[4] In the 1990s Baldwin, now an honorary graduate of Keele University,[4][5] was appointed as Stoke City Football Club's kit-man by its manager Lou Macari.

[8] In 2022 his story was told on stage, in a play, also called Marvellous, performed at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme and at @sohoplace in London's West End.

The executive producers were Patrick Spence and Peter Bowker for Fifty Fathoms and Tiger Aspect Productions, and Lucy Richer for the BBC.

[25] Sarah Crompton, for The Daily Telegraph, described Marvellous as "sweet and sharp ... on the whole a great number of people emerge well from this film, including Stoke City’s former manager Lou Macari (played by Tony Curran but also popping in as himself) and many long suffering clergy.

And the most compelling argument yet that – despite all the evidence presented by previous filmic depictions of the beautiful game – it is possible to extract telling fiction from football.

[27] Rachel Cooke in the New Statesman said of Toby Jones' portrayal of Baldwin that he "played him brilliantly, turning in an understated performance that combined innocence and wryness to powerful effect".

She praised Bowker’s "pitch perfect script, which was as natural sounding as a conversation overheard on the top deck of a bus", and Farino’s direction – "so deft, quirky, witty and attentive to important details (buildings as well as moods; rooms as well as body language)".