Dougie Brimson
Encyclopedia
Dougie Brimson is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author and former football hooligan
Football hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
. He has been dubbed the Yob Laureate.
Background
After 18 years service with the Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
, including both the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
and the first Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, the ex-Sergeant engineer’s literary career began in 1996 when he wrote a book based on his own experiences as a football casual entitled, Everywhere We Go: Behind the Matchday Madness. The book examined the culture of football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
and football hooliganism from the inside. A further ten books have followed and their success has established him as a leading authority on the issues of football and lad culture
Lad culture
Lad culture is a subculture commonly associated with Britpop music of the 1990s."The image of the 'lad' or 'new lad' arose in the early 1990s as a generally middle-class figure espousing attitudes conventionally attributed to the working classes"...
.
Brimson is a supporter of Watford F.C.
Watford F.C.
Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. It is often referred to as Watford F.C., Watford, or by the team's nickname The Hornets . Watford Rovers, Founded in 1881, entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1886, and the Southern League a decade...
He was never arrested for hooliganism, and states that he stopped getting involved in match day violence when hooligans started using knives and clubs, adding "When they started filling squeezable Vicks bottles with ammonia, I just thought, that's enough, I'm out of this."
Widely acknowledged as one of the most vocal anti-violence and anti-racism campaigners, Brimson has acted as an advisor to both the British government's working group into football disorder and the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
's football group. He has also written extensively for various magazines, newspapers and websites including The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Loaded magazine
Loaded (magazine)
Loaded, first published in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag". Its motto is "For men who should know better".-History:...
, FourFourTwo magazine
FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo is a football magazine published by Haymarket. Published monthly, costing £4.50, and at about 164 pages long, it published its 200th edition in February 2011...
and Football 365.
In 2003 Brimson made the move into screenwriting with the short film "It's a Casual Life" which was a fifteen minute film looking at the world of football violence from a Casuals
Casuals
The casual subculture is a subsection of association football culture that is typified by football hooliganism and the wearing of expensive European designer clothing. The subculture originated in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s when many hooligans started wearing designer labels and...
perspective. His first full length feature, the Hollywood funded Green Street
Green Street
Green Street is a 2005 British/American independent drama film about football hooliganism in England. It was directed by Lexi Alexander and stars Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam. In the United States and Australia, the film is called Green Street Hooligans, while in the United Kingdom it has the...
starring Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II , then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9. He is best known for his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's...
, was released in September 2005 and has won numerous awards including:
- Narrative Jury Prize-SXSW Film Festival
- Narrative Feature Audience-SXSW Film Festival
- Best of Festival–Malibu Film Festival
- Jury Award (feature)–Malibu Film Festival
- Official Selection–Tribeca Film Festival
He currently has a number of screenplays at various stages of production with a variety of production companies in the UK, US and Canada. These include a biography of darts legend Leighton Reece (Mister One Hundred), a zombie based comedy (KillerWeed), a football comedy (Wings of a Sparrow), a drama about the war in Afghanistan and a new hooligan movie slated for filming in the summer of 2012.
Brimson has co-hosted a late night comedy show on Liberty Radio
Liberty Radio
Liberty Radio is a UK radio broadcaster and company based in London, England that, , broadcasts on satellite and the Internet, but not terrestrial radio or DAB. The company started as Viva 963, broadcasting on terrestrial radio, predominantly for women, and was later renamed...
, presented The Stock Car Show on Granada Men & Motors
Men & Motors
Men & Motors was a men's lifestyle television channel in the UK. It was the last remaining station operated by the former Granada Sky Broadcasting joint venture, set up by Granada Television and satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting in 1996...
and presented the Madder Max show, also on Granada Men & Motors, which examined the diverse world of British motor sport. It began transmission on 24 July 2000 and ran for thirteen consecutive weeks. He also co-produced and presented the BriSCA
British Stock Car Association
BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars is a class of single seater auto racing in the UK. Cars are custom-built and race on oval tracks of either shale or tarmac.-History:...
Formula One Stock Car Show for Channel Five. He has also written and presented sports films for Bravo including The Basement.
Brimson, who has three children, is an active member of the British Legion and The Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
Veterans Association.
Trivia
Green Street Hooligans, co-written by Brimson, was nominated for the William ShatnerWilliam Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
Golden Groundhog Award for Best Underground Movie, other nominated films were Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
's and Dave McKean
Dave McKean
David McKean is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician....
's MirrorMask
MirrorMask
Mirrormask is a 2005 fantasy film from Jim Henson Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn Films, and Destination Films. It stars Stephanie Leonidas, Jason Barry, Rob Brydon, and Gina McKee. It is designed and directed by Dave McKean, written by Neil Gaiman from a story they developed together...
, the award winning baseball documentary Up for Grabs
Up for Grabs (2004 film)
Up for Grabs is a 2004 comedic documentary about two men who fought over custody of a baseball. It was directed and produced by Michael Wranovics, co-produced by Michael Lindenberger and Josh Keppel, co-edited by Dave Ciaccio; the executive producers were Dr...
and Opie Gets Laid
Opie Gets Laid
Opie Gets Laid is a 2009 American independent romantic comedy film originally titled Sunnyvale for its film festival submissions. The film is written and directed by James Ricardo and stars James Ricardo, April Wade, Ute Werner and Jesselynn Desmond....
.