Local Heroes [DVD]

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Local Heroes featuring Gary Webster and Viv Anderson is streaming with subscription on Prime Video, available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, and 1 other in the UK. Their triumphs were not just on the football field but also off it, as they overcame hardship and discrimination to reach the pinnacle of the game. Cameraman unable to cope with contrast so whites bleached out, shadows blocky-blacks and unde-exposed: why? Eventually they succeeded in graduating from playing local junior football to winning the European Cup twice with Nottingham Forest in 1979 and 1980.

It is not a Brian Clough tribute film, but a genuine insight into local lads who became national legends and who achieved what will never ever be done again in football -Leceisters City's incredible story is a warm up act compared to this bit of history.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Plot: The story of how three young working-class lads from Nottingham went on to become unlikely heroes and reach the pinnacle of professional football when unfashionable Nottingham Forest, under the mercurial Brian Clough, won the European Cup not just once, but twice, in 1979 and 1980. Nottingham Forest were promoted to the English First Division in the 1976-77 season, and remarkably went on to win the Championship and the League Cup the following year.Anderson, Birtles and Woodcock all have their stories to tell and I’m sure many of us have heard some of the before. However, there are some intriguing bits in this documentary about their own personal lives that I don’t believe have been talked about too much, if at all.

I was reminded of my Father telling me about players from this era, muddy pitches, players that (like Garry) been carpet fitters or labourers or car salesman before getting their big break. Despite the odds being against them, they played a vital role in Forest’s European Cup triumphs in 1979 and 1980 under legendary manager Brian Clough. A new feature-length documentary about Nottingham Forest football players Viv Anderson, Garry Birtles and Tony Woodcock is set for release in June. Illness, tragedy, and a shocking family discovery have touched the lives of Anderson, Birtles and Woodcock in recent times.

So when I got the chance, some 30 years later, to watch ‘Local Heroes’ and also record a podcast with Forest legend Viv Anderson, I was thrilled. Only a decade or so before I got into Football, Forest had climbed club football’s highest mountain, and conquered Europe, twice! Reelgood is the most extensive streaming guide in the US and UK, with every TV show and movie available online.

What comes across in the documentary is that all three of these guys have each others backs in times of great need. To mark 30 years since he left the City Ground, the Nottingham Post have produced a special edition celebrating his trophy-laden time with Forest. Local Heroes" is set against the cultural, economic, and social backdrop of Britain in the 1970's and is a deeply personal film in which the three recount their climb to the top of the professional game during a period of austerity and economic turmoil. There is a great deal of emotion, honesty and open hearted confession about the twisting fortunes of their lives both before and after football. The film interviews the players both in their homes, in studio and on the streets of Nottingham where they grew up, and is a poignant look at what life was like growing up in 60s Great Britain.

Also, what bright spark had the idea to make a documentary about three lads from Nottingham but have it voiced by some cockney geezer? They weren’t born as toys for Arab states or Russian oligarchs, they were just clubs for men, boys and women to enjoy a game of football as a group. Sky has relinquished the rights to the Academy Awards, leaving the event currently without a UK broadcaster as things stand. If you are familiar with this period in English football, you’ll know that the lads played under perhaps the most charismatic football manager of them all, Brian Clough.