A series of films on the way we live now
Botham's Out!
91 Weeks in the Life of a Boy's Own Hero
On 29 May 1986 Ian Botham , swashbuckling superstar, was banned from first-class cricket. Authority declared that he had brought the game into disrepute. This is the story of what happened to England's disgraced hero during the nine-and-a-half weeks of his lost summer.
It's been said that Botham lives a frantic, unbalanced, unplanned life - that he can't endure days without sparkle. Now there was time to spend at home in Yorkshire with his wife Kath. But he couldn't be domestic for long. There was the chance to learn to fly helicopters - in Sussex. There were public appearances, parties, fishing trips - even a little cricket. Always the press was in pursuit. And
Botham found it hard to keep out of the headlines. But there was to be a happy ending straight out of the Boy's Own annual.
Tonight Ian and Kath Botham speak with unprecedented frankness about the pressures and pleasures of their lives.
'I want to die young and stay pretty,' says the hero. 'I don't want to grow up.'
Narrator William Franklyn Written by IAIN JOHNSTONE Film editor JIM DUFFY Director BOB TONER
Producer JEANNE LA CHARD Editor EDWARD MIRZOEFF
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