What to Watch Next If You Liked Chariots of Fire

As the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad open in Paris, Cinema Paradiso goes back 100 years to see how the achievements of two British athletes at the 1924 Olympics were immortalised in Hugh Hudson's Oscar winner, Chariots of Fire (1981).

The Paris Olympics of 1924 featured prominently in a couple of articles that Cinema Paradiso posted in July 2021, when the Tokyo Games were held over a year because of Coronavirus. Some of the names and titles referenced in A Brief History of the Summer Olympics on Film and Introducing the Thesping Olympians will crop up again in this look back at the most famous Olympic movie of them all, Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire (1981).

Over 40 years have passed since audiences around the world queued to see how Cambridge graduate Harold Abrahams overcame anti-Semitic prejudice and Christian missionary Eric Liddell followed his conscience to win gold medals at the VIII Olympiad. A century on from their heroics, the issues they faced remain a dismaying reality of modern life. The film may tweak the truth. But, while it outwardly appears to be a sentimental sports story, filled with patriotic notions and heritage trappings, Chariots of Fire's simple, but inspirational message very much retains its relevance.

Jeux sans Frontières

The Paris Games of 1924 opened on 5 July. A decade earlier, Europe had been on the brink of a war that would claim the lives of 143 athletes who had competed at Athens in 1896, Paris in 1900, St Louis in 1904, London in 1908, and in Stockholm in 1912. Ironically, the 1916 Olympics had been due to have been held in Berlin, but humanity had taken the first steps towards healing after the Great War at Antwerp in 1920.

Five years after the Treaty of Versailles, the focus of the world was again on the French capital, as it became the first city to hold the Games twice - although it has had to wait a century to do so for a third time, after London had stepped up to the mark in 1948 and 2012. Los Angeles, which had become the world's film capital during the conflict in Europe, will equal the feat in four yeas time, after having hosted in 1932 and 1984.

The VIII Olympiad was the last to be organised by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, and that's perhaps why Paris got the nod over Amsterdam, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Prague, and Rome, when bids were submitted in 1921. All told, 44 nations competed in 126 events across 17 sports and 23 disciplines. The most telling statistic, however, reveals a significant discrepancy between the 2954 male athletes and the 135 female counterparts sharing the first Olympic Village.

Largely centred on the Colombes Olympic Stadium, this was also the first Games to use the famous motto, 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' ('Faster, Higher, Stronger'), which had been coined by a Dominican priest, Henri Didon, in 1891. With a capacity of 45,000, the Colombes was the venue for the opening ceremony and the entry of the American, British, and French teams was recreated in Chariots of Fire. If you look carefully during the US training sequence, you will also see long jumper DeHart Hubbard, who became the first African-American to win an individual gold medal in the same stadium in which compatriot Harold Osborn set new Olympic records in taking the high jump and the decathlon. He was dubbed, 'the world's greatest athlete', but his name is became better known courtesy of Marvel Comics, as Harry Osborn is the best friend of Peter Parker, and he was played by James Franco in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (2007).

The 'greatest' epithet should have been bestowed on the true track star of the Games, Paavo Nurmi. Having won the 1500m and 5000m with only an hour between each race, the 'Flying Finn' also won the cross country event and took team golds in cross country and the 3000m. Yet, to date, he has only been commemorated in a pair of TV documentaries, Peter von Bagh's Paavo Nurmi: The Man and His Times (1977) and Tuomo Kaminen and Juha-Pekka Ristmeri's Paavo Nurmi: The Best Ever (1997), although Nurmi was the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman's character in the William Goldman novel that inspired John Schlesinger's Marathon Man (1976). Teammate Albin Stenroos actually won the longest race at Paris 1924, while Ville Ritola, Nurmi's colleague in the team events, scooped the 3000m and the steeplechase to give Finland an unprecedented grip on the distance titles.

Like the invincible Finns, Frenchman Roger Ducret is also awaiting a biopic, despite winning three golds in a five-medal fencing haul. This was one more than the golds for the 100m, the 400m freestyle, and the 800m freestyle relay, as well as a bronze for water polo, that were amassed by American swimmer, Johnny Weissmuller. He had been born in Szabadfalva, which was then part of the Hapsburg empire and now finds itself in Romania under the name Freidorf. The Weißmüllers sailed to Ellis Island a year later and Johnny started swimming at the age of nine after a Chicago doctor had recommended the sport as a way to recover from polio. Weissmuller would defend his 100m and relay titles in Amsterdam in 1928 and turned to acting after retiring with 67 world records to his name.

Such details can be found in Florin Iepan and Eva Specht's The One, the Only, the Real Tarzan (2004). This short documentary isn't available in disc. But Cinema Paradiso users can see Weissmuller in his most iconic screen role in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), W.S. Van Dyke's adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's bestselling jungle adventure. Over the next 16 years, Weissmuller reprised the role on 11 occasions, the first six of which made by MGM and featured Maureen O'Hara as Jane. Over the next 16 years, Weissmuller (complete with the famous call created by sound engineer Douglas Shearer) would also headline Tarzan and His Mate (1934), Tarzan Escapes (1936), Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939), Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941), Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942), Tarzan Triumphs, Tarzan's Desert Mystery (both 1943), Tarzan and the Amazons (1945), Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946), Tarzan and the Huntress (1947) and Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948).

A cameoing Weissmuller can also be seen washing dishes in Frank Borzage's wartime flagwaver, Stage Door Canteen (1943). But his 16-film stint as Jungle Jim isn't currently available on disc and the same goes for the 26 episode TV series about the same character that saw him bring down the curtain on his acting career.

Weissmuller competed in the first 50m Olympic pool with lane markings painted on the bottom. But Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell competed on an old-fashioned cinder track at the Stade de Colombes, hence Chariots of Fire showing Abrahams using a trowel to dig heel holes on the starting line. Curiously, the film doesn't include any medal ceremonies, which means they overlooked the notable moment when Baron de Coubertin presented gold medals to George Mallory and the other members of the 1922 British Everest Expedition. Two years later, Mallory and Andrew Irvine's bid for the summit of the world's highest mountain would be recorded by J.B.L. Noel in The Epic of Everest (1924). The expedition is also the subject of Anthony Geffen's The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest (2010), which is narrated by Liam Neeson and stars Ralph Fiennes and Hugh Dancy as Mallory and Irvine.

All's Well That Ends Welland

David Puttnam was one of Britain's most innovative film producers in the 1970s. Starting out with Waris Husein's Melody (1971), he had enjoyed succcess with such diverse pictures as Claude Whatham's That'll Be the Day, Lutz Becker's Double Headed Eagle: Hitler's Rise to Power 1918 - 1933 (both 1973), Michael Apted's Stardust, Ken Russell's Mahler (both 1974), Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone (1976), and Ridley Scott's The Duellists (1977). He had just followed the critical and commercial success of Parker's Midnight Express (1978) with a rare flop, Adrian Lyne's feature debut, Foxes (1980). But Puttnam was soon on the lookout for his next idea.

'I literally stumbled across this story,' Puttnam admitted while recalling how he had found a copy of Bill Henry's An Approved History of the Olympic Games while laid up with the flu bug in a house in Malibu. 'I had always loved the film A Man for All Seasons, ' Puttnam continued. 'What I loved about it was that important thing in the cinema, the conceit that you would act as he did if you were put in that position.'

'Originally I was looking for a story. Something tangible,' he explained in an interview, 'that someone would do something extraordinary, but contemporary. Now it turned out that the book got all sorts of things wrong, but the important thing that he got right was this guy who refused to run in the heats which were run on a Sunday.'

This was Eric Liddell, who had been born in 1902 to Christian missionary parents based in China. He had been raised in Scotland and had played for his country as a rugby union winger after studying at the University of Edinburgh. But Liddell was also one of the fastest sprinters in the country and he had decided to postpone taking up a post in China in order to compete in the 100m at the Paris Olympics. However, the qualifying heats were on a Sunday and Liddell simply refused to compromise his principles and run on the Sabbath.

'I thought "boy oh boy, this is exactly it,"' Puttnam remembered and he contacted Colin Welland about writing the screenplay. A Liverpudlian whose early acting career had seen him play PC David Graham in Z Cars (1962-65) before he won a Best Supporting BAFTA for his performance as Mr Farthing in Ken Loach's adaptation of Barry Hines's Kes (1969). Other feature roles came in Michael Tuchner's Villain and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (both 1971), but Welland was a more familiar face in such TV series as Fraud Squad (1969-70), Man At the Top (1970-72), The Sweeney (1972-78), Blue Remembered Hills (1979), and Cowboys (1980).

Fine actor though he was, Welland would become known for his writing, which had taken off after the BAFTA success of 'Say Goodnight to Your Grandma' (1970), which can be rented from Cinema Paradiso on Armchair Theatre, Vol.1 (2010). Set against the Troubles in Northern Ireland, 'Your Man From Six Counties' (1976) is also available on Play For Today, Vol.1 (2010), while 'The Hallelujah Handshake' (1970) forms part of the 2022 BFI compilation, Alan Clarke At the BBC (1969-1989) .

Welland had ventured into features with John Schlesinger's Yanks (1979). which had required him to research life in wartime Britain. He similarly immersed himself in the 1924 Olympics and not only watched grainy black-and-white footage at the National Film Archive (Jean de Rovera's Les Jeux Olympiques Paris 1924 is available free on the BFIplayer), but he also interviewed those who responded to his newspaper appeal for anyone with recollections about the Paris Games to come forward. Among those to respond was 79 year-old Harold Abrahams. But, as Puttnam rather bluntly put it: 'We started working with Harold, but on the third meeting, we met his coffin.' Welland attended the memorial service in February 1978 and it afforded him the idea for the opening scene.

Another to reply was the son of steeplechaser Evelyn Montague, who loaned Welland the letters that his father had written home to his parents. In return, Welland decided to use Montague's middle name, 'Aubrey', and made him Abrahams's chum at Cambridge when he had actually studied at Magdalen College, Oxford. Welland borrowed several passages verbatim to serve as narrative bridges, although Montague had used the term 'Darling Mummy' rather than 'Dear Mum'.

In addition to Liddell and Abrahams, the early drafts of 'The Runners' (as the project was then called) had focussed on Don Lowe, another Cambridge graduate who had pipped fellow Cantabrigian, Henry Stallard, to 800m gold. When Puttnam contacted Lowe (who was by then a judge) about including him in the narrative, he received a terse response demanding to know about fees. 'I wrote what I thought was rather a nice letter,' Puttnam recalled, 'saying we are going to make an honorarium of 500 guineas to all involved. He wrote back to say he wanted nothing to do with it.'

The exchange was to have an unfortunate conclusion, as Puttnam remembered. 'The day the film came out, the obituary of Judge Lowe, who had died the previous week, came out in The Times. Half of it was about how proud he would have been to have seen the exploits of his compatriots celebrated. So this man who wouldn't let us use his name or have anything to do with us ended up having half his obituary in The Times usurped by the movie.'

Needing a new character, Welland consulted technical director, Tom McNab. 'We don't want another gold medallist,' he had reasoned. 'That is going to take attention away from the two main characters. Why don't we have a rather dilettante sort of person, a rather aristocratic person and make him something different, a hurdler?' Welland came up with Lord Andrew Lindsay, who owed much to Lord Burghley, 6th Marquess of Exeter, who had competed in the 110m hurdles in Paris before going on to take the 400m hurdles in 1928. Indeed, he was still a member of the International Olympic Committee at the time of filming and proved most helpful to Puttnam and his crew, as they embarked upon the shoot for what was now Chariots of Fire, after a biblically inspired line in William Blake's poem, 'Jerusalem'.

Much Ado About Running

As Lord Andrew Lindsay (Nigel Havers) leads a memorial service to Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) in 1978, his mind goes to back to running on Broadstairs beach with his fellow members of Britain's 1924 Olympic squad. Five years earlier, Lindsay had first met Abrahams after he has come up to Gonville & Caius College and had shared a taxi across Cambridge with Aubrey Montague (Nicolas Farrell). Rogers (Richard Griffiths), the college porter, had made a casual anti-Semitic remark that had riled Abrahams and been echoed out of his hearing by the Master of Caius (Lindsay Anderson) and his Trinity counterpart (John Gielgud), while they discuss the new intake.

The Master makes a stirring speech at formal hall about the freshmen being fortunate in having avoided the trenches of the Western Front. But, now, they bear the responsibility of having to live up to the standards set by the Lost Generation. It's not all dour intensity, however, as Abrahams signs up to the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, amidst rumours that he is going to attempt to run round Trinity Great Court in the time it takes for the chapel clock to strike midday. A sizeable crowd gathers to watch the attempt, with one wag opining that Abrahams should 'do it for Israel' (a line cut from the US print). As no one has ever achieved the feat, Lindsay decides to offer Abrahams some competition, only to trail in his wake, as Abrahams makes history - to the dismay of the watching dons, who feel that he is cocky enough.

While his reputation as a sprinter grows through a series of track wins that earns him the admiration of D'Oyly Carte soprano, Sybil Gordon (Alice Krige), Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) is handing out prizes at a sporting event for underprivileged boys in Scotland. Born in China to missionary parents, he has made his name as a rugby winger. But coach Sandy McGrath (Struan Rodger) believes he can be a champion runner and Liddell upsets his devout sister, Jennie (Cheryl Campbell) when he decides to devote his energies to winning an Olympic medal before returning to the mission, as he believes that making the most of his talent gives God pleasure.

When Liddell and Abrahams first cross paths, the Scot wins handsomely and Sybil chides her beau for taking defeat so badly. But coach Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm) has seen enough to offer to help Abrahams refine his technique and increase his speed. The masters of Caius and Trinity reproach Abrahams for hiring a professional and playing the tradesman. But he detects in their remarks, a class snobbery that is tainted with prejudice against his Jewishness and Mussabini's Italian-Arab heritage.

Years pass in the twinkling of a montage and Abrahams and Liddell find themselves selected for the 100m at the Paris Olympics. Before the Channel crossing, F.E. Smith, Lord Birkenhead (Nigel Davenport), addresses the team on behalf of the British committee and reminds them of their patriotic duty. However, Liddell is crestfallen when he discovers on the gangplank that the heats for the 100m fall on a Sunday and he informs Birkenhead of his refusal to run. Promising to pull some strings because the French owe Britain a few favours after the war, Birkenhead tells Liddell not to worry. Thus, he's able to join in a cricket match in the ballroom of the team hotel (also missing from the US cut), where Montague and Lindsay roar with laughter when Abrahams throws a tantrum when umpire Henry Stallard (Daniel Gerroll) refuses to give Liddell out.

His mood is hardly helped when he is soundly beaten in the 200m by Americans Jackson Scholz (Brad Davis) and Charley Paddock (Dennis Christopher). But Liddell is also in despair, as the French have refused to amend the programme and Birkenhead summons committee president, the Duke of Sutherland (Peter Egan), chair Lord Cadogan (Patrick Magee), and the Prince of Wales (David Yelland) to shame him into doing his bit for the team. Fortunately, Lindsay intervenes to offer his place in the 400m on Thursday, as he has already bagged a silver in the 400m hurdles. Suitably grateful, Liddell preaches in the Church of Scotland chapel on the Sunday, while Abrahams progresses through the heats with the help of Mussabini, whose professional status means that he is barred from the Stade de Colombes and has to listen to the sound of the crowd from nearby lodgings.

On the day of the final, Mussabini is so overcome by the sound of 'God Save the King' that he punches a hole in his straw boater. While Abrahams is reunited with Sybil, Liddell takes the step up to the 400m in his stride. The American coach scoffs at his chances in the final, but Scholz hands him a note bearing a quotation from the Book of Samuel ('Those who honour me, I will honour') for having adhered to his principles. With his head back and his arms flailing in his trademark style, Liddell beats the odds to secure a surprise victory, with Jennie watching from the stands. However, the sense of triumph is tempered by a closing caption that reveals that while Abrahams went on to become a senior figure in the British athletics hierarchy, Liddell perished in a Japanese internment camp during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Up to a Point, Lord Birkenhead

Long before John Ford made The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), writers have been following the advice of Dutton Peabody, the editor of The Shinbone Star: 'When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.' Colin Welland went one better in scripting Chariots of Fire, as he created a series of mini-legends by playing fast and loose with the historical record. As a consequence, the film is accurate 'up to a point', as Mr Salter, the obsequious foreign editor of The Daily Beast, would assure proprietor Lord Copper, when questioning the veracity of his assertions in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop (1938), which was splendidly adapted by William Boyd for a 1987 Gavin Millar teleplay that is sadly no longer available on disc.

Things get off to a shaky start factually, as Montague is shown at the memorial service for Abrahams three decades after his own demise (from the tuberculosis he had contracted in Italy as a war correspondent). As we have already seen, Montague was at Oxford rather than Cambridge, while David Cecil, Lord Burghley (the model for Lord Lindsay) came up after Harold Abrahams had graduated in 1923. Burghley did complete the Great Court dash in 1927, but Abrahams never even attempted it. Inspired by the film, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram recreated the scene for charity in 1988, with the former beating the clock with a time of 45:52 seconds.

Welland also reworked Burghley's habit of placing matchboxes on hurdles to improve his technique by having Lindsay balance filled glasses of champagne on the wooden crossbeams. Ginger beer was used for the shoot. Burghley failed to progress from the heats in Paris, although he did take the 400m hurdles gold in 1928. Therefore, his gesture of giving up his place in the 400m to Liddell is completely fictitious. As is the Scot's discovery of the 100m heat schedule as he boarded the boat to France. The programme had been published several weeks earlier and Liddell had trained for the longer event after reaching an agreement with the committee after having had his patriotism questioned in the press. His remarkable recovery from a stumble did actually happen, but at a three-nation event at Stoke-on-Trent in July 1923 rather than in a Scotland–France meet.

Similarly, the incident depicting Liddell leaving Abrahams trailing in his wake actually happened in a heat of the 220 yards rather than the 100 yards. The film has Mussabini agreeing to coach Abrahams after watching this race, when the pair had actually been introduced by Liddell some time earlier. Intriguingly, the athletes did line up against each other in Paris in the 200m, which culminated in Liddell taking bronze behind Paddock and Scholz. However, the film ducks this confrontation (in which Abrahams finished sixth), while also shifting it in the Games calendar. Welland uses Abrahams's poor showing as a motivation to win the 100m, when, in fact, he had already secured his gold before lining up for the 200m. Following the logic of this rejig, Liddell would have missed the heats of the 200m and, therefore, would not have needed to swap to the 400m, as the 100m would have been staged later in the week and not on a Sunday. But where's the drama in that?

Arthur Porritt, the former Governor-General of New Zealand who had taken bronze in the 100m, was too modest to have his name used in the film. However, alter ego Tom Watson was similarly studying at Oxford when he was called up to compete. As the 100m took place at 7pm on 7 July, Porritt and Abrahams dined together at that time for the next 50 years. One wonders why they never invited Scholz!

The Americans bested the Brits in the 4 x 100m relay, although Abrahams was the only Chariots character in the race. As the final took place on a Sunday, Liddell would have opted out, even if he had been selected. The film has Scholz hand him the supportive note on the track before the 400m, whereas, it had been passed on by a masseur at the hotel on behalf of the British team. Seeking to ensure that US audiences got to see enough of their boys in the picture, Welland contacted Scholz and asked if he minded being part of a harmless dramatic deception. The Michigander replied, 'Yes, great, as long as it makes me look good.'

Despite cameoing in the Parisian church sequence, Jenny Liddell Somerville was apparently unhappy with her depiction as a scolding killjoy. She was considerably younger than her brother and was in China with her parents when they learned of his Olympic success. As the postal service was so slow, they only got the news several weeks after the event. Liddell's widow, Florence, was also upset at the way Charlson ran on screen. 'You got one thing wrong,' she informed Puttnam after a private screening, 'Eric was a beautiful runner.' However, he knew he was on safe ground. 'In fact,' he remembered, 'because we had footage of him, we knew he ran with his arms flailing. So the only thing we knew we got right was the one thing she thought we'd got wrong.'

By contrast, Patricia Liddell-Russell, the athlete's 89 year-old daughter, is fond of the film and was recently interviewed to help promote its reissue in cinemas. Asked by The Daily Telegraph what she hoped people would take from the story, she replied: 'Somebody who stands by their principles even under great pressure. The press were, "How can you do this? You are letting your country down." But you stand by what is important to you. He was not stiff - he didn't wear his religion on his hip - he was a very modest family man.'

Abrahams was also a doting father, as he adopted two children with his wife, who had made her name singing in Savoy operas with the D'Oyly Carte company. However, Welland got the wrong Sybil in researching the script. He has Abrahams wooing Sybil Gordon, when he actually met Sybil Evers a decade after his triumph in Paris. They married in 1936, the year of the infamous Berlin Games that were covered as a journalist by Montague and filmed by Leni Riefenstahl as Olympia (1938), although only the first part, The Festival of Nations, is currently available from Cinema Paradiso.

The stadium in Berlin staged the final of Euro 2024. The Stade de Colombes, which is now known as the Stade Yves-du-Manoir, will host the field hockey at the 2024 Olympics. Players will pass a memorial that reads: 'This plaque is in honour of Eric Liddell, the "Flying Scotsman". A sporting and human example which remains a symbol of friendship between France, Scotland and the United Kingdom. A legend. A heritage. A source of inspiration."

Harold Abrahams would have concurred, as he once said of his rival, 'People may shout their heads off about his appalling style. Let them. He gets there.' This curt tribute might have found its way into Chariots of Fire. But Lord Puttnam has no regrets about the film's omissions, alterations, and inventions. 'The interesting thing,' he once said, 'is you have to make these judgements, where is the greater truth, the greater truth is the importance that they got that medal. I have never felt for one moment that any of the liberties that we took were wrong. I never felt there were any distortions in the story.'

Paris on the Mersey

Initially backed by Goldcrest Films, Chariots of Fire was acquired by Allied Stars, the company owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, who secured son Dodi Fayed a position among the executive producers. Half of the budget, however, came from 20th Century-Fox, in return for the distribution rights outside of North America.

Puttnam remained at the tiller, though, and he chose Hugh Hudson to make his feature bow on the strength of his second unit efforts on Midnight Express and the commercials that Hudson had been making since the 1960s, when Puttnam worked in advertising. As the director told The Guardian: 'I think David Puttnam chose me because he sensed I'd relate to the themes of class and racial prejudice. I'd been sent to Eton because my family had gone there for generations, but I hated all the prejudice. The scriptwriter, Colin Welland, a working-class boy from Merseyside, understood it perfectly, too. So it was a personal story for us.'

Realising he needed young actors to play the athletes, Puttnam asked coach Tom McNab to sit in on the auditions to gauge whether the hopefuls could run convincingly. McNab recalled, 'I had about 32 actors at Putney on a cinder track in the middle of the winter. Most of them were sick during the warm-up. They weren't fit in any way.' Those chosen underwent a rigorous three-month training programme, with the camp helping forge an esprit de corps that was carried on to the set.

Ben Cross was spotted playing Billy Flynn in the original London production of Chicago (which won Best Picture when filmed by Rob Marshall in 2002) and he did his own piano playing during the Gilbert and Sullivan sing-along aboard the ferry. After a lengthier search, Ian Charleson was cast on the strength of his performance as Pierre in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Pam Gem's Piaf.

As part of the Fox deal, it was agreed that a couple of Hollywood stars would be included to help sell a British story to American audiences. Puttnam eagerly reunited with Brad Davis from Midnight Express and plumped for Dennis Christopher after his success in Peter Yates's cycling classic, Breaking Away (1979). Sharp eyes will notice a young Stephen Fry behind Alice Kriege during the HMS Pinafore sequence and Kenneth Branagh (who was a gofer on the set) as a student at the varsity Society Day.

In fact, although a second unit did visit Cambridge, the university was reluctant to allow filming on its premises because of the accusations of anti-Semitism among the academic and domestic staff. As a result, Hudson persuaded his alma mater, Eton College, to stand in for Caius and Trinity. George Heriot's School in Edinburgh agreed to let the Scotland-France meet to be re-staged at the Goldenacre Sports Ground, while the Ireland fixture was held at the nearby Inverleith Sports Ground.

While the cast and crew were in Scotland, it was decided to film the bookending beach scene on the West Coast rather than schlepp down to Broadstairs in Kent. Hamilton Hall, a red stone student block, stood in for the Carlton Hotel, while West Sands, abutting the 18th hole at the famous St Andrews golf links, provided the beach. However, when everyone arrived to shoot the scene on 24 April 1980, conditions were disappointing to say the least. 'There was no wind,' Hudson recalled, 'the light was totally flat, but we didn't have time or money to wait. As luck would have it, though, a grain of sand got into the camera and scratched the negative so we had to go back and redo it. This time the wind was up, creating all those white horses on the sea. We did it in just two shots, one wide and one close. The cinematographer, David Watkin, managed to create an extraordinary, almost strobe-like effect.'

The beach run wasn't intended to be the opening scene. One draft had the camera alight upon a television screen in a London shop window as an East German athlete was being presented with their medal. But Hudson recognised the importance of the scene. 'Everybody remembers the opening jogging scene along the beach,' he reflected in a Guardian interview. 'It was key to establishing character: Harold Abrahams, gaunt and determined; Eric Liddell, Scottish, blond, open and free; Aubrey Montague, the amiable, faithful old dog; Lord Andrew Lindsay, the aristocrat, running for the fun of it.'

Just as crucial to the scene's success, however, was the music. Puttnam had worked with Greek composer Vangelis Papathanassiou on a number of commercials and documentaries and was so taken by 'L'Enfant' from the soundtrack to Frédéric Rossif's documentary, Opéra Sauvage (1979), that he had Hudson play the track as the actors ran on West Sands. The director was happy to oblige: 'I knew we needed a piece which was anachronistic to the period to give it a feel of modernity. It was a risky idea but we went with it rather than have a period symphonic score.'

On seeing the sequence, Vangelis asked if he could compose an original piece because his father had been a runner and he wanted the theme to honour him. Combining synthesizers, acoustic piano, drums, and percussion, 'The Chariots of Fire Theme' was as unheritage as it could possibly be. But it worked superbly and 'L'Enfant' was adapted for the brass band to play during the opening ceremony of the 1924 Games. A variation on Vangelis's 'Hymne' also accompanies the scene of Liddell running in the hills.

Steam locomotives borrowed from the National Railway Museum decorated the station scene shot in nearby York, while the Woodside ferry terminal in Birkenhead was made over for the dock scenes in Dover and Calais. Indeed, Merseyside played a blinder throughout the production. The Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool stood in for London's Savoy Theatre for the scene in which Abrahams first sees Sybil in The Mikado, while the city's Town Hall (which we mentioned in the What to Watch Next article on A Hard Day's Night, 1964) did duty as the British Embassy in Paris.

Most importantly, the Oval Sports Centre in Bebington on the Wirral got to host the Olympic action, as it was one of the few venues in the country that still had a cinder track. The stands were not quite as impressive as those capable of seating 45,000. But the positioning of a large white 'Colombes' sign behind the track gave the old place a more authentic feel, as did the thousands of extras recruited from across the peninsula.

In addition to the opening ceremony and the athletics, the Stade de Colombes was also used for cycling, gymnastics, football, and rugby, as well as some of the equestrian events and the running and fencing elements of the Modern Pentathlon. A century on, the stadium will stage the hockey tournament with a bright blue pitch. In 1938, Colombes also witnessed the World Cup Final between Italy and Hungary, which makes it somewhat apt that the Hidegkuti Nándor Stadion in Budapest deputised for the ground as it hosted the match between the POWs and the Nazis in John Huston's Escape to Victory (1980), with the Colombes showers offering a route for the likes of Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Bobby Moore, and Pelé to disappear with the help of the French Resistance into the Parisian sewer network.

The British Are Coming

Having been selected for the Royal Film Performance at the Odeon Haymarket on 30 March 1981, Chariots of Fire opened gradually across the country over the next month. When it screened at Cannes, it received a special mention from the Ecumenical Jury, while Ian Holm won the prize for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Sam Mussabini.

The reviews were largely positive and the picture was the most watched British film of 1981, with rentals of £1,859,480. Following its release on 21 September, it was even more successful in North America. Distributed by The Ladd Company through Warner Bros, it grossed around $59 million and surpassed Ivan Reitman's Meatballs (1979) as the most successful import at the US box office.

Having won Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, Chariots landed 11 BAFTA nominations. Despite winning Best Film, Hudson lost out for Best Director to Louis Malle for Atlantic City (1980), while Welland was pipped by Bill Forsyth for Gregory's Girl (1981). Nigel Havers had the consolation of losing out to Ian Holm for Best Supporting Actor, while Milena Canonero could celebrate a win for her costumes. But cinematographer David Watkin, editor Terry Rawlings, production designer Roger Hall, and sound crew Clive Winter, Bill Rowe, and Jim Shields all missed out. As did Vangelis, to Carl Davis for Karel Reisz's adaptation of John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman.

At the 54th Academy Awards, Puttnam was presented with the Oscar for Best Picture, while Vangelis won for his score. Canonero completed a notable double, but Holm saw co-star John Gielgud take Best Supporting Actor for Steve Gordon's Arthur (1981). Hudson and Malle had to play second fiddles to Warren Beatty for Reds, while Rawlings could have few complaints about following a BAFTA loss to Thelma Schoonmaker for Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980) with an honorable defeat by Michael Kahn for Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

In accepting his Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Colin Welland made the speech of the night. 'What you've done for the British film industry!' he started. 'I'd just like to thank David Puttnam for having the wisdom to ask me to write it in the first place; Hugh Hudson for respecting me and my script, which is a very hard thing to find in our business as you know; all the actors for getting fit enough to appear like Olympic athletes; and to British television, where I learned my craft. I'd like to finish with a word of warning: You may have started something. The British are coming.'

His words seemed prophetic when Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) took the main prize the following year. Subsequently, however, the only Best Picture winners with British but not American involvement have been Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987), Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and Tom Hooper's The King's Speech (2010). In fairness, though, Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996), John Madden's Shakespeare in Love (1998), Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013), and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023) were all Anglo-American winners of the award.

Danny Boyle recreated the beach run as part of the 'Isles of Wonder' opening ceremony at London 2012, with Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean not only cheating in a tideline cutaway, but also messing up the London Symphony Orchestra's rendition of the theme. This silent masterclass really should have found its way into Caroline Rowland's First: The Official Film of the London 2012 Olympics (2012).

Across the capital, Mike Bartlett adapted Chariots for the West End stage in 2012 and it has been revived for the centenary of the 1924 Games. The idea for the play came from Hugh Hudson. 'Issues of faith,' he said, 'of refusal to compromise, standing up for one's beliefs, achieving something for the sake of it, with passion, and not just for fame or financial gain, are even more vital today.' Eric Liddell's example subsequently inspired Stephen Shin and Michael Parker's Wings of Eagles (aka The Last Race, 2016), which starred Joseph Fiennes as the missionary trusting to God at the Weihsien internment camp in Shandong Province. But most people will always think of Liddell and Abrahams in the guise of Ben Cross and Ian Charlson splashing across West Sands in timeless slow motion.