Huddersfield writer Pete Davies sees World Cup story brought to cinema screens

May 11 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Huddersfield writer Pete Davies sees story brought to cinema screens

IT is one of the most unforgettable sporting images.

Gazza, the darling bad boy of English soccer, had just been booked in the World Cup semi-final against West Germany at Italia 90.

And as he realised his World Cup dream was over, as he would miss the final if England qualified, he burst into tears.

Sadly, the team lost out to Germany in a penalty shoot-out.

But it was a tournament that signalled a rebirth of English football – and one that has been captured by a Huddersfield man.

Pete Davies was in Italy to write a book about the tournament and every aspect of it.

Now, 20 years on, his book All Played Out – hailed by some critics as “the best book ever about football” – has been made into a film.

And when One Night in Turin premieres tonight in cinemas across the UK, Davies will feel enormous pride.

Davies works in Huddersfield as a team leader at the fresh produce section at Sainsbury’s store in Market Street.

But away from the fruit and vegetables, he is an accomplished writer with 11 books behind him, including All Played Out.

Davies, 51, was a writer first and a football fan second when he began work on the book in 1989.

It became a labour of love as he followed the much-maligned Bobby Robson, inset, and his players through the tournament and into the epic semi-final.

Now top director James Erskine has taken Davies’ words and created One Night in Turin.

Gary Oldman narrates a film constructed from unseen archive footage and specially shot imagery by Sundance award-winning cinematographer Lol Crawley.

It tells the tale of a football team and a nation’s journey from despair to hope, from the disasters of Heysel and Hillsborough to the nail-biting penalty shoot-out in Turin.

Davies said: “I had done a couple of novels by the time 1990 came around but I was intrigued by the football and by the England team.

“It had a bad Press at the time, with Heysel and Hillsborough and the Bradford City fire and the country itself was in turmoil, with a recession and the poll-tax riots.