Famous actor 'nervous' and 'excited' as he visits theatre where his Sheffield Wednesday-themed play will show
A play about Sheffield Wednesday’s incredible play-off comeback in 2023 is set to be brought to life in theatre
Well-known Owls fan and actor, Thomas Craig, says he is ‘excited’ and ‘nervous’ for people to watch his Sheffield Wednesday-themed play.
‘The Miracle of Sheffield - Mum, Dad Football & Me’ not only tells the story of how Craig followed Wednesday’s record-breaking League One play-off semi-final comeback against Peterborough United in 2023 from a trailer in Canada, but also delves into how football created a strong bond between him and his dad. It is hoped it will appeal not only to Wednesdayites, but also to football fans in general and families.
Coronation Street and Murdoch Mysteries star Craig missed the 4-0 hammering in the first-leg because he was on a stag-do in Corfu and was filming in Toronto for the epic return at Hillsborough. Like most Owls supporters, Craig admitted he had ‘given up’ after the mauling at London Road but started to believe when Wednesday had pulled two goals back by half-time at S6. Gathered around his iPad in a trailer, Craig could not believe what was unfolding and struggled to sleep that night because he was ‘buzzing’ as The Owls somehow booked their place in the final at Wembley.
Because he couldn’t nod off, Craig decided to type out his experience, and his article was later published in The Star. His friend and renowned BAFTA-winning playwright Jonathan Maitland later read it and suggested that it would make a gripping play. Initially, it was meant to be a low-key production. But now it will be brought to life at the near 250-capacity Sheffield Library Theatre in March and April in 2027.
Speaking to The Star inside the theatre, Craig, who plays his dad in the 80-minute show, said: “The play takes place in two time zones. It's on set on Murdoch Mysteries in 2023, in the time of me trying to follow the game while acting on set, and then it flashes back. It goes back and forth between a 1980s working men's club in Sheffield, which actually in the time period makes me 10 years younger than I am in real life, because I would have been a child in the 70s. But we wanted to do it in the 80s, so we could use the music from a few bands of the period: Human League, ABC, Paul Carrick, and Joe Cocker.
“I'm excited, but extremely nervous. I mean, it's a big deal when somebody says they want to write a play about you. You think, ‘God, my life's not that interesting’. I do a kind of interesting job because of the nature of being an actor, but on a personal level, my life's not that interesting. I don't think so. I'm very excited but very nervous because there'll be a lot of people come to see it that I know, family, friends.
“It features my mum and dad and the kind of trials and tribulations of what I went through as a kid with my parents. It's quite personal. I had a couple of cousins who came to see the rehearsal reading. My cousin, he's a professor at Cambridge, he was at my mum and dad's wedding as a page boy, and he was in bits in the bar after. He thought he was just coming to see a play about football, and it was very personal to him.
“It’s about my dad, my relationship with my dad, and how football kept us together. It's about the football as a glue that keeps people together. You know, if I didn't come to Sheffield every other week to see Wednesday, I would have lost contact with a lot of friends. That kind of binds us, and it's not just Wednesday fans. It's 92 teams in the English League. I think everybody can understand that relationship with football.”
The play has been directed by Bob Wolstenholme, who favours rugby and cricket over football, so reading the script was the first time he was aware of Wednesday’s miraculous night under the lights. So what did he think?
He said: “Well, the honest answer is, the first thing that I said is I'm doing this is because it made me laugh. That's honestly the truth. I was on the train with my wife, and I said this is really funny. And if it made me laugh, I thought it'll make other people laugh, and that's what sold it to me first off. And then I thought, ‘oh, it's also a great story’. I could see right then there was a piece of kind of popular entertainment within it as well, within that great story.
“I didn't know anything about this story until I read the play. But then I got completely sucked into it because you can't help it, can you? I mean, there's a joke at the beginning of the play, along the lines of ‘this really happened’. It's crazy, but it did really happen. So yeah, I got sucked into it, and even though I grew up in Manchester, we're all Wednesday fans now. I mean, I don't think I don't think I have any choice anymore! The idea of bringing it to life on that stage and seeing Tom tell this extraordinary story is really, really exciting. I can't wait to get cracking.”
Given it is a personal story to Craig, and a true story, Wolstenholme explained the importance of taking care with every detail. He added: "You've got to be very mindful that this is a real story. And I think there's something quite brave about Tom's playing his own dad in the show. And when we did the reading of it, a couple of his cousins came to chat to me afterwards, and they were saying what a brave thing it is. But I think it's heartfelt. It comes from a place of love. I think that there's something really charming about that as well that makes it connects to people. But you have to be careful because it's real people's real lives, but he's not afraid of that.”