Welcome to Wrexham (2022) s01e10 Episode Script

1
BROADCASTER: Good morning,
Wrexham, and happy Sunday.
Rob and Ryan have left town.
It feels much quieter now,
doesn't it?
BROADCASTER 2: Very much so.
It's been a rather
remarkable week
with Rob and Ryan in town,
but there was a sour note.
Not only did the team
struggle on the pitch,
but the Torquay match ended
on a desperately
despondent note
due to several acts of
violence from our supporters.
BROADCASTER 1: We just
don't want to see this.
This club is getting more
and more high profile.
We've got strong family
values.
We can't have this being
ruined by mindless idiots.
DAVE: Well, there was
a couple of incidents
that have happened
at the railway station.
One gentleman,
who is actually a Wrexham fan,
stood on the platform.
Witnesses observed
a group of other Wrexham fans
approaching
the railway station.
They engaged in some verbals
with him.
They were
shouting things over to him.
They then come
over this bridge.
On this side of the platform
is where this all
was taking place.
[quiet music]
[shouting]
[dark music]
And then out of the 20,
five, six, maybe seven, were
throwing punches towards me.
BUDDY: [singing] Every day,
it's a-getting closer
Going faster
than a roller coaster
Love like yours
will surely come my way
A-hey, a-hey-hey
Every day,
it's a-getting faster
Everyone said,
"Go ahead and ask her"
Love like yours
will surely come my way
A-hey, a-hey-hey
Love like yours
will surely come my way
[rock music]
MARK: This is what you become
a football fan for
these sort of occasions.
Your club getting
the opportunity to perform
when the stakes are high.
It's nerve-racking,
but it's exciting.
[crowd chanting]
The teams have come out.
You can hear the noise.
It's a fantastic crowd.
[rock music]
[chanting]
You'll have what people call
"the happy clappers."
- Oh!
- God!
When things are going
really, really wrong,
we'll still clap.
And it's like,
just fuck off.
FAN: You have moaning
supporters like me.
The amount of times
I've turned around
to say
"will you shut your mouth"
'cause I just can't bear it.
[rhythmic clapping]
ALL: Let's go, Wrexham!
You get
incredibly passionate lads.
You're probably right.
SINGER: You want it all?
[shouting]
Then fight for it
[chanting]
And every club has hooligans.
[shouting]
[chanting]
- Fuck off!
[chanting]
[distant pop]
ROB: So obviously,
we had heard of hooliganism,
or hooligans,
over the years,
but we didn't really quite
understand what they were
or really what that meant
until now.
[shouting]
[jaunty music]
RYAN: The word "hooligan"
popped up in the 1890s
in London, two references
to the name.
One was in a serial comics
publication called "Nuggets"
that depicted an Irish family
living in London
by the name Hooligans.
The other was in
the London newspapers in 1894,
referring to a street gang,
the Hooligan Boys,
that was committing violent
crimes in South London,
including one member
committing murder in 1898.
It's believed
they named themselves
after Patrick Hoolihan,
an Irish criminal
who murdered a police officer.
ROB:
While hooliganism is global,
it has often been called
the English disease.
RYAN: Every club has
unsanctioned groups
of hooligan supporters
referred to as firms.
Firms act
as unofficial club enforcers.
They shout at,
pick fights,
and chase down
opposing club supporters.
They've been known
to use things like rocks,
bricks, concrete slabs,
iron bars, and bottles,
as well as knives,
flare guns,
and petrol bottles.
Because of heavy
gun regulation in the UK,
luckily,
there are very few firearms.
But that doesn't mean
it's not brutal
and sometimes deadly.
[The Clash's "London Calling"]
While hooliganism
has been ever-present,
it rose to popularity
in the '70s and '80s.
The British economy was
reeling as it divested itself
of its empire and felt a
crunch of global recession.
Heavy industry
and blue-collar jobs
were going overseas.
In Wrexham,
coal, steel,
and breweries went away.
Young, bored, disaffected men
turned to violence.
was what one might describe
as a lower working class
council estate.
These seem to be communities
categorized by
[rock music end chords]
Jesus Christ.
Not the sturdiest
that I've been on for this.
COWORKER:
He's all right, yeah.
Yeah, he's a good lad.
JONNY: You can be honest.
[laughter]
Are you sure?
I grew up in Brymbo
in Wrexham.
It's a little village,
about ten minutes from town,
up in the hills really.
I grew up there with
my mum, dad, and my sister.
It was nice, 'cause
it was quite quiet up there.
There was never any trouble
or anything like that.
I used to have friends
across the road
that we used to play outside.
There was a field down the road
where we used to play football.
I was a bit of a tomboy
back in my day.
But then I turned
into a teenager,
and I went the girly way,
I suppose.
My dad's in a band called
James, and he's the drummer.
They were pretty popular
in America in the '90s,
so when I was younger,
he used to take me on tour,
and festivals, to
recording studios, and stuff.
I wanted to be a tour manager,
I think,
'cause I loved being on tour.
I just wanted to do it forever,
and I knew obviously,
eventually,
Dad won't be touring anymore,
so I just didn't
want it to end.
detective constable
fast-track.
So you just got fast-tracked
to detective.
You didn't have to be
not a police officer first.
So I thought
I would give it a go.
Didn't think I'd ever
have a chance at getting it.
I just thought
I'd put my name down.
And I got the job.
I couldn't wait.
I was so excited.
[shouting]
Like, I'd watch England
on the sofa
or Wales on the sofa
and put it on
every three or four years,
but I wouldn't travel
on a Tuesday night
to do it in the freezing cold.
[chanting]
I'm just not that excited
about the club.
[laughs]
I'm dating a Wrexham supporter.
He's crazy about Wrexham,
but I just don't understand
how he's so crazy
about a football club.
[ambient music]
[shouting]
The police were there, and
they were blocking the fans
from getting to the away fans.
I was sitting my car
waiting for the police to pass
'cause we couldn't leave the
car park until they'd gone.
And next thing, I just see
Jonny running down the road,
and I just thought,
what an idiot.
But you're banned.
Why?
So you're gonna keep
buying the season ticket
on the off-chance
they're gonna go up?
Yeah.
[indistinct chatter]
FAN 1: Come on!
FAN 2: Idiot.
[shouting]
MARK: Swung in right
for the great wall.
And it's 1-all.
JONNY: Fucking hell!
[country rock music]
ROB: Hooliganism
has been responsible
for some very dark moments
in football.
One of them involved two of
the oldest firms in the world,
Glasgow Celtic
and Glasgow Rangers.
Their rivalry is based
on religious sectarianism
and interregional divide.
Their stadiums are only
seven miles from each other.
The Celtic supports are
primarily Scottish Catholics,
and the Ranger supporters
are Scottish Protestant.
[TV chatter]
This religious
and interregional divide
was the catalyst for the
1980 Scottish Cup Finals riot
that was seen
by millions on TV
and triggered the ban
of alcohol at Scottish games
moving forward.
Another historically
tragic incident
was on May 29, 1985,
when Liverpool met the Italian
football club, Juventus,
in the European Final
at Heysel Stadium in Belgium.
ANNOUNCER: At the moment,
we don't know.
We're just going on reports
that are coming in.
ROB: At about 7:00 p.m.,
before the game even started,
the barrier between
sections X and Z broke down.
Stadium and police forces
were overwhelmed.
Crumbling
insufficient infrastructure
and under-resourced policing
combined with the
worst elements of hooliganism
and produced a tragedy
that saw 39 fans killed
and 600 injured.
ANNOUNCER: It's
the most disgraceful scenes
I've seen
at a soccer game live.
ROB: After the 1985
Heysel Stadium disaster,
Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
set up a war cabinet
to combat hooliganism.
Parliament subsequently passed
the Football Spectators Act
of 1989
and the Football Disorder Act
of 2000.
Laws such as these
have helped,
but wherever you find
young men with time,
poor economic prospects,
and a love of football,
you'll find hooliganism,
which is why you find a heavy
police presence at every match
and entire sections
of empty seats
that separate opposing fans.
But even that
can't stop everything.
And after two years
of a pandemic
and economic uncertainty,
the question is,
will it make a comeback?
Would I say it's
on the rise again? Possibly.
RYAN: These days,
most incidents tend to occur
at prearranged locations
as opposed
to the matches themselves.
They are preplanned.
[shouting]
[tense music]
DAVE: I think a lot of the
issues that we tend to get,
at Wrexham,
at this level,
is what we call
spontaneous disorder.
So initially,
we had bottles and coins
coming from this area,
so here to here.
And then, when Torquay scored
their goal late in the game,
we also had some bottles
and drinks thrown
from this section, so
above them in this area here.
As soon as we have identified
all the individuals,
the club will be
issuing interim bans
and revoking
any season tickets
pending an investigation
by the police.
ROB: We were not
made aware of that
until after we had gotten back
to the States.
And obviously
that's not something
we would ever condone
or tolerate,
and we took
the necessary actions.
It was just a shame
that it happened.
[chanting]
FAN: I think
it's highly regrettable
that
a very small minority of fans
resort to the types of behavior
that are driven by
you know,
are driven by emotion,
and some acts of lawlessness,
really.
Of course, pre-COVID
and pre-takeover,
our crowds here at Wrexham
were somewhere between
3,000 and 5,000
depending on how the team
was performing on the pitch.
Now that we do have
these new high-profile owners,
the crowd has
pretty much doubled.
You know, so we're just
under 10,000 week in, week out,
which is fantastic to see,
great for the club,
but unfortunately, you know,
that element of people
who wanna cause problems
seems to have also
been attracted with it.
Let's keep that going.
Let's not spoil it.
There's no place
for violence anywhere.
[somber music]
SASKIA:
Bread, if you want it.
How long will this take?
STEPHANIE: 10 minutes.
SASKIA: I don't see what
the fascination is with it.
Why would you want to get hurt?
And why would you want to hurt
someone else over football?
I don't understand.
I don't get it at all.
Yeah.
- What were you thinking?
Yeah.
SASKIA: It affects
the relationship because
we're arguing about it,
he's lying to me.
I'm always checking up on him
when he's there
'cause I'm thinking,
what's he doing?
I don'twhich ones
I just hope
he'll start behaving himself
when his ban's lifted
so we can be
a bit more
of a normal couple.
Well, there you go, guys.
STACEY: Oh,
thank you very much.
Well, it wasn't just me.
It was Steph as well, really.
- I helped her.
- Oh, thank you.
SASKIA:
They don't want to change.
If they're only changing
for you,
then they're never
gonna properly change.
They need to want
to change themselves, I think,
or do it for themselves.
If he's like,
"Oh, I'll change.
If we had a kid,
I'd be different."
Well, I'm not taking the chance
to have a child
just on the off-chance
you might change.
Yeah, I'm looking to do
a career change myself
to go into the police.
I got offered the job
as a detective.
And it was hard work.
There were so many tests
and interviews.
And I didn't think
I'd ever get the job.
And I got the job.
[somber music]
I can't carry on like this.
I just don't want a boyfriend
that's getting in trouble
with the police,
and I just find it
embarrassing.
I genuinely don't think
he ever thinks I'll leave.
If he gets in trouble
with the police again,
then that will
that'll bethat'll be it.
[moody music]
[crowd cheering and singing]
RYAN: We'll win games.
We'll lose games.
I understand those
absolutely heartbreaking rules
of football.
But the real battle here
is not on the pitch.
It's in the town.
We pride ourselves here
on welcoming visitors,
um, and people coming here
having good
great experience
at the town center,
good experience at the ground,
you know, win or lose,
shake hands at the end
and you carry on, you know?
RYAN: And if we're unable
to improve things
for the people of Wrexham,
if we're unable to inspire
them to a better future,
that's a real loss
'cause that's a human loss.
And it could be felt
for generations.
You don't get
another chance at it
next Saturday or next Tuesday.
[moody music]
[energetic rock music]
SINGERS: Here they come,
the mighty champions
Raise your voices
to the anthem
Marching like
a mighty army
Wrexham is the name
Fearless in devotion
Fight, fight!
Rising to promotion
Fight, fight!
[crowd cheering]
[child laughing]