Sunday 21st May 2006, Sunday 28th May 2006, Sunday 4th June 2006
written by Jane Hewland, John Salthouse, Paul Hodson and Richard Parkin
The 1980s were a defining decade in British culture that saw an explosion of new fashion, music and technology. It was a time of great social change; Margaret Thatcher was in power and civil unrest was rife. Football was a harder game, players earned a fraction of today's earnings and wearing sarongs and hairbands would have just been girlie rather than 'metrosexual'. This entertaining trilogy follows three young football apprentices as they struggle to fulfil their ambitions. Combining archive news and football footage with a fantastic soundtrack, Dream Team 80s is a nostalgic trip back in time, culminating in an event that still haunts England fans to this day: Mexico 86.
October 1980
Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister, Britain has a high unemployment rate and Trevor Francis becomes the first million pound footballer. Harchester United are in the 1st division and looking ahead to another season at Addison Road. The youth set up is strong and a new find Mike Maynard has just joined the club. Mike joins the likes of Terry Glover and Kevin Nelson in the youth team, replacing Lloydie Terry's best mate in both the team and at the digs at Mrs Quinn's. When Mike arrives in his new room, he finds a pair of boots in his bin; they were Lloydie's. Terry's girlfriend is Susan Porter she works at the club as a receptionist, she is upset as she has just found out her Dad is losing his job, although Terry seems pre-occupied with something else. Mike's arrival corresponds with a Harchester game verses Nottingham Forest and before the game he finds himself in the home dressing room with Terry and Kevin on Dressing Room duty. He bumps into the mascot, son of Jonny Fletcher - Karl. He boasts to Mike that he'll have a contract by the time he's 17 and he'll be the best striker Harchester ever had. The game ends in a 1-0 victory for the Dragons, with Jonny scoring the winner. After the game Terry slopes off early with Susan for a bit of slap and tickle leaving the other two to tidy up. Mrs Quinn has banned all the lads from bringing home girls and leaves the game to go home where the love birds are. Luckily for them Mike manages to make sure they don't caught, but in turn meets Susan and likes what he sees!
The next day in training, Mike and Terry are failing to hit it off and Terry hits Mike with a hard tackle that leads to a handbags fight which eventually stopped by the Youth Team Manager Al Mackay. At the end of the whole session, Harry Sidwell the first team manager decides to have a penalty shoot out between the two troublemakers. Before the shoot out begins Harry bets Jonny Fletcher £250 that Mike will beat the current penalty taker Terry. Mike is warned about this bet and told to miss so he doesn't upset Jonny, however he ignores this and takes great pleasure beating Terry - this makes both Terry and Jonny angry. When Mike returns to the changing room he finds that he has been welcomed by his new team mates by having his clothes cut up and has orange juice in his shoes. Terry appears, holding a jug of orange juice and wearing a big grin and welcomes the Flash Boy to Harchester. On leaving the ground with his clothes in shreds, Mike bumps into Susan and after a chat arranges to have driving lessons with her. Al speaks to Terry and tells him that he is aggressive in the wrong way and has a bag of potatoes on his shoulder, never mind a chip! He then goes on to explain that he wants him to channel his aggression through the way he plays and makes him captain of the youth team. After washing Al's car for him Kevin follows his managers orders to drop off his car at his house. On his arrival he meets Isabelle, who in turn invites him into her house, Kevin gladly accepts. Mike has his driving lesson with Susan, but he feels he lets himself down. She disagrees, but tells him not to tell Terry about the secret lessons. He agrees and books another lesson with her.
December 1980
Harchester's youth team take on Oxford in the Midlands Youth Cup. It is Terry's first game as captain and Mike's debut. The game goes well, with Terry showing is captaincy skills and Kevin assisting a goal for Mike in front of the watching Isabelle. After the game Al tells his boys that they all did a good job and Terry asks all the lads (including Mike) to go for a celebratory drink. Mike turns the offer down as he has another secret driving lesson arranged with Susan. Meanwhile Al asks Kevin to run his wife home again as he is staying at work for a while longer. Isabelle is angry; she is fed up of being shacked up in the house and wants a bit of excitement, something she doesn't get from her workaholic husband. To change this Isabelle tells Kevin to take her out just for one hour. Kevin agrees, although he is petrified if Al finds out. Mike goes on his driving lesson, still frustrated with his performance on the pitch, even though he scored. After failing to complete a few manoeuvres, he successfully completes one and kisses Susan, who doesn't stop him. Terry goes home after his night out and helps Mrs Quinn with the Christmas decorations and tells Mrs Q that he was disappointed that Susan wasn't there and feels its due to him not being sympathetic about her Dad losing his job. Mrs Q tells Terry a few home truths on how he should be treating her and he listens, thinking of a way he can show her how he feels. Kevin takes Isabelle to a Cocktail Bar, but can't get served at the bar due to his age. Isabelle who hadn't realised how old is, was walks out upset to the car. Kevin follows, apologises and drives her home. When they arrive back Isabelle apologies for the way she was and says not to tell Al about going out. Kevin agrees and they kiss. Since the driving lesson Mike and Susan have started a secret relationship and have booked a room at the Grange Hotel. Later that night they accidentally bump in to Jonny and Trisha Fletcher, Jonny clicks on to what is happening and tells Mike he'll keep it a secret. As they finally leave they bump into Harry Sidwell, who tell Mike he will be training with the 1st team the next day!
Christmas arrives in Harchester and Kevin, Terry and Mike all club together to buy Mrs Q a new microwave oven. Terry and Mike receive gifts from their parents and Kevin gets a cocktail book from Isabelle. All the lads are then given 1966 World Cup memorabilia gifts by Mrs Q, she tells them they're for inspiration to see one of them make it to a World Cup! This leads to a bet, whoever makes it wins £10 off the others. Mike goes off to train with the 1st team and Terry goes to see Susan. During training Mike takes on Jonny in a game of doggies. Jonny tells Mike to let him win, or else otherwise he'll let his secret slip. This doesn't matter as halfway through the race Jonny pulls up injured. During this race, Terry proposes to Susan at the club, Susan turns him down and tells him that there is someone else, just as Mike appears. Terry clicks on quickly and promptly decks Mike and starts kicking him until Susan stops him. On Boxing Day Harry wants to know who has given Mike his black eye and he has a good idea whom, but Mike keeps quiet. Also due to a hamstring injury, Jonny can't play; giving Mike is debut against Tottenham Hotspur! Wearing the number 11 shirt Mike starts his first game playing upfront with Tommy Shaw aged 17 years old. The game goes well, although he has a blatant penalty turned down. His luck soon changes though and Mike scores from a tight angle, he'd arrived on the big stage! During the game Kevin notices that Isabelle is not in her normal seat and tells Terry he is ill and leaves to find out where she is. He finds her at her house and she pushes him away, but soon they are kissing again and disappear into the house, ending up in bed together. Back at the game things take a turn for the worse as Steve Perryman the Spurs number 6 goes right through the back of Mike, with a terrible challenge. He is stretched off to a huge round of applause from the Addison Road Crowd; he'll never play professionally again. Moving on to March 1981 Mike returns to the training ground still on crutches due to his knee injury to say a final goodbye to his ex-youth team team-mates. This leads to even a handshake from Terry and an agreement between them and Kevin to meet up at Mrs Q's before he leaves. However when Terry and Kevin arrive back home - Mike has gone, only leaving Lloydie's boots in the bin where they were when he first moved in.
March 1981
Terry is now in the first team goes to the garage where Mike is working, as a car salesman, with Jonny to pick a new car. He picks out a convertible jaguar and takes it for a test drive with Mike, who explains to him what he's up to these days. Terry likes the car and arranges to have it dropped off at the ground when its ready. Meanwhile Al has been promoted to Reserve coach and gets an Archie Gemmill World Cup 1978 mug off his team as a present. Kevin is also in the reserves, but still doing chores for Al, putting up with his racist nickname Snowball. Another game comes along, this time Wolverhampton Wanderers visit Addison Road. Terry is in the team and his family come along to watch. When his family arrive in reception Terry announces to everyone that he has his new car being delivered any minute and takes his family and Susan out to show off. To Terry's disgust, Mike drops the car off, just as he was trying to get Susan to go for a spin with him. Susan is upset when she see Mike, as he has not been in touch ever since his injury. Terry now wound up, is ready for the game but is heading a ball furiously against a wall, until Harry tells him to stop. Harry also warns Terry about Frankie Bennett and tells him not to be wound up by his antics. Unfortunately, a wound up Terry fails after a couple of clashes with Bennett and a lack of concentration Andy Gray pops up and scores. It gets worse as Terry gives a penalty away and then starts throwing the fists at Wolves' John Richards - he is sent off in disgrace.
Harry is unimpressed and due to the Dragons having 10 men, Gray goes on to get a hatrick. Al takes Terry aside and tells him he has the 4 game blues and that he didn't channel his aggression correctly. After the chat and realising his parents left the game early, Terry goes out and smashes his front light on his new car in frustration. After, Harry tells Terry he is going back to the reserves and says, it's all been to quick for him. Terry goes back and Al tries teaching him a lesson by showing him an old tape of him when he marked George Best when he was at Leeds in 1963. He shows him how he got ripped apart by him and explained it by saying some people play the piano, others carry it onto the stage.
Jonny is getting a divorce and admits he is short of cash when he visits Mike's garage to purchase a car. Mike asks him what he's earning, Jonny tells him 40,000 a year, Mike is amazed by this and tells him he should be earning double! Mike tells him he could help with his situation and asks Jonny if he trusts him, which he says he does. So with the consent of the player Mike approaches Harry Sidwell as Jonny's agent and demands £60,000 a year and goal bonus for his client. Harry is astonished, but due to what Jonny gives to the team accepts the new terms. Mike has changed career again and has made it as an agent. After a night out in Studs to celebrate his first deal, Mike proposes to Susan (who had got back together since he dropped off Terry's car), she excepts. Straight away he arrives back into the club to boast about his engagement. Terry is gutted when he finds out and rebounds straight onto Ann Kavanagh, who also works for the clubs reception team. They both leave Studs quite swiftly and don't join in the celebrations. During the night Kevin tries to dance with Isabelle, but is told to dance with girls his own age by an unexpecting Al. Kevin does what his boss says and finds some other girls on the dance floor. Because of this Isabelle becomes increasingly jealous and leaves Al at the club. Kevin follows her to her car to explain he'd rather be with her, she thanks him for saving her life and drives off.
September 1984
Kevin is still in the reserves, but is now covering for a drunken Al. He has hit the bottle badly since Isabelle has left him and it has even started to effect the team. During a reserve team game Terry and Kevin find a drunken Al in his car. They are due to play QPR and have to do so without a manager. Terry as captain gives the team talk and Kevin takes care of the team on the pitch by scoring in a 1-0 victory. Kevin takes Al home and finds out it is his 10th wedding anniversary and that is why he was so drunk. Kevin pours away all the alcohol away at Al's to help him, but it just annoys Al, who clearly now has an alcohol problem. During a games of cards at Terry's, he gets a phone call to tell him his brother has been hospitalised, beaten up at a railway station. When he arrives at the hospital, his Mum blames Terry for the problems they are having, as he hasn't shared his money to help them move to a nicer area. Terry leaves the hospital and finds SCABS sprayed onto his car. He sells his car immediately, sending the all the money to his family to help them move on. Days later Al finally seems to be sorting himself out, but finds when he approaches Kevin to do his chores he will no longer do them. He is finally standing up for himself - so much that he even pulls him up for calling him Snowball. Fed up of being taken advantage of, Kevin approaches Mike to be his agent, as he wants to move on. Mike, who has now married Susan, has opened his own offices for his company business Maynard Management and takes Kevin on a client. By the end of the season both Terry and Kevin have made it to the first team.
April 1986
Kevin who now drives a Porsche arrives at Addison Road with a new girlfriend and due to Mike's work is due to star in a Sinitta music video and has Bobby Robson, the England manager coming to see him play. Terry now has his girlfriend Ann pregnant and they are due to be married. Harry Sidwell has since left the club and Kenny Bruce is now in charge. Bruce is trying to move Kevin from the left wing to play in the hole behind Jonny and this is annoying Mike as he is trying to get Kevin into the England team and a move to Barcelona by playing on the left. When Jonny talks down Harchester's league chances, Terry takes offence and tells the whole dressing room that the team are capable if winning it. Terry's stag do follows the game. On leaving the strip joint very drunk, Terry asks Kevin to stay with him and tells his best man he still misses Susan and thinks he may be making a mistake, as he starts bringing up what he's drank earlier. Kevin in turn tells him about a girl he knew when he was 17 (Isabelle), but Terry is unaware who he is talking about.
The next day Terry gets married and Ann goes to bed early due to her tiredness from her pregnancy. Terry ends up dancing with Susan and she tells him she married the wrong man. Terry leaves, freaked out. Elsewhere Mike has arranged a night out with the Harchester chairman. The idea is to soften him up to let Kevin leave for Barcelona and help finance a new stand, but to allow this to happen he needs Kenny Bruce to play him in position, on the left. Kevin bumps into Isabelle when visiting Al's grave (who has now passed away). When he sees her he notices she has a kid with her, but she claims it's a neighbours little boy called Archie. Her cover is blown though as Archie calls her Mummy, her secret is out and Kevin finds out he's a Dad. When Mike finds out about Archie, he tells Kevin he's been stupid (because he has a kid) but he's mainly worried this may effect his commission on the Barcelona deal if Kevin doesn't want to go due to his new responsibilities. Mike is also hassling Bruce to play Kevin out on the left to help his World Cup chances, Bruce tells Mike that he only thinks of himself and not of Harchester or the fans. Harchester continue to play well picking up victory after victory with Terry and Kevin in great form, but Kevin is still not out on the left. The Dragon's are neck and neck with Everton at the top and it looks like it may go to the wire. To deal with his problem Mike goes to the press, he informs them Barcelona are after Kevin and Terry Venables is very interested. The pressman comments that Kevin may struggle to make the World Cup, as the likes of Hodge and Waddle are ahead of him. In turn the press give Mike some dirt on Bruce. He finds out he's been cautioned twice for kerb crawling and his wife is unaware. He decides to use this to his advantage and turns to blackmail. Mike visits Bruce and tells him what he knows - he tells him to play Kevin on the left or else! Kevin goes to see Isabelle, he tries to see Archie, but finds out that Isabelle has remarried and Archie thinks her husband is his father. She asks Kevin not to get involved both for the sake of her marriage and to not confuse her son. Reluctantly Kevin agrees for Archie's sake. As Kevin leaves he gets a phone call, Ann is in labour and Terry is missing. Kevin goes to find Terry and finds him with Susan in bed! He tells them the news and all 3 go to the hospital. When Terry arrives he tells Ann how sorry he is that he wasn't there for her and how he loves her and will always be there for her.
May 1986
Everton and Harchester are neck and neck at the top with the same points and goal difference. Everton are playing Luton Town and Harchester have Manchester City at Addison Road. Kevin has been playing really well in the hole, but finds himself in the middle of a feud between Bruce and Maynard. Due to Mike's blackmailing Bruce tells Kevin to play on the left, which confuses everyone and infuriates Terry. He argues with Bruce, but backs down after he gets threatened by a fine by his manager, but Terry knows Mike is behind it. Kevin decides to play for the team and plays in the hole not on the left, this make Mike furious. As he heads down to the dressing room at half time and bumps into wife Susan dropping his drugs in front of her. She looks at him and tells him she wants a divorce. An upset Mike bursts into the Harchester dressing room at half time of the game and demands to Bruce that Kevin plays out on the left. Mike gets told to leave and Kevin, after finding out about his blackmailing follows him and sacks him as his agent and tells he has forgotten what being part of a team is. Back in the dressing room Terry takes over and gives a motivational speech. They go back out and Kevin gives them the lead after a fine run. Amazingly though both Harchester and Everton are both winning 1-0, until the last minute of the games. After a Paul Lake challenge Jonny wins a penalty. Terry is the man who steps up, with Jonny looking away, unable to watch the drama. Terry hits it low and hard to the left and beats the keeper easily, Harchester have won the league for the very first time! The season isn't over though, as Kevin gets a call from the FA, he has been called up to England's World Cup squad and joins Mike and Terry in the Addison Road stand. After reinstated Mike as his agent, he collects his £10's from Mike and Terry owed from the bet they had when they all lived at Mrs Quinn's. All three celebrate together with a bottle of champagne. It gets better for Kevin though, not only does he make the squad to Mexico, but he also gets on the pitch and sets up a goal for Gary Lineker against Argentina. A Harchester player has arrived on the world stage.
Music Tracks
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Episode 1 |
Episode 2 |
Episode 3 |
Foot Notes
Dream Team 80's (working title "Dream Team Retro") was a 3 episode trilogy commissioned by Sky for programming to the build up of the 2006 World Cup. The series aired on Sunday 21st May, Sunday 28th May and Sunday 4th June 2006 following the Season 9 finale.
The series was filmed completely on location and returned to where the show was originally filmed for Seasons 1 and 2, Watford FC's Home Ground amongst other original locations.
Dream Team 80's was co-written and produced by John Salthouse who had worked on Dream Team both as an actor and producer for Seasons 1-4.
