On Screen: “The English Game”

The English Game

Astutely timed to coincide with World Cup enthusiasm, Netflix’s “The English Game” traces the origins of association football in England, which evolved into the sport known as soccer in the United States.

Prolific screenwriter Julian Fellowes (“Gosford Park,” “Downton Abbey,” “Belgravia,” “The Gilded Age”) combines fact with fiction in this six-part historical mini-series set in a Lancashire mill town in the late 19^th century when two ‘hired’ Scottish players catapulted the local Darwen working-class football club into contention for the coveted FA (Football Association) cup.

In 1879, football was dominated by aristocratic gentlemen — former players from Eton, Harrow and Charterhouse. Passionate sportsman Arthur Kinnaird (Edward Holcroft), heir to a London banking fortune, leads the Old Etonians team.

Short, wiry Fergus Suter (Kevin Guthrie), whom fans call ‘Suter the Shooter,’ and his childhood pal, Jimmy Love (James Harkness), are recruited by Darwen mill owner James Waksh (Craig Parkionson), making them the first professional football players in history — at a time when FA rules permitted only amateurs to play the game.

A former Glasgow stonemason, Suter introduces strategic tactics and tricks on the pitch, completely changing his squad’s approach to both attack and defense. Inevitably, another team, Blackburn, poaches him — offering more money just as his mother and sisters are desperate to escape from his abusive, alcoholic father.

But town rivalry ignites violence and Suter’s crisis of conscience — with Jimmy, his teammates and loyal supporters of the Darwen club — along with feisty Martha Almond (Niamh Walsh), an unwed mother who waits tables at the elite Cotton Masters’ Club.

Admittedly, the predictable class skirmishes and exploitation of downtrodden mill workers are corny and contrived, and the multi-faceted romantic aspect gets a bit melodramatic with Arthur’s lonely wife (Charlotte Hope).