We interviewed Pete Jones the driving force behind the new John Toshack movie which comes out in early June. It’s made quite a hit on the amazon pre order link. We interviewed Pete a little while back and to support his endeavours at the announcement of the films release we have republished his interview. We think you will agree, it’s an exciting project, and now we have news that John Toshack is over the worst regards his recent Covid scare what better time to review Pete’s exclusive chat with Swansea Independent.

You can order the film via the link at the end of this interview.

Let’s start with John Toshack and his football achievements, have they been remembered properly ? By that we mean has there ever been anything of note that has heralded Tosh’s achievements in the game ? Start to finish, an unblemished portrait of a life in a game Of football that caused so much happiness ? To add testament to the answer to this question we spoke to Pete Jones, a lifelong Swansea City fan and the driving force behind a project that has become a life’s focus.

It was getting on for around five years ago when Pete first came to notice ( again) for me after many years of us not corresponding. He was opening an exhibition called 'Tosh: A Swansea Football Fairytale’ at the Galerie Simpson on Swansea High Street. I was intrigued to note his relationship with Jonny Owen and his endeavours to bring to life the Euro 2016 journey with the now talk sport presenter. ‘I believe in miracles’ the Nottingham Forest documentary is a favourite watch of mine. At that time in 2017 Pete was effortlessly moving towards his own dream to document John Toshack’s career. It was hard to believe it hadn’t been done in over forty years. Talking then Pete said “It will be 40 years since John Toshack took over at Swansea, and with the anniversary coming up I wanted to make a film about it. I am back in Wales after living in London for many years and I feel it is a story that has not been properly told, and it deserves to be. I was inspired by my friend Jonny Owen with the fabulous Nottingham Forest film he made from the same era, and there is a real desire for these nostalgia pieces among football fans. I sent the idea to Gabriel Clarke at ITV, who has a production company and it was signed up straight away. Tosh loved the idea, my brother Rob Brydon has got involved as executive producer and we have got Michael Sheen on board to narrate the story”

Both Sheen and Brydon are connected to Swansea City. The former a fan, the latter seeing his connection more of a rights of passage surrounded by swans fans in his life. Pete remembers. “My brother bought me my first Swansea shirt in 1978 and I have been hooked ever since, particularly on that wonderful Toshack era. I grew up during that time as a wide-eyed youngster waiting in line for autographs from those fantastic players. They used to train on Ashleigh Road where we did our games lessons and I distinctly remember Tosh - this giant in a cagoule - kicking a ball back to me once and from that moment Swansea City became my life. So this is the ultimate labour of love.”

Both Rob and Pete went to Dumbarton school in Swansea, now closed, the very same education as Catherine Zeta-Jones no less. A firm understanding of how to achieve, and the pathways to success grounded in to the two brothers clearly. Based on that we set about a chat on the film making experience that has led Pete to where he is today, ready it seems to unleash the whole thing on a world that’s waited for some time for the movie.

The labour of love has become a long journey so how did Pete Jones even think the film idea would work ? He covers that initial idea. “When I first had the idea for the film it was in 2017 and the 40th anniversary of Tosh’s appointment at Swansea was coming up the following year; not having much idea how long these things can take I thought “great, we’ll have it out in time for that” but although I put on an exhibition on Swansea High Street about the Tosh era in the October of that year which garnered a lot of interest it ultimately came to nothing. At the time through a mutual friend I was partnered with Noah Media which is the ITV sports guy Gabriel Clarke’s production company. Gabriel remembered the Tosh era as an Everton fan and thought it was a story ripe for re-telling but with one thing and another we parted company - very amicably - and they’ve gone on to great success with films about Bobby Robson and Jack Charlton”

Pete continues. “By this time I’d built a relationship with Tosh who was keen to see the project through so began looking at other options, and through a Twitter friend called Craig Muncey I was put in touch with a young, ambitious film-maker called Dan Harries who is behind both Focus Shift Films and EatSleep Media who create a lot of content for the Welsh FA and are very sports-focused. I met with Dan and although he’s a Cardiff City season ticket holder he knows a good story when he sees one and we set about making the film a reality. It felt right bringing the story back to south Wales as with Gabriel it had meant lots of London-based meetings and the natural home for this story is here. The company is based in Cardiff Bay which is fine by me as Tosh is a Cardiff boy let’s not forget.

Getting things together, the storyboard for any project is all about preparation so how difficult or otherwise was gathering people together for this ? “Not hard at all really, I already knew people like Ian Curtis who is Alan’s son so I could get hold of Curt without any difficulty and once word spreads people like that are involved it’s a shoe-in with everybody else. Gilo, Wyndham, Speedy, Jimmy, Dudley and many more followed suit and then significant behind-the-scenes people like Malcolm Struel’s daughters Karen and Tracy, and Carol Fowler-Sayle who was Tosh’s secretary came on board. Carol is a scouser and put me onto Ian Callaghan and Neil Robinson so we arranged a little trip up north to see those guys, and they couldn’t have been nicer. Robbo in particular is quite a character !“

As some writers know the enthusiasm to complete a writing project is overwhelming at the start, but of course the loneliness of that long distance runner takes some battling at times. And in Pete’s journey he had to find support and indeed assistance for distribution and the bigger market. “We have a distribution company and sales agent behind us and since they came on-board at the start of the year it’s been full-throttle. They’ve worked on similar productions in the past with great success so we hope that continues with us. We deliver the film on April 30th and then it’s however quickly it can be turned around from there. The idea was to coincide with the 40th anniversary of our highest-ever finish in the top flight in May 1982 so we’re kinda on schedule for that. There will be a limited cinema run in Swansea hopefully upon release, a DVD with lots of extras and further down the line possible broadcast on some or other platform”

Pete’s first experiences of being a swans fan wouldn’t be forgotten by many young impressionable kids. He fondly remembers how his Swansea City journey started. “ It started in 1978 pretty much the day Tosh arrived which is why the story is so personal to me. I was in school in the Uplands just off Brynymor Road and overnight everyone was talking about the Swans; I don’t think I’d even been aware there was a football club in the city prior to that - I was only 5 or 6. But Tosh arrived like a comic-book hero and it really captured my imagination. School games lessons were held down Ashleigh Road and you’d see the Swans training nearby which just fuelled my fervour, and not long after I had my first kit which was the plain white Bukta affair from the 1978/79 promotion season - I was fully signed up once I’d pulled that shirt on”

The Covid pandemic of course has halted a lot of media work, it needs a collective environment, but that aside there have been some pitfalls on the way. “There have been a couple of false dawns, bogus investors and such like that have tripped us up along the way but since partnering with Dan at EatSleep Media a few years ago we’ve been very focussed and nothing has been able to stop us really. I’ve had a few ups and downs with Tosh which is to be expected as he’s not always the easiest to get along with. That said though I’ve really grown to like him a lot and the final interview we did with him out in Barcelona in November was a real joy and it comes across in the film. I feel I’ve got to know him even better by going through all the old archive interviews with him too, as you’ll see in the film he was extremely charismatic and cool but also warm, witty and not a little mischievous with journalists and reporters. Historically he’s got a lot of accusations of arrogance thrown at him but I don’t buy that - supreme confidence certainly, but not arrogance. All things considered I think he’s a great bloke, his achievements can’t be argued with and how he comes across in the film might surprise a few people”

Your brother Rob Brydon has been helpful, especially in gaining contacts yes ? “Well, he’s my older brother. He isn’t into football that much but his best pal at school was so he went to a few games in the Tosh era, including a particularly rough one against West Ham which put him off for life! He’s been very supportive though and put me in touch with people like John Bishop and Michael Sheen who pop up in the film”

Personally I recall those West Ham games way back as a young man myself, we used to collect Persil vouchers for cheap train travel and those West Ham games were enough to put anyone off !

Those who have held an older pen when writing about and for the swans, and of course the many who bought ‘Jackmail’ back in the late eighties and early nineties can now put two and two together. Pete was the editor and the idea behind that great Swansea City fanzine. One which I myself personally enjoyed some early exposure to football writing. “Yes I started the ‘Jackmail’ fanzine in 1988 when I was 15, inspired by an article I’d read somewhere about the rise of football fanzines. By about 1990/91 it was really established and I’m quite proud of the content we put out for Swans fans at that time, and it seems to be fondly-remembered now which is lovely. I even shook hands with Doug Sharpe at the play-off final so it’s all gone full-circle now “

Finishing up Pete has made numerous moves but for this project he has found some equidistant locations that assist travel. “After twenty years in London I now live in Hay-on-Wye so I’m perfectly placed for both Swansea and Cardiff which is where the bulk of the production has been centred around. Though I should add I’m always happier taking that right turn after the Storey Arms on the beacons and heading west”

Thanks to Pete Jones for taking the time to chat to us and to bring to everyone’s attention his new movie feature on John Toshack. A wonderful idea and one all Wales fans, and indeed covering from the start of Tosh’s career from Cardiff to Tractor Cultural Sports Economic Club, who are they ? A huge slice of Swansea City and Wales but let’s not forget he was the manager of Real Sociedad three times too. It doesn’t end there, let’s add Real Madrid twice, Wales, Deportivo, BeÅŸiktaÅŸ and Saint-Étienne.

And at last a vision and drive from Pete Jones is about to bring the whole thing to life. We will cover everything regards the films release, availability and locations as soon as Pete updates.

⚽️Order the movie here

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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