Albion TV documentary slammed by Seagulls fans

Albion fans got to see their club up-close and personal when a new TV documentary on the Seagulls aired last night.

Behind-the-scenes footage followed defender Adam El-Abd , coach Charlie Oatway and super fan Grant Phillips in the build-up to a crunch game against Watford last season.

During the More4 documentary, Birds Balls and Brighton, fans got to see the Egyptian defender at home with his wife Jade while supporter Grant showed off his Seagull tattoo and explained his Albion obsession.

However, the film has not been praised by fans. One, commenting under the name Worthingite on the Channel 4 website , said: "God that was awful....just awful!!! A total bodge job of editing, a poorly conceived "plot", ending up with me losing half an hour of my life that I'll never get back!

"And to think that myself, like many others, were excited about it beforehand. What a waste of time and money."

Another, posting as Sergei's Celebration on fans forum North Stand Chat , said: "Charlie, Adam and Grant should sue over irreparable damage to their image.

"Putting my shoulder in two while skiing was more fun than that and i can not believe i am this about a documentary about my beloved club but it was appalling."

The original idea for the film come from by former City College Brighton and Hove student Alfie Harrison who spent much of the 2010/11 season filming Albion’s promotion to the Championship.

Derry-based production company Alleycats Films heard about his films and suggested it be put forward as a documentary for Channel 4’s First Cut season with director David Cairns brought in to oversee the project.

Twenty-one-year-old Alfie, of Borough Street in Brighton, played a key role in the completed film as assistant producer.

He said: “My film was about the life of a footballer who wasn’t a £200,000 Premiership player. I’m really pleased how the final film has come out.

“It was great to be around Charlie all our subjects were great.”

Ed Stobart, executive producer of Alleycats Films, said: “For First Cut, you are expected to take some risks so we wanted to do it in an artistic way and show a side of football outside of the touchline interview.”

The show is not available on 4OD, but will be screened again on Channel 4 at 2.05am on Friday. 

Did you see the show? What did you think? 

Comments(8)

F in L says...
11:24am Tue 25 Sep 12

2.05 in the morning on Friday.......

HAHAHA Brilliant scheduling..all the best comedies are on late hahaha

Charismatic Andrew says...
11:28am Tue 25 Sep 12

I enjoyed it. But then to be honest I wasn't expecting a BAFTA award winning programme given that it was being shown on More4 after 10pm.

Saul G P Tong says...
11:33am Tue 25 Sep 12

He said: “My film was about the life of a footballer who wasn’t a £200,000 Premiership player."

No it wasn't - nowhere near

kraftwerker says...
12:17pm Tue 25 Sep 12

Yet to see it, but my friend Charismatic Andy enjoyed it, so I'll go by what he's saying. You can't please everyone. And as usual, The Argus gets its knickers in a twist by bigging up the negative side of it.

JaseBHA says...
12:56pm Tue 25 Sep 12

kraftwerker wrote:
Yet to see it, but my friend Charismatic Andy enjoyed it, so I'll go by what he's saying. You can't please everyone. And as usual, The Argus gets its knickers in a twist by bigging up the negative side of it.
Difficult to see how else they could have approached it, given the reaction it's received. This was a film Albion fans wanted to see, which they wanted to be good, which they were behind beforehand. If even committed Albion fans hated it, what chance is there of a wider audience enjoying the thing? Such a missed opportunity it's difficult to describe how badly it was done, particularly given the historic nature of the season during which they filmed.

tinker000 says...
1:34pm Tue 25 Sep 12

Gave the club a bad name with fan showing his english skills ???? any way it was last season and we have moved on ,'I HOPE ' not to sure about Liz Costa's comment on Sussex radio few days back that she considered that 50% of Albion fans were GAY ???? comments please if you can back this up.

tonybee says...
1:16am Wed 26 Sep 12

What a load of self indulgent c**p by some wet behind the ears kid.
No interview with Gus, no football or goal
excerpts etc etc
Was really looking forward to it - as it was kicked the cat and went to bed in disgust
The BBC would have done it properly !

Hovite says...
11:18am Thu 27 Sep 12

It was more like a spoof documentary giving the impression that Brighton fans have bad OCD.

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