Norwich City F.C. - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

In the 2001 film Mike Bassett: England Manager, the eponymous hero, played by Ricky Tomlinson, rises to prominence as a result of success as manager of Norwich City, having won the 'Mr Clutch Cup'. The celebratory scenes of the open-top bus ride around the city (right) were actually shot in St Albans, Hertfordshire, rather than Norwich.

In 1972 the Children's Film Foundation released a movie called "The Boy Who Turned Yellow", about a boy living in London who supports Norwich City. In the film, he and everyone and everything else on his tube train are turned yellow. That night he is visited by a yellow alien called Nick, short for electronic, who teaches him all about electricity. The link to the football club is used to explain why the boy already has so many yellow things in his bedroom.

In 1997, the film version of Nick Hornby's book Fever Pitch told of the 1988–89 season, in which Norwich City, still in contention for the league title on 1 May, when games were resumed following the Hillsborough disaster, played at Arsenal, the favourite club of the film's protagonist, Paul Ashworth (Colin Firth). Notoriously pessimistic about Arsenal's chances despite their current first-place status, Paul says, "I want us to win. And I think we will." His friend Steve (Mark Strong) says, "Well, that's new. Home to Norwich, you'd usually be predicting, what, a 2–0 defeat? Nil–nil, maybe, if you was really on top of the world?" But, buoyed by several strokes of good luck (and by Hornby, also the film's scriptwriter, having the benefit of hindsight), Paul predicts a 5–0 victory, which turns to be the exact score, knocking Norwich out of the race, in which they finished fourth, their best first-division finish until the 1992–93 season.

On 28 February 2005, majority shareholder Delia Smith put Norwich into the limelight at half-time during a televised home match against Manchester City. With relegation from the Premier League looking likely, Delia took hold of the microphone and in an effort to rally the crowd, shouted "A message for the best football supporters in the world: We need a 12th man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let’s be having you! Come on!" and clips of the Sky Sports coverage were hosted by YouTube.