It remains one of cinema’s iconic set pieces. A group of young male athletes, clad in old-fashioned whites emblazoned with the Union flag, run along a beach. Their slow-motion strides are matched by a soundtrack so memorable it has become a sporting cliché.
Twenty-six years after Chariots of Fire dramatised Harold Abrahams’s and Eric Liddell’s sprints to glory at the 1924 Olympics, plans are under way for a sequel. Once again, the English Jew and the Scottish Christian who ran for God will be the main protagonists in a story that picks up their lives a year later. Producers hope to persuade Ioan Gruffudd, star of Hornblower, to play Liddell.
But whereas Chariots of Fire‘s Oscar victory prompted its screenwriter, Colin Welland, to declare that ”the British are coming”, the sequel is to be an American production. And Abrahams’s family has said it fears that the script, written by a committed Christian, will stress religion at the expense of historical accuracy. The film’s working title, With Wings as Eagles, is taken from the Book of Isaiah, from which Liddell reads in the first film: ”But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Chariots of Fire depicted how Liddell’s religious conviction prevented him from running on the Sabbath, forcing him to miss the Olympic 100m, which was won by Abrahams, played by Ben Cross. Liddell — played by the late Ian Charleson — then won gold in the 400m.
Of the two, Liddell’s subsequent life is the more obviously cinematic. Less than a year after his Olympic triumph, he returned to his birthplace, Tientsin in China, to serve as a missionary. When World War II broke out, he sent his family to safety in Canada, but insisted on staying and was interned by the Japanese in 1943.
He taught and organised sport for children in a camp before dying from a brain tumour a few months before he would have been released. His family learnt of his death on 8 May 1945 — VE Day.
Abrahams’s athletics career ended in 1925 when he broke his leg. The Cambridge graduate practised as a barrister until the Forties, and working as an athletics official and journalist. He and his wife adopted two children. He died in 1978, aged 78.
Rich Swingle, an American actor and writer, has already turned the Liddell story into a one-man stage show, Beyond the Chariots, which he performed at the Edinburgh Festival. He has now added Abrahams to the piece for his screenplay for With Wings as Eagles. Speaking from New York, Swingle said: ”Chariots of Fire deeply inspired me as a young man. I ran a cross-country race in China 20 years ago so that aspect of Eric’s life is embedded in mine even more. I admire his deep convictions and willingness to stand behind them, and the fact that he gave up so much to give his life to China.’
Swingle (37) acknowledged that the two men’s lives diverged after the 1924 Paris Olympics, but said: ”The film will start a year later, with both of them still competing. We’re using a bit of dramatic licence to link them up again further down the road. There were some fascinating things in Harold Abrahams’s story that I don’t think the public is aware of. With the coming of World War II, we deal with the heightened anti-semitism he might have experienced.”
The film will also see the return of Sam Mussabini, Abrahams’s coach, whose portrayal in Chariots of Fire earned an Oscar nomination for Ian Holm.
Swingle’s CV shows religion is a central theme in his work. His play The Acts, for example, ”brings to life the miracles and wonder of the first century Church as God’s Spirit empowers His people”.
Abrahams’s daughter, Sue Pottle, has reservations about the new film. ”I am a bit dubious about this man [Swingle] and what the story is about. I think it might be overly religious and not the best follow-up to Chariots of Fire,’ she said.
Pottle (63) from Harlech in north Wales, said: ”Even in Chariots of Fire, the bit about anti-semitism was all made up. I can’t remember my father ever talking about it except at Repton [his old school]. I don’t think it affected him during his working life.”
David Puttnam, who produced Chariots of Fire, said: Chariots of Fire wasn’t made as a religious film. It was about class. When you hear Harold Abrahams talking about being Jewish, you hear Colin Welland talking about being from the north and working in the south. If you start with the idea of religion, you twist it out of shape.”
Swingle hopes trailers will be ready in time for next year’s Olympics in Beijing. – Guardian Unlimited Â