We delve into the AW magazine archives to dig out the original review of the Oscar-winning movie

Under the headline “Chariots of Fire: a thrilling and moving film”, Mel Watman wrote the following review in AW exactly 40 years ago.

When, a year or two ago, that talented and distinctive playwright and actor Colin Welland met with a group of athletics historians for an informal discussion on the lives and careers of Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell – prior to writing a screenplay on these heroes of the 1924 Olympics – I was impressed with Colin’s enthusiasm and feeling for the project but was unconvinced that it would ever lead to a major film production.

I was wrong. Chariots of Fire has opened to rave notices, and deservedly so. Thanks to Colin’s admirable screenplay, the vision of producer David Puttnam, the directing talents of Hugh Hudson (in this his first feature film), the splendid acting of the entire cast and the brilliantly realised period flavour created by the production team and technicians, the film is an absolute delight.

I came away not only thrilled, but deeply moved, by this story of two of our greatest ever athletes as they prepare for and meet the supreme sporting challenge of the Olympic Games.

The athletics sequences are lovingly staged (with Bebington Oval, Merseyside, cunningly disguised as Colombes Stadium!), and Tom McNab as technical consultant deserves great credit for the way he trained the actors (none of whom was an athlete) into reasonably fit and credible runners.

But what really makes the film so notable is the off-track action as the contrasting background and motivation of Abrahams and Liddell are explored. Abrahams, son of a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, was spurred on by the genteel anti-semitism he encountered at Cambridge to prove himself a great athlete and be accepted as an Englishman by the Establishment … Liddell, a Scott who was to devote his life to missionary work in China, derived his inner strength from his Christian faith, refusing to bow to pressure after deciding he wouldn’t run on a Sunday.

It could be argued that many of the incidents in the film didn’t happen that way in real life. For instance the film makes out that Liddell only discovered on the journey to Paris that the heats of the 100m would be held on a Sunday, whereas in truth he knew – and made his decision – the previous winter.

There was no conflict, contrary to what is shown, between Eric and his younger sister Jenny over the threat of athletics taking precedence over his evangelism. In Harold’s case, he didn’t meet his beloved wife Sybil until some years after the period in question; it wasn’t he who ‘beat the clock’ dashing round the Great Court at Trinity College (it was Lord Burghley); and he didn’t come home from Paris with the gold medal in his suitcase (it arrived by post one month later!).

One could go on at length, but these and other fabrications don’t matter. The film was, in fact, extremely well researched and what liberties have been taken are fully justified for dramatic effect. The film was never intended to be a documentary account; it is drama, based on fact, and faithful to the character, circumstances and driving forces relating to Abrahams and Liddell.

I came out with a lump in my throat, proud that Harold Abrahams had been a friend and sorry that I had never known Eric Liddell. They were both, in their differing ways, remarkable men as well as superb athletes and Chariots of Fire is a worthy testament to their memory.

Principal members of the cast: Ben Cross (Harold Abrahams), Ian Charleson (Eric Liddell), Nigel Havers (Lord Andrew Lindsey), Nick Farrell (Aubrey Montague), Daniel Gerroll (Henry Stallard), Cheryl Campbell (Jenny Liddell), Alice Krige (Sybil), John Gielgud (Trinity Provost), Lindsay Anderson (Caius Master), Nigel Davenport (Lord Birkenhead), Struan Rodger (Sandy), Ian Holm (Sam Mussabini), Patrick Magee (Lord Cadogan), Dennis Christopher (Charles Paddock), Brad Davis (Jackson Scholz).

Where are they now?

Sadly, some of the key actors in Chariots of Fire have died in the last year. Ben Cross died from cancer in August 2020 aged 72, while the man who played his coach in the film, Ian Holm, died just two months earlier aged 88.

Ian Charleson passed away in 1990 from AIDS-related causes aged only 40. Similarly, Brad Davis was diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s and died in 1991 aged 41.

Nigel Havers, 69, is still going strong and has appeared in television programmes like Midsomer Murders and All Creatures Great and Small in recent years. Alice Krige also went on to have a successful acting career and is now 66.

Dennis Christopher is now 65 and has also been in plenty of films and TV productions over the years such as, relatively recently, playing the lawyer of Leonardo DiCaprio in the Quentin Tarantino film Django.

Some of the Chariots stars have been dead many years now, such as Patrick Magee, who died in 1982. Colin Welland, the writer of the screenplay, also died six years ago although the director Hugh Hudson and David Puttnam plus athletics advisor Tom McNab are all still going strong into their 80s.

Mel Watman, the writer of this review, is still extremely active as an athletics writer and co-edits the Athletics International newsletter in addition to continuing to contribute to AW.

» The May issue of AW magazine features an in-depth article by the athletics advisor for the movie, Tom McNab – to buy a copy CLICK HERE

» For our list of the top 10 athletics movies in history, CLICK HERE