Nostalgic bonanza from new Ecclestone and Stewart documentaries

December 27th 2022

As a boy I remember one of the delights of the Christmas holiday was scouring the pages of the Radio Times to see what festive treats the TV would serve up. These days, with on-demand movies, the joy has been taken from discovering that Back to the Future is being shown at 2.30pm New Year’s Day. So in the spirit of nostalgia allow me to recommend two wonderful new programmes set to be aired in the coming days.

The first is Lucky! (Discovery+, available now), an eight-part series created and directed by Manish Pandey, the man behind Senna from 2010. As we report on page 90, the series tells the story of Formula 1 through the lens of Bernie Ecclestone. Whether you see him as saviour or saboteur of the sport there is no denying his influence and as the new series makes plain this is very much his view of what happened and why. The title comes from Ecclestone’s claim that nothing was planned and it was all down to luck.

The first episode opens with a stark image of Ecclestone set against a bleached-out background looking directly into the camera. The effect is instantly arresting and from there the series is never anything but hypnotic – especially the archive racing footage unearthed by celluloid sleuth Richard Wiseman.

Pandey came by the Motor Sport office to offer us a preview of the series and I was interested in what he made of Ecclestone having spent several weeks interviewing him at his hotel in Switzerland.

“His daughter Tamara said to me that what you need to understand about Bernie is that he is a monk,” he said. “By that she means that he is able to make everything in his life subservient to one thing. He has incredible powers of concentration and focus and is able to block out all distractions. I think that is what made him so successful but is something people don’t realise about him.”

But did he believe what Ecclestone was telling him? After all many an interviewer has returned from a meeting with Bernie thinking they have a great story, then listened back to the tape and realised that he was shrewdly one step ahead all along, telling them what he wanted them to report – not necessarily what they had asked him.

“Bernie talks movingly about Jochen Rindt and Stuart Lewis-Evans”

Pandey says: “Look, this is very much a legacy project for Bernie, but what I would say is that there was not a big difference between what he said over dinner for example and what he told me on camera. So you have two options for that: one, he has a bulletproof facade that goes so deep; or two, that he really is the person he presents on camera. I’d like to believe the latter.”

I ask whether he felt they became friends after the intense interviews, and Pandey’s answer is telling. “I wouldn’t say friends exactly. I think he has friends but they are those who were part of that original group from the early days. Those contemporaries and peers are the ones he still regards as his real friends. It is a group you can’t join late.”

Ecclestone, 92, talks movingly about those early days, especially of Jochen Rindt and Stuart Lewis-Evans. The deaths of both had a deep effect: “Stuart died the day after my 28th birthday,” he says to camera. “I went home thinking I’m not going to be involved any longer.”

Rindt features prominently in the second racing programme to air this month – Stewart (Sky Documentaries and Now, available from December 30), which celebrates the career of Sir Jackie. Like Lucky! it has been made with the blessing of its subject and, indeed, it lists Stewart’s film-maker son Mark as executive producer. But it nonetheless meets some criticisms of its protagonist head on: “I never knew whether it was winning races or making money that motivated him,” Jackie’s wife Helen says rather mischievously over images of a suited Stewart boarding yet another plane.

The film is a brilliantly affecting look back at a time when Formula 1 was riding high in the popular imagination and when fans could still get close to their heroes: there are dozens of shots of Stewart, Rindt and François Cevert wading through crowds, signing autographs as they go, in scenes which would be unimaginable today. Again the racing footage – I noticed Wiseman was credited once more – is a glorious treat.

As you might expect from the campaigning Stewart (much is made of his safety crusade though sadly no mention of his famous spat with our own Jenks on the subject!) there is a serious message too and it is to do with dyslexia. He has spoken previously about his own condition but I didn’t know how deeply it affected him: he kept the secret that he could neither read nor write well into his forties and even from those closest to him, such as Ken Tyrrell. The effort and fear of discovery must have been draining.

It is typical of Stewart to tackle the subject head on but perhaps the best insight we get of his character comes with a throwaway line about luck. “I believe in good luck,” he says of his vast success at one point. “But I don’t believe in bad luck. If you are unlucky it means you are doing something wrong.”

I watched a screening of the film among a starry audience including Dario Franchitti, Jonathan Wheatley and Gordon Murray but I’m looking forward to seeing it again at home – amid the remnants of this festive season.