1966: The World Cup that changed a nation

Summary

HistoryExtra Podcast: “1966: The World Cup That Changed a Nation”

Released: July 16, 2026
Host: John Baucam
Guest: Michael Calvin (author and broadcaster)

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Main Theme / Purpose

This episode explores the profound social, political, and cultural impact of England’s triumph in the 1966 World Cup, sixty years on. John Baucam and author Michael Calvin move beyond football’s on-field glory, delving into lesser-known stories of that momentous summer, highlighting diplomatic tensions, class divisions, racism, the working of British institutions, and how the event mirrored seismic change within British society.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Scene: 1966 as a National "Inflection Point"

[03:14 – 05:07]

• Calvin describes 1966 not just as a sporting milestone but as an “inflection point” for Britain.
  • The country was transitioning from wartime austerity to an era of creative freedom, individual possibility, and technological optimism.
  • Major sporting events, Calvin argues, reflect the spirit of their times—a phenomenon stretching from Hitler’s 1936 Olympics to contemporary tournaments.

"All major sports events are reflections of their time… so what I wanted to do is try to give a flavor of the time and therefore reflect the tournament through the environment in which it was staged…"
—Michael Calvin [03:41]

• Research for the book meant immersing in the archives of 1966, witnessing "glaring" changes since then.

2. Proximity to War and Shadow of the Past

[05:21 – 08:52]

• The memory of WWII was still vivid: entire families regularly visited war graves; The Times published wartime recollections at the start of the World Cup month.
• Calvin highlights that, in 1966, British society oscillated between outward modernity and persistent conservative attitudes.
• The "swinging sixties" vibrancy was not universally experienced—much remained stratified and rule-bound.

3. Social Undercurrents: Racism, Misogyny, and Class Division

[06:45 – 08:52]

• Calvin recounts shocking examples of open racism and workplace discrimination during the tournament, alongside ongoing misogyny.
• Both England and West Germany, the two teams in the final, had bans on women’s football at the time.
• The lived reality of “creative freedom” was, for many, one of exclusion and inequality.

"I couldn't believe… people being denied entries to seaside hotels because of their color, a color bar operating on the railways… That was a very, very stark reminder of… what was going on underneath the surface in our society."
—Michael Calvin [07:33]

4. The Establishment's Reluctance: Organizing the World Cup

[09:06 – 12:18]

• The British sporting establishment was “moderately appalled” by the upheaval of hosting the event—most starkly shown by the horror at North Korea’s qualification.
• Whitehall debated whether to allow North Korea’s entry; diplomatic necessity prevailed.
• Organization was both parochial and amateurish—run by a “Dad’s Army” of local elders and country gentlemen, many ill-prepared for the task.

"The establishment were moderately appalled by the intervention in their nice cozy lives.… It was an exercise almost in futility…"
—Michael Calvin [09:06; 10:27]

• Even with sporadic visionary input, institutional inertia prevailed: innovative ideas were expertly “neutralized” with empty gestures and polite indifference.

5. England's Tournament: From Dull Beginnings to Triumph

[12:18 – 14:31]

• The opening match against Uruguay was, in Calvin’s words, “a stinker”—ultra-defensive play and public pessimism.
• Alf Ramsey, England’s manager, was a distant figure, “not a man for the modern game," and held the press in open disdain ("kept the press waiting an hour… deliberately made them cough and splutter").
• Media management and expectations were vastly different from the PR-driven, 24-hour scrutiny of modern tournaments.

6. Iconic Players & Global Headlines: Pele, Boycotts, North Korean Heroes

Pele’s Disastrous World Cup
[14:41 – 17:53]

• Calvin casts Pele’s experience as a symbol of injustice: targeted and fouled out of the tournament, a victim of his brilliance and poor refereeing.
• The 1966 World Cup, Calvin notes, is the only major event ever boycotted by an entire continent (Africa), who protested lack of representation.

"He was too good for his own good… opposing coaches set out deliberately to hurt him, to nullify him with extreme violence."
—Michael Calvin [15:08]

• Calvin connects the African boycott with the spirit of pan-Africanism and turbulent post-colonial politics, providing a wider geopolitical layer.

North Korea’s Shock Victory
[18:13 – 19:27]

• North Korea’s defeat of Italy was seismic—leading to Italian national disgrace and public fury.
• The episode underscores the unpredictability of the World Cup and the global stakes involved.

7. Quarterfinal Tensions: England vs Argentina

[21:37 – 24:04]

• The controversial match is remembered for Alf Ramsey’s “animals” comment—fueling anti-colonial resentment and exposing perceived Eurocentric bias.
• Calvin, however, challenges the narrative, noting England actually committed more fouls, and the Argentine captain’s dismissal was likely a linguistic and cultural misunderstanding.

"Animals… It did set off this sort of tsunami of anti-colonial feeling."
—Michael Calvin [21:55]

• The scene in which the dismissed captain refuses to leave the pitch becomes emblematic of wider diplomatic and cultural conflicts.

8. The Final: 30 July, England vs West Germany

[24:04 – 28:08]

• The final, only 21 years after WWII’s end, was laden with unresolved trauma and media-fueled antagonism.
  • The last-minute stadium switch (semi-finals) was widely seen as a southern British snub to Merseyside, a region deeply scarred by the war.
  • The press played up martial metaphors and encouraged chauvinism, “setting an almost militaristic tone."
• Calvin reflects on changing football demographics, the birth of “football tourism,” and the spectacle of the World Cup final as mainstream entertainment.

"It was a timeless scene… Wembley there. And in London that night, the AA were talking about scenes redolent of VE day. People dancing in the fountains in Trafalgar Square."
—Michael Calvin [29:12]

• The “ghost goal” controversy, iconic calls (“They think it’s all over… it is now!”), and images of celebration cemented the event’s place in British legend.

9. Afterglow and Aftermath: The Transience of National Triumph

[30:03 – 30:21]

• The national euphoria quickly faded, with media and political attention reverting to ordinary affairs—minor Royals, economic struggles, and social criticism.
• Calvin notes, “It’s quite strange how quickly the party atmosphere dissolves.”

10. Human Cost: Aberfan Disaster, October 1966

[30:21 – 34:12]

• Calvin closes the discussion with Aberfan: a coal tip disaster that killed 144 people, mostly children, just months after the World Cup.
• He draws a powerful contrast between fleeting sporting heroism and the quiet heroism of ordinary people in tragedy.

“I wanted to contrast that mood of heroism… by actual people who I consider to be real heroes. This concerns the story of Aberfan…”
—Michael Calvin [30:23]

• The official response was marked by “arrogance of power” and callousness, emblematic of deeper social shortcomings.
• Calvin’s closing message: remember not just the “boys of ‘66,” but the “men of ‘66,” those who displayed dignity and compassion in the face of disaster.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "[Major sports events are] reflections of contemporary values, attitudes and trends." – Michael Calvin [03:27]
• "The establishment were moderately appalled by the intervention in their nice cozy lives." – Michael Calvin [09:06]
• On racism and sexism: "I couldn't believe… people being denied entries to seaside hotels because of their color, a color bar operating on the railways…" – Michael Calvin [07:33]
• "He was too good for his own good… they got away with it. So he basically was kicked out of the World Cup." – Michael Calvin on Pele [15:08]
• "Animals. It was almost a one word condemnation which is sort of echoing down the generations, isn't it?" – Michael Calvin on Alf Ramsey [21:55]
• "Wembley there. And in London that night, the AA were talking about scenes redolent of VE day… the nation feeling good about itself." – Michael Calvin [29:12]
• "[Aberfan's] official indifference… the arrogance of power… I just wanted to bring that out and give a completely different view of what heroism means." – Michael Calvin [33:32]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:14 – 05:07: 1966 as an inflection point; context-setting
• 06:45 – 08:52: Racism, misogyny, and class in Britain
• 09:06 – 12:18: The establishment’s (un)enthusiasm and organization challenges
• 14:41 – 17:53: Pele’s 1966 World Cup and the African boycott
• 18:13 – 19:27: North Korea’s upset of Italy
• 21:37 – 24:04: England v Argentina—controversy and anti-colonial sentiment
• 24:04 – 28:08: 1966 Final; media, memory, and meaning
• 30:21 – 34:12: Aberfan disaster, heroism, and book’s conclusion

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Episode Tone & Takeaways

Michael Calvin’s approach is deeply reflective, combining warmth, skepticism, and journalistic curiosity. The episode balances nostalgia with sharp social critique, revealing how moments of national unity often overlay more conflicted realities. Above all, listeners are invited to see 1966 not merely as a celebration, but as a revealing crossroads for British society—a moment when history was both made and masked.

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Recommended for: History enthusiasts, football fans, and anyone interested in the intersection of sport, society, and national identity.

Transcript

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The England men's football team has missed out on the opportunity to replicate the nation's much heralded victory back in the 1966 World Cup. Still one of the most celebrated moments in its sporting history. But what did the football tournament reveal about the state of the country that staged it back in the 1960s? In today's episode of the History Extra podcast, John Baucam talks to author Michael Calvin about the forgotten stories of that remarkable summer, from diplomatic tensions and class divisions to Middlesbrough's unexpected love affair with North Korea.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

So, Michael, this summer marks 60 years since the England men's team won the World Cup. And aside from the fact it's clearly a very big anniversary, what was it that made you want to focus on this topic for a book?

[Author Michael Calvin]

Well, 66 in many ways was an inflection point in history. It was on the cusp of this change from grey post war austerity and institutionalized class based reverence for authority to this new era of creative freedom, personal possibility, technological ingenuity. Now, from my background in far too many years covering major sport, international level, I'm very aware that all major sports events are reflections of their time. And that's from Hitler's Olympics in 1936 to Trump's soccer World cup in 2026. They're reflections of contemporary values, attitudes and trends. And so what I wanted to do is that, you know, everyone, let's be honest about this, 1966 is rammed down people's throats. You know, every schoolboy knows it was, you know, 60 years of hurt. And frankly, that's getting a bit boring. So what I wanted to do is try to give a flavor of the time and therefore reflect the tournament through the environment in which it was staged, through the world in which it was staged. That would be politically, socially, culturally. And I must admit my last couple of books have been fairly dense in terms of the research process. They've concerned the Holocaust. There was a purity about the research for this book which I found really quite refreshing, which is spending a lot of time in the British Library. You disappear down all these rabbit holes and see the world as it was 60 years ago. And I must admit, I wasn't really prepared for the amount of change that there's been and how glaring it was.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

And you used the term inflection point there. And I think that's such a great term to use because there's this dichotomy, isn't there? It's only 21 years since the end of the Second World War, yet we're now in the midst of what people might call the swinging 60s.

[Author Michael Calvin]

Absolutely. And you know, to put that, put that into further Context, people in 66 were as close to ve Day as we are now, to some of the great sort of socio cultural events of 2005. The creation of YouTube, for instance, or the death of George Best, who still remains, you know, the greatest British and Irish footballer never to have played in a World Cup. And I suppose what one look looks for is the signs of that proximity of war. You know, at that stage, the grieving process was still going on. Entire families would visit graveyards to pay tribute and respect to those who didn't come back from the war. And that's why early in the book, one thing that really struck me, it was right at the start of World cup month in 66, the Times published a piece by a former Royal Flying Corps officer about the first day of the Somme. And he flew over the battlefield, having taken some of the sappers up to give an indication of where they put the mines. And it's graphic and it's living history. When you're reading this, you know, it's remarkable that this chap actually survived because I think it was only 24% of pilots survive the war. And that given such prominence at the start of a very significant month in 66 was, I thought, really quite telling. And people basically are carried away a little bit by the whole swinging 60s vibe, if you like. That was real Time magazine with their famous cover in April of that year. Set the tone for the country, or set the tone for certain parts of the country. Had we really changed that much? That was part of the process, the investigative process was all these changes and all these advances, were they just associated with a gilded elite, if you like, and are we still back in that age where essentially authority told you what to do, when to do, how to do it? And there were certain things, again, which surprised me. The virulence of racism, for instance. I couldn't believe to actually get individual case studies, literally during the World cup of people being denied entries to seaside hotels because of their color, a color bar operating on the railways, acting against black workers, actually set up by their fellow workers. And you know, that, that actually, that, that as a story broke on that in the Daily Telegraph, funny enough, the day after England's first game against Uruguay, which, you know, to all intents and purposes was a bit of a stinker. It was a nil, nil draw. And, you know, there were questions asked in parliament. And it was a very, very stark reminder of the sort of what was going on underneath the surface in our society. Racism, misogyny. In the book, I tell the story of female emancipation through football, if you like, through Three individual ladies. And it's sobering to think that the two nations that competed in the men's final, England and West Germany, both banned women's football at that time. It's extraordinary to think when you think about it now. But yeah, it was a much, much different, one hopes, world to the one that we're living in now.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

Yeah, a very, very mixed picture. Now, Michael, let's talk about the organization of the World cup tournament itself. Was there much enthusiasm for England hosting the competition amongst the members of the establishment?

[Author Michael Calvin]

The establishment were moderately appalled by the intervention in their nice cozy lives. The best ex example of that probably was the qualification of North Korea. The prospect of them turning up in the UK appalled Whitehall to the extent that one of the first secret memos I saw there was a plaintive cry from Sir Humphrey somewhere saying, do we have to let these people in? Well, frankly, yes, because had they not done so, FIFA would have moved the World cup somewhere else, which wouldn't have done because there was political capital invested in it by Harold Wilson and the first ever, actually, UK Sports Minister Dennis Howell. They did everything they could just to ameliorate the embarrassment and the political fallout from accepting a nation with whom, only sort of 15 years beforehand, the Korean War, 1500 British troops were killed in that war. So there were definite sensitivities. So, yeah, so the establishment wasn't that enthralled by it. I think also the way the tournament was organized was very typically British, if you like. In many ways it was sort of the Captain Mannering's World cup, you know, it was this sort of dad's army of all these sort of aldermanic elders who in their own particular area were hauled out of council chambers to actually run, run a World cup in their particular city or area. And. And frankly, to say they were unprepared for the challenges is a. Is a massive underst. You know, and it was also quite, quite bizarre, you know, in Birmingham, the organizers seemed preoccupied with establishing a nightclub in the local town hall. Now, not quite sure how that is comparable to, you know, putting on a tournament for the beautiful game, but it was. It was quite strange that there's another chap basically said, look, I don't really know what I'm doing, but frankly I'll be glad when July comes around because then I can get back to my roses. So that they were the sort of people who were running the event. It was an exercise almost in futility when going into the tournament. The observer did a supplement and they talked about football as the Game that came out of the gutter, because at that time, stadia were run down, incipient hooliganism. But there were people like Sir Norman Chester who looked at the future and they looked at it urgently and proactively. And so, for instance, there was some talk even then of a Super league, a Premier League that we have now. But he was neutralized by the establishment and, and it was, it was reading the letters in his archives in, in De Montfort University in Leicester. It's fascinating because you see how they neutralized people who wanted to do something. And it was, oh, dear boy, thank you very much for your efforts. We'll talk about this. You and your lady wife, would you like to come to the varsity match at Wembley and have it, have an agreeable lunch with us? So that's what happened. And he put his case for change and basically they forgot about it or they just, they didn't even do anything with it. So that was the way there was this sort of institutionalised inertia.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

And Michael, you mentioned earlier, you said that the opening game between England and Uruguay was a stinker. That's on 11-7-66. What was so bad about that game?

[Author Michael Calvin]

Ray Wilson, the fullback, basically said that Uruguay's approach was to field one goalkeeper and 10, 10 defenders, which is probably about right. It was low key and it's a personal memory. You know, I was, I was eight years old at the time and I can remember that the following morning, going to school on the, on the top deck of the bus and there were two, two old boys, you know, flat capped old boys in front of me, jabbering on about what a terrible game it was and how England would never ever do anything in the World cup and why are we staging it anyway, all that stuff. And so that struck me, you know, quite vividly. England as a team, they were, were bigger than the sum of their parts. I, I always thought. And you know, Al Ramsay was this very sort of distant, insecure figure, in many ways quite dogmatic in many ways as well, did not like the press one little bit, to the extent that after the Uruguay game, he kept the press waiting for an hour for his post match pearls of wisdom. And unlike today, there would be a multimedia multilingual press conference for a gazillion journalists, the British hack pack assembled in the tunnel at Wembley, waiting for Ramsay to arrive. When he did so, his first act was to get on the bus and tell the driver to fire up the engine. So therefore you're in an enclosed space and the Journos who are asking these what Ramsey considered to be impertinent questions were suddenly coughing and spluttering because they was, you know, had all these emissions there. So again, you know, if that happened, anything similar to that happened today, there'd be questions in Parliament. You know, Sky Sports would run a story a day for about three months about it. It would be just PR Armageddon, but people just got on with it.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

So he's definitely not a figure that would be suited to the modern game. Perhaps he wouldn't get the same amount of attention.

[Author Michael Calvin]

No. Well, he's certainly not Jose Mourinho, is he?

[Interviewer John Baucam]

But on the other end of the spectrum, the media spotlight does descend on a few people, not least Pele. What kind of tournament does he have when he comes to England?

[Author Michael Calvin]

It's probably the greatest disappointment of his life, I would think. He comes into the tournament as this global superstar who'd come through the ranks 58, 62. When Brazil arrived, they were training in the back streets of Baltimore and thousands turned up to see him in this sort of black training kit. Unfortunately, he was too good for his own good in terms of opposing coaches set out deliberately to hurt him, to nullify him with extreme violence. And the refereeing was very poor and they got away with it. So he basically was kicked out of the World Cup. And one of the great disappointments, recurring disappointments of sport where the best players are brutalized, you know, strategically brutalized. And that's what happened to Pele. And he was in many ways, you know, carrying a torch for large areas of the world which suddenly found itself disenfranchised. So, you know, again, you know, if you want to excel at your local pub quiz, here's a tip for you. The 1966 World cup remains the only major sports event that was boycotted by an entire continent. The African nations, to a man, took their ball home. They refused to enter into the qualification process because they felt they'd been disrespected by the one way offer that there'd only be one place available from the top teams in Africa, Asia and Oceania. So, you know, in the book, what I try to do is make a comparison between that solidarity in a sporting sense, which was driven by the spirit of Pan Africanism that was in vogue at the time, and what was going on on the ground in the continent. In 1966, there were seven coups in Africa. In 66 there were two counter coups, three unsuccessful coups. The first coup was staged at 3am on January 1, and that installed Jean Badel Bacassar, who eventually established himself as emperor of the Central African Republic. He faced allegations of cannibalism. The coronation, which he Based on the 1804 coronation of Napoleon was ruinous. It cost over a quarter of his nation's GDP in one day. He flew in 24,000 bottles of Moet, 24,000 bottles of his favorite Scotch whiskey, 760 tons of food. So it was, it was extraordinary that people like that, figures like that came to power in that year and as I say, were a complete contrast in terms of spirit and everything else to what had gone on in a sporting context.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

Yeah, there's this whole other geopolitical layer, almost to 66 that isn't really talked about. And Michael, you know, you've talked there about Pele's disastrous tournament. Brazil don't even make it out of the group stages. To go back to the North Koreans. They actually do, don't they? Because they have a famous victory against Italy.

[Author Michael Calvin]

They do. And it was one of those sort of seismic events. You know, we talk about immortality in sport. Well, Patowic is now immortal because he scored the goal that knocked Italy out of the World Cup. That had huge ramifications on a personal and professional level for the, for the Italian players and specifically their manager who quite literally took that defeat to his grave. When their team turned up, they decided to fly into Genoa Airport at 3:30 in the morning hoping to avoid most of the opprobrium which was going to come their way. That plan didn't work. There were huge crowds there waiting there armed with rotten eggs and soggy tomatoes. And so it wasn't the greatest homecoming. And yeah, that was a national catastrophe for Italy. The citizens of the country, you know, viewed that team and those that group of individuals with contempt. You know again, the first thing that happened in Italy when they returned was that some enterprising politician decided to start a debate was whether footballers were paid too much. Bit a bit of sort of civic vindictiveness I suppose.

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[Interviewer John Baucam]

Now, Michael, let's go back to focusing on England and their path through the tournament. A huge moment comes when England play Argentina in the quarterfinals. And that's a game that's mired in controversy for several reasons. Mainly as well because of a comment that Alf Ramsey makes afterwards.

[Author Michael Calvin]

Animals. It was almost a one word condemnation which is sort of echoing down the generations, isn't it? And it did set off this sort of tsunami of anti colonial feeling. You know, there was a feeling in the World cup that England's colonialism was living on through football. You know, the referees were mainly European. There was perceived bias against the South American teams. To be fair, the South American teams by and large chose violence. You know, Uruguay and Argentina were guilty of, you know, some pretty overtly physical stuff. However, and this is where probably I would differ from many commentators, I can see Argentina's point. If you look at the stats from that particular game, England actually, I think committed more fouls. Everyone remembers the Game hinging on the dismissal of the Argentina captain, Ratin. Now, in many ways, he was only doing his job as captain. He only spoke Spanish. The referee, a little tailor from Stuttgart, didn't speak Spanish. And he obviously was. Was berating him in Spanish, but basically saying, you know, he was making representations to him about what was going on. And I think the referee probably panicked and sent him off. Then we had the psychodrama of him taking seven minutes to leave the pitch and then squatting down on the. The red carpet, which was reserved for royalty. People were throwing chocolates at him and stuff like that from the stand. He watched the game in the second half through a small window, a tiny window in the dressing rooms just above the tunnel. But I think he was only doing his job in terms of protecting his team and arguing his team's case. Now, the violence was extreme in cases. I'm not going to deny that. And that's what led to Ramsey's. I suppose it was quite a typical reaction. It wasn't typical in as much as it was emotional, but it was typical in his. It just expressed his worldview, I think.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

Yeah. Another inflection point, if you will. And after the Argentina game, just briefly, England go on to beat Portugal, despite Eusebio's best efforts, despite him being the Golden Boot winner of the tournament. And, of course, they come to the final on 30 July against West Germany. And, you know, we talked about this at the start of the interview, Michael, but it's only 21 years after the Second World War. What was the significance of this moment?

[Author Michael Calvin]

It was huge on a personal and professional level. Again, what's probably lost a little bit in the midst of time is what a decent person Helmut Schoen, the West German manager, was. He had survived the incendiary bombing of Dresden. He actually was an air raid warden at that particular time. And he did say to his players, he stressed that they could not cause any offense. They did so. And it was. But it was for reasons outside their own control. So, for instance, and this again is another indication of the huge Southern bias in that World Cup, England's semi final was meant to be played at Goodison park. And two days before, literally two days before that game was transferred to Wembley. And the game that was meant to be played at Wembley between the semifinal between West Germany and the Soviet Union was transferred to Goodison. It was such a show of arrogance and disrespect to an entire region which had suffered grievously in the war. You know, Liverpool was bombed relentlessly by the Luftwaffe. So all these memories had been stirred and frankly, the newspapers and the media played up to those prejudices. You know, you had cartoons of people marching to Wembley and these very loose, hackneyed phrases about, you know, schon being Germany's football fuhrer. It set this tone, almost a militaristic tone. Some of the German media were saying basically that the British journalists turned up in the. In the press box with tin helmets on, metaphorically. I don't know if they did, personally. I think they had bowler hats and stuff like that, but I thought it was quite unhealthy. But also what it was, it was another sign of change. My sort of great hero in creative journalistic terms is Arthur Hopcraft. And his book the Football man remains an absolute classic. And his dispatches from the World cup for the observer are actually expanded upon in that book. And he was the canary in the coal mine. He saw what change was coming. And, you know, he talked about the dangers of hoodlingism, but he also talked about how the demographic of football was changing. And he. He actually didn't watch the game, the World cup final, in the press box. He was actually sitting in the stands. And I do that occasionally. I've done that occasionally just to get a feel for the type of people who turn up. You know, we now live in an age where clubs rely financially on thousands of tourists. So there's Hopcraft. He paints this picture of sitting at Wembley on World cup final day. And he recognized the first signs of football tourism. And he was surrounded by people, he said, who had home Counties accents, rugby club blazers, and they knew nothing about football. You know, they were talking about, oh, there's some brothers from. From Manchester, aren't there? And who is this chappie who's not playing? If you think about it, that's probably the ultimate day out for a football fan, isn't it? The World cup final. And you've got these people who don't really know what's going on. I suppose you see it all around the place now, but. So that was the first time we actually saw. Football is a bit of a sort of vacuous arm of the entertainment industry.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

Yeah. The original prawn sandwich brigade, correct, if you like.

[Author Michael Calvin]

Yeah, yeah, it was probably Spam, but,

[Interviewer John Baucam]

you know, and for listeners that don't know, spoiler alert. England won the World Cup. It's 2, 2 going into extra time. They win 4 2. Geoff Hurst completes his hat trick. And of course, there is that famous ghost goal, which may or may not have crossed the line. That's still up for debate.

[Author Michael Calvin]

Absolutely. And apologies for actually committing what I was consider the cardinal sin of journalism, which is actually assuming knowledge. I thought everyone knew that they wanted extra time. Obviously not. Yeah. And again, you know, there are some iconic images from. From that. And, you know, Kenneth Woolston home with the final goal. You know, they think it's all over. Bang. It is now. Nobby Styles dancing on the pitch minus his teeth, Bobby Charlton crying, Bobby Moore being held aloft. It was a timeless scene. Wembley there. And in London that night, the AA were talking about scenes redolent of VE day. People dancing in the fountains in Trafalgar Square. And actually probably the nation feeling good about itself. Now, that didn't last that long because politically there were storm clouds, we had a pay freeze. Economically, the country was struggling. It is quite strange that the press and the media, they flick a switch and the moment the game's over and England have won, they'll record that. But the Daily Mirror on Monday morning had a story about a minor Royal. The Telegraph on the Sunday, actually. So the day that people woke up to England being world champions, the Sunday Telegraph ran this piece that we are a nation of cheats. And by that there was this sort of tirade against black market pensioners who were doing gardening for a bit of bunce on top of their pension.

[Interviewer John Baucam]

Yeah, it's quite strange, isn't it, how quickly the party atmosphere dissolves. And you conclude the book, Michael, with quite a poignant chapter, don't you? You talk about the events of October 1966. Firstly, can you just describe what happened in that month and also why you chose to include that.

[Author Michael Calvin]

Well, the book itself is underpinned by heroes. You know, we talk about the England football team and they were. They were local heroes. Whereas today's footballers are almost like international celebrities when they have their statues built, they're built outside their home stadium. Now, I wanted to contrast that mood of heroism, or that perception of heroism by actual people who I consider to be real heroes. And this concerns the story of Aberfan, where the village found itself in the path of a spoil tip called spoil tip, which hit the local school. 144 people were killed, 120 odd were children. And the scenes I can still remember that morning I came across, my mum was weeping and she was watching that evening's news on a black and white tv. We had, in fact, the same TV we watched the World cup final on and she just said, oh, the poor mites, the poor mites, you know, Basically the slag heap hit at 9:13 that morning and the caretaker had arrived earlier that day to put on the boilers, went home just for a bit of breakfast. And as he was walking home for his breakfast, he saw the first movement of the tip coming down, ran to his house, which was in, in its path as well, and saved his, his wife and their baby son and turned straight back down and was one of the first rescuers on the scene. And the last child was brought out alive around about 11 o' clock and he was still working on there, literally digging with his bare hands at the rubble and he actually got into an air pocket and they managed to get a couple of children out. That's extraordinary in any case. But what's even more extraordinary is that he was taken out of the rescuing operation and told that his two elder sons had been killed in the disaster, yet he still turned up, he still turned around and went back to help the rescuing efforts. I thought that was extraordinary. And the other hero that I talk about from that day was the deputy headmaster of the. Of the school who was found sheltering. He had five children in his arms. Tragically they died with him. But his final act was to try and protect his children. And again, I just thought that was just an incredibly powerful act of, I suppose, personal goodness, you know, it was a beautiful thing, futile as it turned out, but. So I wanted to end the book on that note because also what Aberdeen proved at the time. We go back to right at the start of this conversation when we talked about how things were changing, but they were still very deeply entrenched attitudes and the arrogance of power employed by the British national was the National Coal Board. And they made an absolutely scandalous offer to each bereaved family, offering them £50. And then eventually I think they settled on 500. That's just extraordinary, you know, the official indifference or callousness that caused them to behave in that manner. I just wanted to bring that out and as I say, give a completely different view of what heroism means. Everyone remembers the team of 66, the boys of 66. I wanted us also to remember the men of 66 and Aberfan.

[Narrator / Podcast Host]

That was author and broadcaster Michael Calvin speaking to John Baucam. You'll find plenty of other stories about England's World cup victory in Michael's latest book, 1966AMoment in Time, which is out now.

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