FROM A JACK TO A KING (FINDING JACK CHARLTON)

Few football managers have had the impact on a nation the way Jack Charlton did.

The Republic of Ireland was hungry for sporting success and while it was always going to be a stretch for the team to lift trophies, the fact that they could compete against the best internationally was a source of inspiration and national pride.

Charlton's 10 year reign as Republic of Ireland manager was, of course, more than about sport.

It was hugely symbolic for a country that for decades had shipped a lot of its brightest and best people overseas, as Gabriel Clarke and Pete Thomas' superb documentary feature 'Finding Jack Charlton' demonstrates.

Born and raised in the coal mining town of Ashington, Northumberland, football was in Jack Charlton's blood.

Jack and his younger brother Bobby's uncles Jack, George, Jim and Stan Millburn all lined out for clubs - counting Leeds United, Bradford City, Chesterfield, Leicester City and Rochdale among them.

His mum's cousin, also called Jackie Milburn, was a Newcastle United and England legend.

Football provided an escape out of the harsh reality of a life in the coal pit.

Initially Jack was overshadowed by his younger brother Bobby who was snapped up by Manchester United, managing to survive the terrible 1958 Munich Air Disaster which claimed the lives of 23 people including eight players.

Jack turned down a chance to play for Leeds to work with his dad in the pit and almost joined the police before eventually accepting a trial with a club.

But whereas Bobby excelled as a stylish forward, Jack was a tough grafter in central defence who was very effective at stopping strikers.

It earned Jack a place on the England squad alongside his younger brother and a 1966 World Cup medal in the 4-2 victory over West Germany at Wembley Stadium.

Drawing from a variety of sources but particularly from Sue Lawley's compelling 1996 'Desert Island Discs' interview with Jack on BBC Radio Four, Clarke and Thomas' film examines the fraught relationship between the two brothers.

But it also frankly depicts the ravages of football, with poignant scenes of Jack struggling in his later years with dementia in his family home.

Like a lot of footballers of his generation, years of heading the ball out of the box or into the opposition net has made them more susceptible to the disease.

And images of Jack, whose huge personality and quick wit made him a natural for the television era, unable to remember why people in Ireland revere him and struggling on his feet hits home hard.

But from behind the piercing stare that those who have had relatives who suffer from the condition will know only too well, comes flashes of the warmth and humour that made Jack so popular with broadcasters and supporters of the teams he played in or managed. 

Far from being a maudlin documentary, though, 'Finding Jack Charlton' is an enjoyable yet honest celebration of a remarkable life.

A World Cup winner with England, as well as a First Division, FA Cup, League Cup, Charities Shield and Fairs Cup winner with Don Revie's Leeds, he managed a Middlesbrough team that included Graeme Souness and won the Second Division.

He took Sheffield Wednesday out of the Third Division and managed his beloved Newcastle United, while his brother Bobby struggled to scale the heights of his playing career as the manager of Preston North End.

But what's really striking about Clarke and Thomas' feature is Charlton's style of management.

Drawing from an exhibit of scraps of paper upon which Jack wrote thoughts about his players, the playing style of his teams, his relationship with Bobby and the image he wished to project, the film shows how he moulded an international squad whose pressing style of football was way ahead of its time and how he built a fanbase that rallied right behind them.

For eight of the 10 years he was in charge of the Republic of Ireland, most Irish people were part of Jackie's Army.

But it's easy to forget he wasn't the favourite for the job when he was initially approached by the Football Association of Ireland's president Des Casey.

Liverpool legend Bob Paisley was, with Johnny Giles and Liam Tuohy also in contention.

Brian Clough, Billy McNeill and Terry Neill were also considered early on in the process.

But somehow after the FAI narrowed their search down to Charlton, Giles, Tuohy and Paisley, he emerged as the manager.

Clarke and Thomas remind us of the obstacles he faced as an Englishman managing an Irish team, with Manchester United and Aston Villa legend Paul McGrath candidly talking about his reservations given the history of Britain's involvement in Ireland. 

An image of a small section of Irish supporters with a banner saying 'Go Home Union Jack' is also unearthed from the archives.

But interviews with team members McGrath, Niall Quinn, Andy Townsend, goalkeeper Packie Bonner, kit man Charlie O'Leary and Des Casey show how Charlton's strength of personality and commitment to the cause drove the Republic of Ireland to its first major tournament - the 1988 European Championships in Germany.

Interviews with U2's drummer Larry Mullen, the Booker Prize winning novelist Roddy Doyle, the former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the comedian Brendan O'Connor ram home how a 1-0 victory over England in the opening game of the campaign in Gelsenkirchen captured the mood of a nation.

As Charlton's team made its mark on the world stage, they unleashed a new found confidence in Ireland that coincided with an economic boom, a loosening of the oppressive conservative grip of the Catholic Church and a growing cultural confidence.

As the Charlton bandwagon rolled into the 1990 World Cup in Italy, through nervy 1-1 draws with England and the European champions, Holland, a dramatic penalty shootout victory over Romania and a dream quarter-final against the host nation, Charlton's direct footballing style reaped unimaginable success and achieved a unity behind the team that hasn't been matched since.

Scenes of thousands of people thronging the route from Dublin Airport to College Green in the city centre prompt Roddy Doyle to compare it to a parade marking the end of a war.

Larry Mullen claims the international squad's success enabled Irish people to seize their national flag back from its grim association with republican violence in Northern Ireland.

But to the documentary's credit, it isn't a hagiography.

Jack's ruthless execution of his plan and stubbornness saw him freeze out one of Ireland and Arsenal's most accomplished central defenders, David O'Leary, with the player ruefully remarking that it cost him 50 caps - only for him to become a hero in Genoa during the World Cup penalty shootout.

Roddy Doyle criticises Charlton's refusal to talk to the former Millwall and Ireland player turned RTE soccer pundit Eamonn Dunphy at a press conference in Italy as unnecessarily boorish.

But the film also lauds his treatment of ordinary people, his quick wit and his deep desire to please Irish fans in particular.

Charlton's man management of the talented but troubled Paul McGrath also proves a huge testament to his compassion.

An alcoholic, McGrath let Charlton occasionally down by succumbing to his addiction while on international duty.

He talks candidly about suffering from the DTs on the team bus to Lansdowne Road before a game against Turkey and going on a bender with a friend before a game and winding up on a flight that took him to Israel.

However, the affection Charlton had for McGrath is such that even while struggling with dementia and watching archive footage of the Irish team on a laptop, the one player he identifies is Paul McGrath.

Charlton's man management of McGrath, in particular, elicited an extraordinary series of performances - the high point of which was during another remarkable victory, the 1-0 win over Italy in the Giants Stadium in New Jersey during the 1994 USA World Cup.

In many ways, that was the beginning of the end of Charlton's glorious reign as Irish manager.

In a powerful sequence about the qualification for the World Cup during a fraught game in Belfast's Windsor Park against Billy Bingham's Northern Ireland team, there is a sense that things were not quite the same.

Niall Quinn's description of two sets of kids from a loyalist community pretending to point rifles at the Irish team bus as it arrived in Belfast strikes a grim note about that uncomfortable night.

Jack's admission that he didn't celebrate qualification for the World Cup in the way he might have done because of the ugly atmosphere also hints at a team that had reached its peak.

Ireland's subsequent exit at the hands of Holland from the World Cup in the last 16 in the punishing heat of Florida and its failure to qualify in an Anfield play-off against the same opposition for the 1996 European Championships drew a veil on Jack's time as the Republic's manager.

However it did not draw a veil on the Irish public's affection for him, with his wife Pat remarking in the film that they still get lovely letters from the supporters - a fact Jack is oblivious to.

Some of the most poignant moments of Clarke and Thomas' film come when we see a frail Jack Charlton affectionately interacting with his grandchildren and ordinary people while battling dementia or watching archive footage of himself in wonder.

Robbed of his memories by a cruel condition, it is a delight to see flashes of the old Jack shining through.

It is also to the filmmakers' credit that the feature has some mesmerising images fashioned by the cinematographer Andy White.

Overhead shots of Charlton angling with his son and a quite breathtaking recreation of David O'Leary's nervous walk to the penalty spot in Genoa are particular highlights.

The feature is superbly edited by Andres Del Cano and Claire Winter who blend archive TV footage with home video shot by the Irish team and White's striking visuals of the present day.

'Finding Jack Charlton' emerges as a tribute not just to an extraordinary footballing career but an extraordinary life of an extraordinary individual.

Tinged with regret, particularly around his fraught relationship with Bobby, what shines brightly through is Charlton's charisma and his affection for ordinary people.

Jack was the right manager at the right time for a country that had finally found its feet.

In forging a team that could compete with the world's best drawn from the nation and its diaspora, he left a huge impression on Irish society.

The fact that an Englishman did all that made it all the sweeter.

('Finding Jack Charlton' was released on digital streaming platforms in the UK and Ireland on November 24, 2020 and was broadcast on Virgin Media One in Ireland and BBC2 in the UK on March 29, 2021)