Writer Nicky Allt on The Sunderland Story as it returns to the Empire

Transcript

00:00Well, I was always wanting to do a show up in the North East and I had two massive Sunderland fans

00:07live close to me who were saying, you've got to write the Sunderland show, you've got to write

00:11the Sunderland show. So when I started to research it and looked at the history of the city and the

00:16history of the football club, it was quite dense. I never realised just how big Sunderland were,

00:20the football club. It was the biggest football club in the world around the turn of the 19th

00:25century. So I decided to do it. I've got the feeling it will probably be the last football

00:32club that I will do because I think when you do a club like Sunderland, there's a pressure on it

00:38and the pressure is to get it right because it's still a local football club, Sunderland.

00:44I say this and the two season ticket holders by me don't like the fact that I say it.

00:48They just want a trophy away from going crazy and I think if Sunderland win a trophy,

00:53the fans will be more than happy but will they be happy on the other side once it's hard to get

00:57in the ground, there's all kinds of new people turn up. But what I would say is the beginning

01:04concept of it started with two fans on my case. Peter Reeds told me I should write it as well,

01:09the ex-manager, and I just thought the whole story of the shipping, the mines

01:15with the football club, I just thought it was one that I should take on.

01:22At the beginning, quite slow because people didn't know what to expect and by the end we

01:26never had enough nights. Literally they were pouring in because people got it then and I

01:31think this time what I would do is I want to write more about the city now, not just the football

01:36team. It's given me that chance too so thank God it went well but I did feel a pressure because as

01:42I say, Sunderland is very precious to people. I feel quite privileged at times and that's the

01:47pressure that came with it. Have you got any favourite scenes that will be staying in the next

01:52season? Oh there'll be a number of scenes that are staying in. I mean you can't take people out

01:56like Rach Carter, you can't take people out like Shackleton, you can't take out Bobby Gurney.

02:02There's certain people you can't take out, you can't take out the 73 team but we had the

02:08anniversary of the 73 team last time so that'll have to be toned down a lot now because it's

02:12going to be more about the present side who are pushing for promotion now and more about the city

02:19itself so certain scenes will stay but a lot of new scenes about the city and the city's culture.