Berwick Rangers vice-chairman Chris Butler shares details of new documentary about club
“Berwick Rising” is currently still in production.
Berwick Rangers vice-chairman Chris Butler has shared some of the details surrounding a new documentary that the club have been working on in recent months.
Set to be titled “Berwick Rising”, the series, consisting of four 45-minute episodes, will follow the Borderers’ progress on the pitch, as well as sharing some of the stories that are central to the club‘s history and shedding light on the realities of running an outfit in the lower reaches of the footballing pyramid.
Explaining the show, which is being helmed by a production team from Los Angeles, and how Berwick’s narrative differs from that of a side like Wrexham - who are owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and have their own documentary series, “Welcome to Wrexham” - Butler said: “’Berwick Rising’ wasn't just, ‘Oh, let's put together something about Berwick and Berwick football’. It was also the idea of how hard it is to run a grassroots football club if you don't have multi-million dollars.
“Nothing against Wrexham - they have done a phenomenal job, and they have brought a community together. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have done phenomenal things at Wrexham. But when they talk £50 million, we're talking £50,000.”
He continued: “In that, we also wanted to take the time to tell the stories of Robert Johnson and Dennis McCleary of the 1967 squad that beat Rangers, and talk about the town and what the town is all about - how it switched ownership 13 times between countries. We tell that whole story, and while we're doing that, show that we are rising and that we’ve gone from 16th to eighth, and there's a reason to have hope.”
At this stage, there are still certain details about the scheduling and distribution of “Berwick Rising” that need to be finalised, but Butler is hopeful that the show could help the club to stand out in an increasingly competitive sporting landscape.
He said: “It's a long shot, but again, if we all keep doing the same thing, then we're all going to keep getting the same results. Everybody's fighting for the same money. So what do we do that's different?
“We hope if we get this, we get a home run. If we don't, no-one can say we didn't take our shot. At least we've got a really cool four-segment series that people will get to watch that tells the story of this season.”