United (BBC-2 2011, David Tennant, Dougray Scott)

Period drama United tells the amazing story of Manchester United Football Club and the events of the late 1950’s that threatened to bring the club to its knees. In 1958 the United team known as the “Busby Babes” (partly in honour of Manager Matt Busby and partly due to their young average age) were riding high having become the youngest ever team to win the Football League and making headway in Europe. On 6 February 1958 though the team were heading back from a match against Belgrade in Yugoslavia when their plane, British European Airways Flight 609, stopped in Munich, Germany to refeul. Problems with one of the engines meant several take off attempts had to be made and on the third, when snow had begun to fall on this cold winters night, disaster struck when the plane careered off the end of the runway and into a nearby house.

There were 44 passengers on the plane, made of players, journalists, some supporters and embassy staff. 23 of them died. Including 8 of the Manchester United first team. Bobby Charlton who would go on to have a major international career was one of the survivors. Goalkeeper Harry Gregg put his own life on the life to pull as many people from the wreckage as he could.

Despite this terrible tragedy the team aided by the people of Manchester itself were able to rebuild and go on to even greater success.

The eight Manchester United players who died were Duncan Edwards, Billy Whelan, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, Tommy Taylor, David Pegg and Geoff Bent.

production details
UK | BBC-2 – World Productions – Lip Sync Productions

RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes | NUMBER OF EPISODES: 1 | AIRDATE: Sunday 24 April 2011 @ 9.00pm

WRITER: Chris Chibnall | PRODUCER: Julia Stannard | DIRECTOR: James Strong

cast
DOUGRAY SCOTT as Matt Busby
DAVID TENNANT as Jimmy Murphy
SAM CLAFLIN as Duncan Edwards
JACK O’CONNELL as Bobby Charlton