Marvellous

Cast

Making cameo appearances as themselves:

Production

The programme was commissioned by Janice Hadlow and Ben Stephenson. The executive producers were Patrick Spence and Peter Bowker for Fifty Fathoms and Tiger Aspect Productions, and Lucy Richer for the BBC.

Filming locations

Marvellous was filmed mostly in Staffordshire. Several of the scenes were set at and filmed at Keele University. Crewe Alexandra Football Club's Alexandra Stadium and the Glyndŵr University Racecourse Stadium in Wrexham, North Wales were used for the scenes set at Stoke City's football ground.

Reception

Writing in The Guardian, Sam Wollaston praised Jones's "lovely, very human, performance".

Andrew Anthony, for The Observer, said "Jones realised its potential with such poignant insight into character that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing the part. [Baldwin]'s life has been a triumph of unselfconsciousness, which is easier read about than captured. But in a story fraught with the danger of sentimentality, Bowker located a sort of comic truth about an innocent at home and Jones made that truth both funny and movingly real."

Ellen E Jones, reviewing the film in The Independent, said: "The triumph of Marvellous is that it’s a feel-good film that feels good, not through any Hollywood schmaltz, but through the sheer force of Baldwin’s own optimistic personality".

Sarah Crompton, for The Daily Telegraph, described Marvellous as "sweet and sharp... on the whole a great number of people emerge well from this film, including Stoke City’s former manager Lou Macari (played by Tony Curran but also popping in as himself) and many long-suffering clergy. It might have been too cute in different hands, but both Toby and Gemma Jones gave performances that were almost as miraculous as the story itself."

Jim White, writing in The Sunday Telegraph, described it as "a wonderful, uplifting, life-affirming 90 minutes of television. And the most compelling argument yet that – despite all the evidence presented by previous filmic depictions of the beautiful game – it is possible to extract telling fiction from football."

Julie McDowall for Scotland's The Herald, described it as 2014's best TV programme.

Rachel Cooke in the New Statesman said of Toby Jones' portrayal of Baldwin that he "played him brilliantly, turning in an understated performance that combined innocence and wryness to powerful effect". She praised Bowker’s "pitch-perfect script, which was as natural sounding as a conversation overheard on the top deck of a bus", and Farino’s direction – "so deft, quirky, witty and attentive to important details (buildings as well as moods; rooms as well as body language)".

Reviewing the programme for the Stoke Sentinel, John Woodhouse said "It says everything for Neil that Marvellous was ever made. For in times when TV is seduced by vacuity and celebrity, it doesn't sound that promising a pitch. A drama, set in Newcastle [under Lyme], about a man saddled with the tag of 'learning difficulties' who reveals himself to be so much more? Good luck with that one. And yet here it is – primetime BBC2." Stoke Sentinel columnist Simon Lowe described it as "the most human of stories: a truly stirring, laugh-out-loud tearjerker of a drama. Part biopic, part musical (has there ever been a better use of the ukulele in a piece of television – and I’m including George Formby’s contribution to the instrument’s status in that?) and part incredible journey, Marvellous was life-affirming and inspirational."

Lou Macari was quoted in the Stoke Sentinel as saying: "The film really captures Nello [Neil Baldwin] as he was and for those who didn't know him I can assure them everything in the film is true. There are many moving moments, and it must be the best 90 minutes viewing Stoke-on-Trent has had for a long time."

Awards

At the 2015 British Academy Television Awards, Marvellous won the Single Drama award and Gemma Jones received the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Baldwin's mother. Baldwin collected the former award and made an acceptance speech.

DVD

The DVD and a digital download of Marvellous was released on 1 December 2016.

Marvellous book

Baldwin's autobiography, Marvellous: Neil Baldwin – My Story, written with the help of Keele University alumnus Malcolm Clarke, was published in hardback by John Blake Publishing in August 2015.