Do a Wrexham’? A History Making Documentary

Film Title: Welcome to Wrexham S4Ep8; “Do a Wrexham”

Dir: Humphrey Ker and Bryan Rowland & The Hive

Release Date: August 24, 2022 (original series release)

Review by Antony Cirocco

Stop! Don’t click away, yes it’s a sports documentary but “Welcome to Wrexham” is more than that. For those lofty intellectuals that subscribe to my feed, who won’t lower their standards to watch a documentary about a ‘game’, just hop down off your high horse, for just a moment and consider that the cultural and historical significance of this documentary series has single handedly re-written the history and aspirations of the town Wrexham.

Official Banner for "Welcome to Wrexham"

Starting from a tiny production this show hqas grown and matured and while the budget is modest (by US standards) TV execs must be looking at this show about a non descript football team in Wales, long past their prime and wonder, how are they creating such compelling viewing, with observational footage, interviews and fan created content. Compare this program with F1 Drive to Survive, with a massive budget, high tech, flying around the world to capture the action and the drama, but it doesn’t come close to Welcome to Wrexham S4Ep8; “Do a Wrexham”, how is that possible…?

At the heart of this documentary series are two celebrities, Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds, who foolishly bought and down and out community-owned football team and dared to tell the press “We are aiming for the Premier League!” some four divisions away from their standing in 2025. They brought in a friend Humphrey Ker, to run the club and push out a documentary for ‘shits and giggles’,... eight Prime Time Emmy’s later, that documentary turned out to be a good idea. 

Whilst Rob and Ryan admittedly knew nothing about Football in the UK at the start, they made a lot of effort to get to know the local community. Rob lives stateside, and Ryan is Canadian and lives everywhere as he is an in-demand actor. At its core, the strategy of Rob and Ryan has been clear: connect with and grow the community, and with their buy-in, the club will grow. It’s a step further than “build it and they will come”, to quote “Field of Dreams” to quote Kevin Costner. Watching Rob and Ryan rebuild a club appeals to corporate types working in management, watching them invigorate a community appeals to social workers, watching them visit schools endears them to educators and watching them care for kids with cancer shows that they care and that connects them with parents, and I haven’t even spoken about the football fans yet…I will get to that.

This program is not news, it’s a documentary. There is no war, no one is being shot at. Although it’s packed with sporting conflict. There is no drama, although you will need to refresh your tissues and mop up the tears at almost every episode. However, it’s newsworthy because this documentary series about football is actually about people, their lives, their struggles and their hopes and aspirations. There is a subtle brilliance about how the lives of the people of Wrexham are stitched together, good and bad and united by their love of a football team which is in and of itself the outward manifestation of them. Remember most football clubs in the UK are over 100 years old, they are owned by their communities (metaphorically speaking) and if club management don’t respect their constituents, they will leave the club without its lifeblood…the people.

It’s really hard to pin down who directs this TV show, there is mention of Humphrey Ker as EP of the show directing an episode and Bryan Rowland directing an episode. It’s normal for a series to have multiple directors and or a show runner guiding the course of the narrative across multiple episodes and seasons. So I can only deduce that this show has a hive of directors, each producing various segments that are eventually stitched together and overseen by a post-production producer; two are listed, but it’s difficult to get clarity on who is doing what. Whoever is guiding the story here should pat themselves or their collective backs, because the results are great, but it’s S4Ep8; “Do a Wrexham” that really excels.

While sports documentaries are seeing a resurgence in the streaming sphere, this one is different. I have watched a few, the standouts are; “F1 Drive to Survive”, “Tour de France: Unchained” and “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan’s career. Whilst the MJ documentary was a historical and archival look back over a career, “F1 Drive to Survive” has revived a flailing Formula 1 scene plagued by boring races where overtaking is the only highlight, but there is a curse with this program that it has become less of what it was, the same can be said of “Tour de France: Unchained”. Speaking about “F1 Drive to Survive” it was a series that gave us snapshots of reality, glimpses into the lives of drivers who otherwise wear helmets and impenetrable racing suits, this was great in the first few seasons, but as that show goes on it’s riddled with defensive interviews and promotional tours of F1 team head offices, it’s become promotional. “Welcome to Wrexham” by contrast has stayed true to the fundamentals of documentary, hysterical interludes, and Aviator Gin plugs aside. It’s honest television, it’s rewarding, and for the football fans, it’s an opportunity to find out what really makes a club tick.

The camera work is what you would expect for predominantly observational documentary or to use the new term “Unstructured Reality” which is traditionally call observational documentary. It's the editing, however, that excels here and S4Ep8; “Do a Wrexham” where the post-production team step up and create something special, combining archival home video, with a speech and footage from a live match, mixed to music, it’s excellent documentary production. In 2024, the sound post team won a prime time Emmy for their work in the same year that picture editing team also won, all this culminating in the program winning the Emmy for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program. So yes, it’s a sports documentary, but it has not gone unnoticed by their community of peers.

To be blunt, there is little to no editorial balance here, there are no real dissenting views here, no challenging of opinions, although some fans voiced their concerns in the first season, those voices have been washed out as the team has gone from strength to strength. There are challenges faced by the characters in the story to give us a narrative to negotiate and traverse, but there are no longer voices that want to challenge the trajectory of the club and its success; you likely won’t hear them anymore in this documentary. 

Access in the documentary sense here is a key feature of the documentary series, access to the local communities, going to their homes, classrooms, the Turf Pub and access to the changerooms of the players. At multiple points, the VIP members area in the stand has cameras watching Rob and Ryan cheering on their team, with guests like David Beckham, Hugh Jackman, Will Ferrell, the Prince of Wales and Paul Rudd to name just a few. However, it’s the access to the players and the community that are the highlights here, they are the story, the celebrities are just a highlight.

There are deeper themes here that audiences can connect with: adversity, resilience and now success. These are all facets of the Wrexham community but it speaks to communities around the world, anyone who aspires to make a better version of themselves, these themes are universal. The town, the people, the players and even Rob and Ryan at times are exposed emotionally, and we hear them find their philosophical and psychological feet and stride forward to overcome adversity…together. More so, this show speaks to reasonable men and women, who may have lost their way, been disconnected from community or have become disenfranchised socially. It reminds them of the strength of the community, the hive of positivity, of togetherness, and it’s not just limited to football fans, everyone can find someone to connect with in this documentary series. It’s life-changing.

This documentary stands in the face of a range of Premiere League Clubs who have lost touch with their community, whether it be corporate takeovers or haughty disconnected, overt commercialisation. Wrexham, the little club from Wales, is showing them that being a part of a community and not hovering over it and syphoning of revenue and the goodwill of people is not working, connected leadership engages communities and builds support, you can’t buy that.

Ok, I am deeply biased, I played football for 15 years and I was my son’s soccer coach. I am also a documentary maker who has dug deep into communities to represent their stories and this series, “Welcome to Wrexham” is most definitely the kind of documentary I would love to make when I grow up. It’s brilliant 4.5 out of 5

Review by Antony Cirocco

Check out the trailer -