Take Us Home: Leeds United
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Take Us Home: Leeds United is a behind-the-scenes docuseries which debuted on Amazon Prime in August 2019. The show follows Leeds United F.C. and their Head Coach Marcelo Bielsa as they attempt to get promoted to the Premier League after being out of it for 16 years.[1]
The series is narrated by Russell Crowe and produced by Eleven Studios,[2][3] in partnership with Leeds-based The City Talking.[4]
Season 1 (2019)
[edit]The first season closely follows Marcelo Bielsa's team throughout the 2018–19 season, including "Spygate"[5] and how the club handled the resulting fallout. The failed Dan James transfer from Swansea City to Leeds in January 2019 is also featured with extensive footage. The first episode of the series premiered at Everyman cinema in Leeds on 14 August 2019.[6] The season ends with Leeds United losing in the EFL Championship play-offs to Derby County F.C., thus failing to make it to the Premier League.[7]
Season 2 (2020)
[edit]The second season follows the club through the 2019–20 season as the team looks to improve on the previous year. Their campaign is interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the season is stopped indefinitely at the end of the first half of the story. The second half of the series follows the team through to the end of the season as they look to seal a place back in the Premier League.[8][4] The season ends with Leeds United being promoted to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years.[7]
Reception
[edit]The Guardian called Take Us Home: Leeds United "expensively and beautifully made" with "enough super slo-mo shots ... and match footage from cool, unexpected angles to keep you interested."[3] The Guardian also noted that "it feels like some curious propaganda exercise for [ Andrea Radrizzani ]",[3] the team's owner and also owner of Eleven Studios.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ "Leeds United - from soap opera to documentary". BBC Sport.
- ^ "Take Us Home: What we learned from Leeds documentary". BBC. 16 August 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d Rushden, Max (16 August 2019). "Russell Crowe, Kalvin Phillips' gran and hope – Leeds documentary has it all (apart from Bielsa)". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
- ^ a b Hay, Phil (29 September 2020). "Take Us Home: Leeds United – a love story, largely unblemished and clean". The Athletic. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
- ^ Hay, Phil; Conway, Ryan. "The Leeds-Derby Spygate story: a cultural war and tussle of football ethics". The New York Times.
- ^ Sheridan, Daniel (15 August 2019). "15 of the best pictures of Leeds United players including Pablo Hernandez and Kalvin Phillips arriving at the Take Us Home: Leeds United premiere". Yorkshire Evening Post.
- ^ a b Heppenstall, Ross (16 September 2020). "Take Us Home: Leeds United – the inside story of the raw joy of promotion in a pandemic as told by those who made the documentary". i. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ^ "All-star cast for new Leeds documentary". BBC Sport.