We Are the Champions (2020) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Khachaturian's "Adagio of
Spartacus and Phrygia" playing.
Traditions are a form of magic.
Because traditions
are a way of talking to the past.
Of speaking to our ancestors
in a language that they created.
When you participate in a tradition,
you are casting a spell
that lets you talk
directly to a bygone era.
Nowhere is? This enchanted
connection stronger
than in the farmlands of England.
And in this bastion of agriculture,
there is no tradition more powerful
than cheese
rolling.
It's a heavy cheese
coming at 80 miles an hour.
There's a chance it could knock the fence.
You are all stood there at your own risk.
All medical staff
need to go behind that fence.
What I am saying to
all adults with children,
if the cheese does come over here,
protect those kids.
For centuries,
deep in the English countryside,
the good people of Brockworth have gathered
to watch an ancient ceremony.
A race down a hill,
chasing a wheel
of Double Gloucester cheese.
The race is over 100 meters long.
The hill is steeper than 45 degrees.
This is no ordinary race.
It is the most dangerous
foot race in the world.
And this is no ordinary hill.
This
is Cooper's Hill.
One to be ready,
two to be steady,
three for cheese, four to go!
Every year,
the cheese roll attracts
a certain type of athlete.
We get called crazy.
We get called unique.
Which is great, fantastic.
I think the villagers love it.
And it's traditional. It's very old.
And not many things? In this world
is kept by communities? That is very old.
The competitors are not
trying to catch the cheese,
which, since it thunders down the
hill at over 80 miles per hour
is probably smart.
Instead, the winner is the first person
over the line at the bottom of the hill.
They are crowned the
"Champion Cheese-Chaser"
and given the glory
of holding the eight-pound cheese aloft
in the signature winner's pose.
It's so wacky, so unique.
People just want to have a go.
They just want to say they've done it.
Why do you take part?
'Cause I'm mad. That's why.
But the race is not without controversy.
A constant parade of injuries has
transformed this ancient tradition
into a completely unsanctioned event.
People say it's unofficial. It's not.
It's official.
Because it definitely goes on
every year exactly how it did ten,
fifteen years ago.
Unfortunately, with this event,
there is no organizer that's forthcoming,
as such, it is very difficult to put
those safety precautions in place.
You can cancel it officially,
but it will always go on like this.
As a vegan, I wouldn't put my life at risk
to chase a cheese.
I'm not saying everybody's positive for it.
However, it doesn't matter.
They won't make it stop.
It's not because we're
rebels. We were called rebels.
But isn't that nice to be a bit
of a rebel, but a nice rebel?
I'll take "rebel."
Roll on, you beautiful rebels.
And give it your all for the cheese.
For the cheese!
The common cheese-chaser takes many forms.
But the champion cheese-chaser,
like the Double Gloucester she pursues,
is local
complex
and not fully mature.
I'm Florence Early, and I'm a
three-times cheese-rolling champ.
When you have a landscape
like this, it's like a playground.
We save it all for the
kids, and it's such a shame.
We unlearn how to have fun.
The hill is just another
Another landscape to tackle.
And I I'm into that.
And when you see that hill I mean,
if you're the type of person who likes
that kinda thing, you can't
not want to run down it.
Wrapping the cheese is
considered a great honor
There we go. Yeah.
bestowed upon the elders of Brockworth,
before they watch the village youth
plummet to almost certain agony.
- Hold this side.
- This is Flo.
- I'll roll it.
- Flo won the race last year.
- Did you?
- Yeah!
- She's gonna do it again this year.
- God bless you. Good luck.
Thank you very much.? I think I'll need it.
I'm a little bit competitive.
Quite like a race. Just a little bit.
If someone starts sprinting,
I'm going to try and join in.
That looks? Like a proper
cheese-rolling cheese.
And you have to hold it above your head.
Well, I never saw anything
that any of the boys could do
as being something that I couldn't do, too.
So, I grew up believing
I couldn't get hurt.
Everyone who came to school with a cast on,
I thought that was the
coolest thing that anyone had.
And I really wanted one, so I
used to always go and jump higher,
stumble down things faster.
Whatever anyone else did,
I wanted to go a bit further.
In my mind, I thought,
if I broke something,
then I finally get my cast.
It never happened.
In her quest for a cast,
Florence Early has run
Cooper's Hill on three occasions
stretching over a decade.
She has never lost.
Oh, my God!
I first ran it when I was 17 in 2008.
My brother, he came second, and I had
I had that? To beat.
And the second time, I had been at a party.
We hadn't slept yet.
We'd been up all night.
All the women were all lined up, preparing.
I just jumped over at
the very last seconds.
That was not thought through
at all, but it was it worked out.
I love it. I really love it. It's fun.
You're not afraid?
No, not really.
I'm too short to be afraid.
And too young.
Last year, I was in the
middle of a year of sobriety,
but it turned out, being
sober did not help me.
The feeling would be like if
somebody took you from the waist
and dump tackled you down.
And then did it again.
And then again before
you've caught your breath.
And it's that feeling.
Your whole body's off the
ground and you're coming down.
That's a normal shoulder. It's smooth.
And this this is the
the bone that's yeah.
I thought my shoulder was just dislocated,
and I thought they'd shove it back in.
It turned out it wasn't my shoulder,
it was my collarbone.
The reality of that is that they
It can't be fixed. And it's still
It's still dislocated. And it
will be for the rest of my life.
I've definitely developed an awareness
of the fact that I am destructible
and I can get hurt.
And, I don't want that anymore.
I've gotta be more careful.
I'm hoping Flo is slightly more flexible
when she goes down there this year.
I don't really want her to have to
go through what she went through last year.
Because she did tumble.
And very quick.
However, when I saw
When I seen her runnin' down it,
she made me proud to be a woman.
No woman has ever won
the race more than three times.
If Flo wins this year,
she will become the most successful
female cheese-chaser in history.
But if she wants to
make it down in one piece,
she's going to have to
call on a higher power.
Somewhere out there,
a shadowy figure looms
over the hill that made him.
More myth than man.
More man than manchego.
This champion of champions is the
only one who can answer that call.
Usain Bolt is known? For being
the fastest human? To run the 100 meters.
Not quite.
Chris Anderson ran
I think it's slightly over 100 meters.
And I think it's 8.2, his record is.
I think you'll find that's
faster than Bolt's 100 meters.
Christopher Anderson is a former soldier
and a Brockworth legend.
He holds the men's world record
and is the undisputed
king of Cooper's Hill.
He's a legend. And he's a machine.
The way he falls and then
pops back up. It's amazing.
Chris is exactly what I need.
I will take any any
advice he has for me.
There she is.
If I was you, I'd be starting
here. Straight for the gate.
Right. Yeah.
These channels, where the
rain's going, you wanna avoid it.
- Yeah. Use these steps, aren't they?
- Just use these.
So
You'll probably fall? Around here.
- Yeah.
- Because See?
- There you go.
- There. Right on cue.
If you win that race, on the
day, you're the king of the hill.
The first time, Christopher
had come second
and ever since, he's won it.
He's got his own technique,
and he just knows every line on the hill.
When you're coming down, if you do fall
kinda like When you fall, just
you roll into it.
Then, once you've rolled,
once you go over your butt
- Yeah. Spring.
- spring onto your feet.
There is only one women's race each year,
but there are three men's races,
because, as all Brockites know,
men are three times stupider than women.
I don't want to do it.
Just pick a spot.
Each year, Chris runs every race,
winning a world record of 22 cheeses
which is a ridiculous number of cheeses.
The women's world record?
Three.
Christopher wins it
three times in the year.
But with ladies, you get one race a year.
For a lady to win more than three races,
it would be astronomical.
Flo Early's got three at the moment,
and she's entering again this year.
And if she gets the fourth win,
she'll have the title as king of the hill
for ladies, queen of the hill.
- Yeah. That's 'cause you
- That one The second one hurt.
It feels like the achievement
will be not hurting myself.
If I can get down without
breaking something,
then I'll be happy.
- Maybe.
- I might need a break for my shoulder.
- Don't wanna hurt yourself before.
- Things are hurting.
But Chris won't be running this year.
The universe, and his wife,
have other plans for him.
For Christopher to have
won the world record last year,
it was like,
"I've done what I wanted."
And then his wife said,
"Well, we've booked a holiday
for next year, because, as a
family, we've never been away."
They booked it up, Chris paid the deposit,
and then realized it was on
the weekend of the cheese roll.
I was tricked.
- Tricked
- Tricked into it.
We got offered a holiday.
I didn't know the dates.
I reckon, hundred percent, that Sophie knew
right from the word
"go" what she was doing.
I think he's gutted. He'd
rather be here running.
With Chris not competing,
the weight of the Anderson family tradition
has fallen on different shoulders.
They were making a big
deal about Chris not doing it,
and I was there, like,
"Chris isn't doing it, but I'm
still here to represent that name."
Kacie Anderson is
17 and is Chris's niece.
And while this is her first
year chasing the cheese,
Kacie is no stranger to Cooper's Hill.
There's three uphill races.
I've run it four times and won three.
I think she's got the record for
the amount of uphill races won.
So, for her to go on to
the downhill race now,
I've got nothing but admiration for her.
When you get to that bit
- Which bit?
- At the path.
- Yeah.
- Yes?
What do you want me doing?
Am I coming off of it, or?
Stay to the This side of the path.
Looking down at the hill
when I was running it, I was like,
"I could never run down this, at all."
Watching the footage back
from last year, I was watching Flo,
and she was literally
just flying and bouncing.
And then I looked around, and
everyone else was bum-shuffling.
I assure you, that's not gonna be me.
Flo was 17 when she first won.
It's almost an inspiration and,
like, a boost to do something.
I'd go out there for the
fun and for the enjoyment,
but I'd also go out there to
try my best and see if I can win.
And, as silly as that sounds,
if Chris can do it, I
don't see why I can't.
Where does this fine tradition come from?
The origins of the cheese roll are
known? Only through oral history.
A story passed lovingly? From generation
to generation.
My name's Jem Wakeman.
I'm master of ceremonies of
the Gloucestershire cheese roll.
One of those things, you
can't find a great deal about it.
I heard that there was evidence of
something talking about it in 1826.
Some say 1700s, some say 16.
Two to 300 years old.
Centuries.
Thousands of years. Thousands of years.
There's all sorts of stories.
So, from what I've read,
it was an old pagan ritual,
and they used to chuck
a cheese down the hill
to bring good luck to the harvest.
There is word that it's
in the Doomsday Book,
relating to a cheese and a hill.
However, we've never seen that.
The tradition of it, I'm
not one hundred percent.
It's something to do with
coopers, were barrel-makers.
They'd roll barrels down the hill,
and the barrel that
stayed together the longest,
he was the best barrel-maker.
It was called "Cooper's
Hill." Coopers make barrels,
so it's gotta come from that.
I don't know why How it
ever got changed to a cheese.
I I don't know. I don't know.
Make up the story you want.
It's disappeared into oblivion,
but it's something which has happened.
The people? Of Brockworth
are not historians.
True Brockites live in the moment.
And they will risk death
to keep their tradition alive.
You know I won't go and watch you.
I can't stand on the side.
You could at the bottom.
They have an area for picnics
where families and babies come.
And how do you feel
about her cheese-rolling?
Glad I haven't known that she was going
to do any of the ones she's done.
We can't stop her. But we
couldn't when she was 16 either.
Then, we didn't know she was
going to try on that occasion.
You just came home with a
cheese and your knickers full of mud.
Unfortunately, I do know about this
one and I feel uncomfortable about it.
In what way?
- Well, I'm worried about her.
- Why?
Well, because it's
- It's so dangerous.
- Yeah.
Last year, you broke your
shoulder. I think, you've been lucky.
I need to let go of the world I remember.
Because I can remember every single
You know, every single time I got winded.
Any sort of trauma,
when you repeat that,
when you go back there,
it kind of comes up.
This year, going back to
that hill got my heart racing,
and I'm definitely, sort of
getting the muscle memory.
"Actually, this hill scares me."
Well, I just need to
face it. Like it's the first time again.
It's the top bit I'm scared
for. I haven't practiced it.
- Makes me sick looking up it.
- I know.
People don't realize how
stupid it is until you get there.
We haven't had a lot of rain,
so the ground is solid. Therefore,
that cheese is gonna It will
probably hit its top speed today.
I could never have the
balls to do what you're doing.
Fair play to you.
I'm surprised I do. Not gonna lie.
- It's gonna be a fast race?
- A fast one.
Oh. Jesus Christ.
Japanese!
- I'm so scared!
- Oh, you're gonna be fine!
We're a rugby team. We, um
- My goodness.
- It's just catching people
as they run down so
they don't hit the fence.
- And then
- Fast or? It goes fast?
Oh, they're very fast.
But not very fast after we get to them.
- I'm so fucking
- Assuming I'll break my sternum.
I'm not cold, just scared!
- You're nervous!
- Yes!
- I don't even like cheese.
- You don't.
I don't!
What time is it? How long? Have you?
Five minutes to first race.
- Should we find a spot?
- Let's go.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we are moments away
from the first men's race!
Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!
Cheese! Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!
Spectators wonder what they'll see.
Are they gonna see a limb
this way? A hand like that?
Are they gonna? It's scary.
Because it's dangerous. Every sport.
You can get smacked in the
head by a cricket ball, can't you?
If you've never jumped out of a
plane with a parachute before,
it'd be like that.
But you haven't got a
parachute. You've got a steep hill.
And we get the broken legs
mainly ankles.
Collarbones are high
up on the breakage list.
Concussion. That's that's a good one.
The worst injury I've actually
ever seen in the nine years is an
Foot the other way around.
No one's ever broke a
back, neck or nothing.
It ain't got that bad.
There's always a first time.
You all right?
- I feel okay.
- That's lovely.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the ladies' race is about
to begin. The ladies' race.
Yeah! Come on!
I'm so scared.
Get yourselves lined up.
Hey! Get yourselves lined up.
They're moving in first, and then cameras.
- Cameras can go.
- Best of luck.
Best of luck to you.
Best of luck to you with this thing.
Are you ready?!
Yeah!
Brace yourselves.
Good luck, ladies.? Good luck.
One to be ready.
Two to be steady.
Three for the cheese!
Four to go!
So much of life is about
leaps into the unknown.
Tradition is a road map from
those who have leapt before.
But sometimes the road
you need isn't on any map.
Sometimes, you have to carve your own path.
I fucking love you, Flo. Are you all right?
- Did I win?
- Yes!
Yay!
I'm so proud of you. What can I say?
- That was the last time.
- Scared?
- Never again.
- Look.
I fucking love that girl.
I would like to introduce you
to our ladies champion, Flo.
Good one, Flo.
Are you ecstatic?
For some people,
tradition is a path to glory.
For others, it's peer
pressure from dead people.
All I can remember
I was just talking to myself.
I was like, "Oh, my God. I'm gonna die."
As soon as they said go
- Go on, Kacie!
- I just ran.
Obviously, having Chris telling me
what to do, it did help at the beginning.
Come on, Flo! Come on!
However, towards the middle,
there was no stopping that.
Keeping going, Kacie!
Go on, Kace!
Everything flashed before my eyes.
And I was just rolling.
I can't really remember much after rolling.
That was about it.
I would definitely, hundred
percent, do it again.
Flo has the title, but I'm gonna try
and get it. And try and top it off.
That's my aim.
Yay! It's over!
- I was so close to you!
- I saw you! I was like, "Oh, shit!"
I was just rolling. I couldn't stop.
I know. I've never had so many
people within my peripheral.
How's your ankle?
Don't know. They gave me an ice pack.
- It's not broken?
- They set me up.
I assume it's not broken.
Flo's foot was, indeed, broken.
And she finally got the cast she wanted.
- Are you gonna do it again?
- Not doing it again.
No, I'm done. I have
every I have every faith
that you're gonna be taking the next
I hope so
You've got the championship.
Even if it gets broke,
you'll go down in history.
An honor to participate in
something that's a tradition.
When I'm older and I can't run it anymore,
I'll go there and watch,
and I'll be watching these
teenage girls run down the hill.
You're just, like, "That was
me when I was younger."
I don't like cheese.
It's all for you.
It smells so bad.
This has been a really fun experience.
It wouldn't have
happened if I had said "no."
Disgusting.
Absolutely vile.
Now I think I should just
say "yes" to everything
and see what happens next.
At the heart of every tradition,
there is a lesson.
Something that our
ancestors wanted us to know.
Most seek to guide us away
from the dangers of the world,
for the world is a scary
and unpredictable place.
But some serve a different purpose.
A deeper purpose.
Those traditions remind us
that while we may be mortal
we cannot live in fear.
So, let us charge headlong
down all the insane hills,
knowing in our hearts that
one of them will be our undoing.
But not this one.
And not today.
For, right now, we are alive.
And we are the champions.