Escape to Victory: The Cult Classic with Pele, Bobby Moore and Sylvester Stallone | Christmas Special
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2025
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast. In this Christmas Special Episode, co-hosts Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper are joined by author John Smith to talk about his new book - 'Escape: A Love Letter to a Cult Football Classic' all about the film 'Escape to Victory'. The trio delve into the making of the film, revealing behind-the-scenes stories, discussing the film's historical context, and analysing the football sequences. We take a look at inside stories from the remarkable cast and crew, including Pele and Sylvester Stallone. The three discuss amusing anecdotes, the authenticity of the football matches and the film's lasting impact. This episode is a must-listen for fans of film and football history. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas from the It Was What It Was team!
00:00 Introduction and Welcoming John Smith
04:41 The Making of 'Escape to Victory'
20:44 Historical Resonances and Themes
28:59 Behind the Scenes Stories
34:09 The Escape Plan in the Film
37:11 The Cast and Their Connections
41:36 The Missing Footballer Mystery
46:01 Lack of Female Characters
47:06 The Football Game Analysis
53:19 The Half-Time Escape Plan
58:00 The Final Match Moments
01:06:13 Concluding Thoughts and Farewell
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to It Was What It Was, I'm Jonathan Wilson and with Bob Draper. |
| 0:10.9 | And for this Christmas episode, we're joined by John Smith, the author of Escape, a hugely enjoyable book about what is for me by a long way the best football film ever made |
| 0:23.2 | Escape to Victory. John, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me on. Big fan of the pod and |
| 0:28.6 | Merry Christmas as well. Thank you very much. Merry Christmas. Rob. Happy Christmas to you, John. |
| 0:33.3 | Yeah. John, I haven't enjoyed preparing a podcast more than this one, partly because your book's fantastic. It's such an enjoyable read. I would go as far to say that if you listen to this podcast, there are two books you're going to want in your Christmas. Stocking on Christmas morning. One is, of course, the power and the glory by Jonathan Wilson. But I'd be disappointed. Only a couple of shopping days for Christmas, I'd be disappointed if you didn't have escape in your stock. And I can promise you that you really will enjoy it, because it's called a love letter to escape to victory, which is a great film. And it's a fantastic book about a great film, to be honest. And it really is a love letter. The research is incredible. I don't think there's a podcast that's |
| 1:10.9 | been made and interviewed done, a television program, contemporaneous or historical, that's been done |
| 1:17.5 | about this film that you haven't read. And you've interviewed so many of the players, you're not |
| 1:22.1 | going to get a better view of the film than this. And a cool sign, George, because I rewatched |
| 1:26.9 | Escape to Victory yesterday. And of course I enjoyed it because I re-watched Escape to Victory yesterday. |
| 1:29.6 | And I think we, you catch this tone really nice into book. It's not Schinders list. It's not |
| 1:34.4 | saving private Ryan, but it is a really good watch on a Christmas afternoon, isn't it? It's just |
| 1:40.0 | brilliant fun. Yeah, absolutely. Just love it. It's, you know, it's a nostalgia trip for some people, but also, you know, I loved it |
| 1:47.6 | from the office. |
| 1:48.1 | It just, it sort of keeps on giving. |
| 1:50.5 | Even, you know, I must have watched it 20 or times before I started writing the book. |
| 1:55.7 | And even now, obviously, having watched it a lot more for research, it just sort of revealed more and more things as I was watching it, |
| 2:03.9 | getting into the detail of it was just great. |
| 2:06.4 | It kept revealing things. |
| 2:07.3 | There were bits in it that I hadn't noticed until maybe the 30th watch. |
| 2:11.7 | Tell us a little bit about how you fell in love with the film |
| 2:14.3 | and how you come to write a whole book on it. What was the genesis of |
| 2:18.8 | that idea? So in terms of writing about it, I've written other books before. I've written |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Overlap, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Overlap and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.