Mike Bassett: England Manager is a 2001 British satirical mockumentary comedy film directed by Steve Barron and starring Ricky Tomlinson, Amanda Redman, Bradley Walsh, Dean Lennox Kelly and Geoff Bell.

[2][3] Journalist Martin Bashir provides voice-over, and the film features satirical cameo appearances from prominent figures in sport and entertainment such as Pelé, Ronaldo, Gabby Logan and Atomic Kitten.

[9] With the film narrated by Martin Bashir in a documentary form, we are told that Norwich City manager Mike Bassett (Ricky Tomlinson) is victorious as his side win the Mr Clutch Cup at Wembley Stadium.

Away from Norwich, it is reported in the papers that England manager Phil Cope has suffered a heart attack during qualification for the World Cup, which started out well but has since gone badly wrong.

Bassett takes over the England team and moves to appoint his coaching staff, namely assistant manager turned car salesman Lonnie Urquart (Philip Jackson) who is not interested unless Mike buys a car from him, and coach Dave Dodds (Bradley Walsh) who is a sycophantic yes man who once managed with Mike at Colchester United (a reference to Phil Neal under the Graham Taylor era).

The team head off to record the official England World Cup song with girl group Atomic Kitten and "hellraiser" Keith Allen.

A difficult group stage sees them on the verge of heading home after they can only manage a goalless draw with unfancied Egypt before losing 4–0 to Mexico.

To make matters worse, Bassett receives a phone call from Karine at home in England, informing him that Jason was bullied at school for the Egypt draw, resulting in his eyebrows being shaved off.

Wackett is then sent home for taking part in hooliganism and Tonkinson accidentally gets involved in a drunken tryst with a transsexual and is also booted from the team.

When he announces that he is carrying on, the press begin to get hostile and Bassett responds by reciting of "If—" by Rudyard Kipling, which he finishes by saying that "England will be playing 4–4–fucking–2" and storms out.

In a close game in which England are the better team, they eventually succeed when Tonkinson dribbles past the Argentinian defence and blasts a shot that deflects off the crossbar.

Tonkinson then punches the ball into the net – a reference to the "hand of God" goal from Argentina's Diego Maradona which helped to knock England out of the 1986 World Cup.

As the plane doors open at the airport, the team depart to a cheering crowd, where a surprised but happy Bassett confirms to the waiting press that he will remain as manager.

Other England players on the team are Scott Mean as Parkesy, Julian Ballantine as Robbo, Thomas Kenyon as Macca, Robert Campion as Smudger, Andy Ansah as Super, Alex Lawler as Sexy, Declan Perkins as Perks, Danny Husbands as Normal, Phil Gridelet as Grids, Dion Osbourne as Ossie, Kim Durham as Benson and Robert Hudson as Hedges.

Bassett subsequently guided Newcastle United to two consecutive relegations, before unsuccessful returns to Norwich and Colchester lead to him taking over at his father's former club, Wirral County.

In 2016 a Kick Starter campaign was started, which saw both Ricky Tomlinson and Bradley Walsh reprise their roles for a promotional trailer, asking fans to fund to a sequel called Mike Bassett: Interim Manager.

It was understood the script centred round Bassett coming out of retirement in order to help assist the current England manager, who is German and struggling to engage his players.

[6] Rugby coach Brendan Venter gave a press interview in 2010 that parodied one given by "Doddsie" in the film, in which he simply agrees with everything the questioner says, even if that contradicts previous answers.

Although the tournament was hosted by Japan and South Korea and not Brazil, England like in the movie drew their opening game with a drab performance but this time with Sweden,[22] they then went on to beat Argentina 1–0.

Although there was no revenge or similarity for the 1986 "hand of God" incident, the penalty scored by David Beckham was seen as redemption following his criticised sending off four years earlier at the 1998 World Cup following a clash with Argentine midfielder Diego Simeone.