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Movies & TV

03rd Jul 2017

People absolutely loved the George Best documentary on the BBC

Paul Moore

Simply the best. Every football fan needs to see this.

When Diego Maradona and Pele speak about greatness, you know that you’re dealing with an extraordinary talent.

Regarding George Best, the Argentinian legend says: “George inspired me when I was young. He was flamboyant and exciting and able to inspire his team-mates. I actually think we were very similar players – dribblers who were able to create moments of magic.”

It’s rare that Maradona and Pele see eye-to-eye, but in the case of George Best, both icons knew brilliance when they saw it.

“I often mentioned George Best as the best player in Europe,” said Pele. He’s not wrong.

As mentioned before, the definitive documentary about the life of Northern Ireland’s finest footballer aired on BBC recently and it absolutely blew everyone away.

Gifted, charismatic, handsome, magical, artist, exciting, prodigious, unique, revolutionary, wild, defiant and godlike. These are just some of the words that you could use to describe George Best because, in his pomp, nobody could touch him. Literally, defenders couldn’t even get close to him.

Literally, defenders couldn’t even get close to him.

This being said, we all know the difficulties that surrounded his personal life and in George Best: All By Himself, football fans are given a remarkable insight into both sides of Best’s character.

In case you haven’t seen the documentary, it revolves around “football’s first rock and roll star – a handsome, charismatic Belfast boy who could thrill and excite the crowds with every turn of the ball. But George Best was also the lead in his own Shakespearean tragedy, a flawed genius, brought down by drink, temptation and depression.”

The documentary is now available online via the BBC iPlayer in Northern Ireland, and we can’t recommend it highly enough for other Irish viewers who (*cough*) always seem to find a way to watch content not readily available through legitimate means.

Just take a look at some of these comments.

Here’s a look at what’s in store.

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