OTV - SPORT - PICK OF THE WEEK THE GAME OF THEIR LIVES. 

By DAVID HILLS. 
12 May 2002
The Observer

BBC Four, Garry Bushell's 'TV for pipe-smoking, pint-swilling, bearded Guardian readers', attracted 20,000 viewers on its launch: 'encouraging' said controller Roly Keating, 'pathetic' said Garry. To turn the service round (they now have one million regular 'dip-in' viewers but still some ITV Sport moments - a John Humphrys debate on genetics hit zero viewers half-way through - real monkey territory) they're trying two things: showing the best of Four's arts coverage on BBC2, and laying on a series of football documentaries ahead of the World Cup. It didn't take long. 

But the spirit of Four isn't compromised - these are high-brow studies, aimed strictly at bearded Guardian - reading lesbians like you and me. The pick is the brilliant The Game of Their Lives - four years in the making, and worth the hype that's begun to build around it. 

In 1966, North Korea pulled off the greatest shock in World Cup history by knocking out Italy, and becoming the first and only Asian team to reach the quarter-finals. The side, average height 5ft 5in, were taken to English hearts for their exotic underdoggery - but for 35 years the world believed that on returning home the squad had been imprisoned by tyrant Kim Il Sung for partying too hard, and for losing to Portugal. All attempts to trace them in the following decades were blocked: they had, officially, 'disappeared'. 

It took four years of negotiation by this film crew to make the breakthrough. At the end of last year, they were granted 10 days' access, during which they managed to track down the coach and seven of the team - alive, well and living apparently happy lives in state-funded apartments, as revered household names. 

What happened to the others isn't clear and though the surviving players deny anything nasty ever happened, it's hard to be too optimistic given the stasis of the regime (the Great Leader, dead for eight years now, is still head of state). But this is a great piece of history-telling: mixing the players' vivid memories with BBC archive footage ('They won, good heavens, they won!') and scenes of their lives in the bewildering North East in 1966: 'I still to this day,' says one, 'do not understand why Middlesbrough liked us so much.' North Korea haven't been near the World Cup finals since: it's a remarkable story. More details are available at www.thegameoftheirlives.com