Derry City set for the silver screen

Local documentary film producer/director Guy King, who lives in London, is at the early stages of telling the Brandywell club’s story of the 1985 return to senior football and he hopes the documentary film should hit our screens in time for Christmas.

King, who directed BBC One NI’s ‘Border Country: When Ireland Was Divided’ programme last year, is a former Foyle College student and believes the story of Derry City’s ‘rebirth’ is a story worth telling.

“In Lock-down, it feels like people are feeling a weird mix of nostalgia but also a desire to live life differently in the future. And this documentary is the same: it’s about the men and women who wanted to bring back football glory to Derry, but the way they went about it was radical and rebellious. They’d had enough of the old ways of doing things.

“The project came about when young Derry filmmaker, Sean Mullan, told me all about the ‘Gang of Four’. I don’t need to remind people, but that was Tony O’Doherty, Terry Harkin, Eddie Mahon and Eamonn McLaughlin who turned the dream of playing in the League of Ireland into reality.

“The image of Terry Harkin - who played with George Best and scored twice for Northern Ireland in Istanbul - in 1984, managing a shoe shop up the town where he was sharing his lunchtime sandwiches with Eddie Mahon and saying, “I think we need to apply to the League of Ireland”. It’s like something out of a movie.

“So I’d describe the documentary as a feel-good movie set in Derry in the ‘80s.

“The working title is ‘Different League: The Derry City Story’.”

King, who is originally from Glenarm, recalls moving into Derry and getting totally gripped in the Brandywell fever.

“Our family moved to Derry from a village called Glenarm where the kids were mad for football but there wasn’t a team,” he explains.

“The most exciting thing for a 10-year-old arriving in Derry was that there were football teams everywhere. Moving into Hatmore Park, it even had its own tournament, the Hatmore Cup. I couldn’t believe it!

“Me and my dad and my brother started going to the Derry City games. We were just in time to see Jim McLaughlin’s all-star team win the treble.

“I mostly remember hanging onto the cage fence when it rattled and shook like crazy after a goal. And all the stick the crowd used to give a referee called Denis McArdle who never seemed to give Derry the benefit of the doubt.

“But we missed the glamorous years that came before. We didn’t see the Shamrock Rovers game in 1984, the Dennis Tueart period, the Noel King/Owen Da Gama era.

“I remember thinking at the time that we’d just missed something weird and wonderful, something that people would never forget - a sort of ‘You had to be there’ experience.”

While King hopes the film will be shown both on TV and in cinemas, he’s still at the development stage now and wants to talk to fans, players and managers past and present.

“I want to talk to everybody I can, all about what I missed. What was it like? What surreal moments do they remember? How did it affect people’s lives and how did it change the city?” he adds.

“It’s surprising how many people you talk to outside of Derry, or in the younger generation, who don’t know the story. We want people to watch this film across Ireland, the UK and further afield to get a real insight into the history of Derry by understanding how such a special moment came about and why the carnival of football exploded like it did.

“The club have been really supportive, and I’m lucky to be working with Vinny Cunningham on this because he was there with his camera from the first games in the League of Ireland. He keeps pulling dusty tapes out of his attic with exciting bits of footage.

“We’d love to speak to anyone who watched Derry matches between 1984 and 1989 (or between 1969 and 1972, before the ‘wilderness years’). Even if it was only a few games.

“We want to hear people’s memories, stories and anecdotes. And understand what it meant to people. After the Benfica game, Felix Healy said to the TV camera: “This is more than football” and that’s what this project is all about - from the fans as well as the people more closely involved.

“We also want to track down old photographs people might have, newspaper cuttings, match programmes, vintage football shirts. I’d especially love to see any old memorabilia from the Owen Da Gama Fan Club. And has anyone got a photograph of Nelson da Silva on a catwalk?

"We know people treasure these things, they don’t need to leave anyone’s house. And what would be great is to find any extra video recordings or video archive that is out there.”

You can contact Guy via email at [email protected] or by texting 0788 979 8332.

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