IT WAS A TERRIFIC ROMP, the long summer of Swinging London. Michael Caine kicked off the pivotal year of 1966 in March, when his name went above the title in Alfie. By August, when the Beatles released Revolver, and Pearly Kings did the Lambeth Walk down Carnaby Street, Noel Coward’s “smokily enchanted” city was the capital of the world.
Between those bookends, on 30 July, England’s footballers won the World Cup at Wembley, and the country which, legend insists, had invented the game could finally claim to rank above all others. Before 1966, the national team had known only misery; and failure has been a companion in the six decades since. On one tumultuous day, however, eleven young men in strawberry-jam shirts wore crowns.
Only two are still with us: the…
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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2023