfortunately this is undone by the side-effects of mixing alcohol with anti-depressants (in ''England Manager''), and then by the fact that he has to drink all of Tonka's drinks on a stag night in order to keep him sober (in ''Manager'').
34	* CaptainObvious:
35	--> '''Karine:''' First time I met Mike I was 17 and he was 32, and when you're that age, that's like 15 years older.
36	* CassandraTruth: When Tonka gets drunk, he says it's because his Thai wife was killed in a car crash after swerving to avoid a llama that had escaped from the local zoo. Mike thinks it's just another of Tonka's lame excuses, but it turns out to be true.
37	* CheatersNeverProsper: Averted in the film, where England win a crucial match with Argentina thanks to a handball by Tonka. Then again, Argentina beat England under similar circumstances in 1986, so it can be argued that this was actually a very slow case of LaserGuidedKarma.
38	* ClusterFBomb: Mike drops one that [[Series/HellsKitchen Gordon Ramsay]] would be proud of during a 4--0 thrashing of England by Mexico.
39	-->'''Mike''': HAVE YOU HEARD WHAT THE CROWD ARE FUCKING SHOUTING?! "FUCK BASSETT!" "BASSETT'S A CUNT!" "BASSETT'S A BASTARD!" "BASSETT'S A WANKER!" THEY SHOULDN'T BE FUCKING SHOUTING AT ME, THEY SHOULD BE SHOUTING AT YOU, AND DO YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING HALF-TIME, AND WE'RE FUCKING 2-0 DOWN TO THE FUCKING MEXICANS! WHAT THE FUCK'S WRONG WITH YOU?! GET YOUR FUCKING FINGERS OUT! WHERE'S YOUR BOTTLE FUCKING GONE?! ''([[TantrumThrowing hurls piece of equipment at the goalkeeper]])'' AND FUCKING PAY ATTENTION, YOU CUNT, WHEN I'M FUCKING TALKING TO YOU! IF YOU DON'T WANNA WEAR THE SHIRT, FUCKING TAKE IT OFF! THERE'S THOUSANDS OF KIDS OUT THERE WHO WOULD FUCKING DIE TO PUT THAT FUCKING SHIRT ON. GET BACK ON THE FUCKING FIELD, SHOW THOSE BASTARDS WHAT YOU CAN FUCKING DO, OR YOU CAN FUCK OFF HOME ON THE FUCKING PLANE! YOU GOT THAT?!
40	* TheDeterminator: Gary Wackett plays in one of England's qualifying matches despite having his jaw wired shut after getting it broken in a testing facility with questionable methods.
41	* DirtyOldMan: Jack Marshall, the England physio, seems to take inordinate levels of care when inspecting the players' groins. At one point, he instructs a player with a wrist injury to take his underwear off. In a deleted scene, he also gleefully talks at length about how his job involves "rubbing young men's thighs."
42	* EpicFail: Mike's entire management career. Even his one shining moment with England can be argued to be more down to Alan Massey than Mike.
43	* {{Foreshadowing}}: During ''Manager'' episode 6, Mike's first press conference includes what seems to be a joke about how unlikely it is that Wirral would stay up, Mike rattles off a list of increasingly outlandish events that would mean Wirral stay up, including Wirral drawing and Mansfield losing, York City being beaten by 10 goals and [[ScunthorpeProblem Scunthorpe]] having their match abandoned. In between these is if Wirral and Mansfield both lose, Wirral will stay up if Mansfield have lost by three more goals than Wirral. The final match has Wirral lose 2-0, but Mansfield lose by 6.
44	* GenreShift: ''England Manager'' was a mockumentary, while ''Manager'' followed the "Modern Britcom" format popularised by shows like ''{{Series/Extras}}''.
45	* GilliganCut:
46	** Mike laughs off his wife's suggestion that he sign some players on loan for Wirral. In the next scene, he tells Dodds that he wants to bring in some loan players.
47	** There's another when Mike vows he will never sign Tonka again. Next, he's at a press conference announcing that he has signed Tonka.
48	* HairTriggerTemper: Wacko, who rarely gets through a game without being sent off and even threatens the documentary presenter.
49	* HeroicBSOD: Mike suffers a major one in the last episode of ''Manager'', after it turns out that his father took a bribe to deliberately play poorly in Wirral County's one and only FA Cup final.
50	* InSeriesNickname: Most of the England players have a nickname, usually just a shortened version of their surname. Gary Wackett is "Wacko", Kevin Tonkinson is "Tonka" and Rufus Smalls is "Smallsy". TruthInTelevision as simplistic nicknames are common in English football.
51	* IronicEcho: Mike tells Doddsy he won't sign Tonka again because their relationship is like the running gag in the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' cartoons, where every week Lucy would convince Charlie to kick a football, then move the ball out of the way just as he was about to kick it, and Charlie would fall over. After Tonka joins Wirrall, he tells Mike to show the team his penalty-taking skills. Mike starts his run up, but just before he kicks the ball, Tonka whips it away with a piece of string and Mike lands in a heap.
52	* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: During an argument, Mike accuses Lonnie Urquart of being a useless, stupid, racist fool, who knowingly sells crappy cars. Guess which one of those insults offends Lonnie into punching Mike and quitting the England setup?
53	* NextSundayAD: ''England Manager'' starts out at roughly the same time the film was released (in early-mid 2001) and ends a year later in the summer of 2002. More noticeable with ''Manager'', which was first broadcast in late 2005, but is set in the course of the 2007--2008 football season.
54	* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
55	** In the second-last episode of the TV series, Mike goes out on a stag night with Tonka, fearful that Tonka will get himself arrested or injured just before an important match. Mike gets so drunk that he ends up breaking Tonka's jaw in a punch-up, ruling him out for the entire ''season''.
56	** The night before a crucial game against Liechtenstein, Tonka went out on a wild night of drinking and took the entire England defence with him. England failed to win by the match and Mike got the sack.
57	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
58	** Mike Bassett supposedly has elements of all the worst aspects of English managers, though Graham Taylor and Kevin Keegan are apparently the main influences.
59	** Kevin "Tonka" Tonkinson is a gifted but mercurial playmaker from the [[UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland North East]], like Paul "Gazza" Gascoigne. He subsequently became a much more direct Expy in ''Manager''.
60	** Gary Wackett is a very aggressive centre-half with a terrible disciplinary record, a nod to various British "hard man" footballers, such as Vinnie Jones, Stuart Pearce and Billy Bremner. His name is possibly a play on the name of another English centre-half, Gary Mabbutt.
61	** Harpsey is a playboy who is perennially talking on his mobile phone, has a popstar wife and is described as the best crosser in the world, like UsefulNotes/DavidBeckham.
62	** Dave Dodds and Lonnie Urquart are parodies of Graham Taylor's two assistants, Phil Neal and Lawrie [=McMenemy=].
63	** The unnamed England goalie is physically very similar to David Seaman, right down to the ponytail.
64	** Carlton Dawes is a reference to Carlton Palmer, both in his name and his awkward personality.
65	* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
66	--> '''Mike:''' England will play Four. Four. Fucking. Two.
67	* PutOnABus: Mike's son is reduced to only appearing very briefly in a single episode of the TV series. Justified, since he was in high school in ''England Manager'', and had moved onto university during the six year gap until ''Manager''.
68	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Atomic Kitten member Natasha Hamilton is mentioned as having been too ill to take part in the England team's official World Cup anthem -- in real-life, she had just had her appendix removed prior to filming, and was in no condition to take part.
69	** Another incident affected the ending of the film. Normally Ricky Tomlinson has a full beard, but shaved it down to just a moustache for this film. The producers decided they wanted to reshoot the ending, but were faced with a problem since Tomlinson had regrown his beard. As a result, they put in a throwaway line alluding to Bassett having agreed with Doddsy not to shave until England got knocked out of the World Cup.
70	* ReallyGetsAround: Karine seems to have dated half of Leeds' 1970s side, including Peter Lorimer, Norman Hunter, David Harvey and Trevor Cherry.
71	* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: After the disastrous first group match at the World Cup, Mike remonstrates with the England fans screaming abuse at the team, demanding to know if they actually have anything useful to say rather than just insults. He's thus caught off guard when said fans retort with several competent suggestions for player positions and pitch strategies.
72	* RoleCalled
73	* SequelHook: Mike's "four more years" cry at the end of the film. Unfortunately, the next time we see him it turns out that he rather overestimated his future as England Manager.
74	** The TV series ends with Mike and Karine walking away together, leaving Doddsy as the new manager of Wirral County, until Mike mentions that he doesn't just want to retire in Spain, and wants to become part-time coach of a local junior team. Karine says that if he wants to do that, they might as well just stay with Wirral. The series ends on that note, and we never find out what happened next.
75	* ShoutOut:
76	** In the FA meeting at the start of the film, they mention a manager who is both English and successful, and actually wants the job. However, other members of the board describe him as mouthy and a "big head", and they quickly decide against hiring him. This is a reference to Brian "Ol' Big Head" Clough, who was passed over for the England manager's job in 1974, 1977 and 1982 because the FA deemed him too controversial and opinionated, despite his successes and being a popular choice among the public.
77	** They also discuss a highly successful Scottish manager, a reference to Alex Ferguson.
78	** Mike's meltdown during ''Manager'', when he launches a kung-fu kick at someone in the crowd and then makes a rambling nonsensical speech at a press conference, is a nod to Eric Cantona's erratic behaviour as a Manchester United player in the mid-1990s.
79	* ShownTheirWork: Say what you want about the film (and series), you can't accuse the writers of not knowing their football. [[ArtisticLicenseGeography Their geography, on the other hand...]]
80	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Richard Johnson in the TV series has almost exactly the same personality as Sir Geoffrey Lightfoot in the film. His role's a bit different though, as Sir Geoffrey was just uninterested in giving Mike any help or advice, while Richard was outright villainous and wanted to destroy the club to sell its stadium.
81	* TemptingFate: Mike proudly boasts that he's a traditional manager, and that he writes his squad list down on the back of packets of "Benson & Hedges" cigarettes. Come the next match, he finds out that he's got the 46 year-old Ron Benson and the 20-stone Tony Hedges as part of his squad.
82	* UnsettlingGenderReveal: Tonka gets one when he brings what [[DisguisedInDrag he thinks is a woman]] back to his hotel room.
83	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The film's setup is very similar to the situation the England national team found themselves in after Kevin Keegan stepped down in 2000. In fact, it was ''worse'' in real-life, because at the time there wasn't a single English manager in the Premier League who had won anything meaningful.
84	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Mike's dad took a bribe to miss a penalty in Wirrall's only cup final in order to pay for an operation for Mike.
85	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In-universe. One of the England defenders who went out on a wild bender with Tonka hasn't been seen since.
86	* YesMan: Doddsy takes this to ridiculous extremes in the film (though so did Phil Neal, his real-life counterpart). In the TV series he's a lot more self-assertive, though still pretty subservient to Mike.

Context Film / MikeBassettEnglandManager