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    Great Darts Documentaries that Hit the Bullseye

    Full On Fella Posted on

    Darts is a curious sport in many ways, once the one that welcomed beer-chugging, cigarette-smoking blokes who looked to have spent too long in the pub and now one of immense popularity.

    Not only that, but its popularity appears to be growing year-on-year, with tickets for the likes of the World Darts Championship at Ally Pally selling out almost as soon as they go on sale.

    The party atmosphere that has been engendered at darts events helps, as does the prevalence of personalities such as Luke ‘the Nuke’ Littler. If it isn’t something you know a whole lot about, a good documentary is where to start.

    The question is, what are the best ones?

    Game of Throws: Inside Darts

    In the sport of darts, the World Darts Championship stands out as being the best of the best. The game’s top talents all head along to Alexandra Palace every year to go head-to-head and discover who is the best of the best, throwing their arrows to the soundtrack of a boisterous crowd desperate to see a nine-darter.

    Ahead of the 2023-2024 version of the tournament, a camera crew followed a wealth of different players as they prepared for the main event, with faces old and, at the time at least, new being introduced to the watched audience in Game of Throws: Inside Darts.

    In a stroke of good fortune for the documentary makers, one of the players that they decided to follow was 16-year-old Luke Littler, who made it all the way to the final and became a superstar in the process. The three-part documentary takes you behind the scenes of the crown jewel of the sport, dotted by the occasional appearance of a drunkard in fancy dress.

    Given that the first round for a Dutch player called Kevin Doets was the difference between £15,000 if he won and losing his tour card if he didn’t, it’s fair to say that the stakes are high. If you want to know what all the fuss is about when it comes to darts, this is where to start.

    Blood on the Carpet – The Split in Darts

    For many darts lovers, the history of the sport is something that they might have a vague idea about, but which isn’t anywhere near as important as the actual throwing of the arrows that they can watch on an almost daily basis.

    Even so, the sport as we know it nowadays wouldn’t exist if not for the split that occurred in darts between the British Darts Organisation and the World Darts Council, which later rebranded as the Professional Darts Corporation. This split is documented in Blood on the Carpet – The Split in Darts, which explores how we went from the sport’s origins to what it is today.

    What the players were doing when they chose to part ways with the sport’s governing body, the BDO, was incredibly risky. We can all look back now in hindsight and say it was the obvious choice to make, but at the time they had no idea whether they would ever earn another penny.

    All of that risk is caught on camera in this eye-opening documentary, which helps to draw attention to the fact that there were casualties from the split; the time spent in court was such that it all but ended the careers of the likes of Jocky Wilson and Eric Bristow, without any tournaments to take part in.

    Bullseyes and Beer: When Darts Hit Britain

    It isn’t exactly outrageous to suggest that darts was effectively a pub game, played by people over a pint during an evening spent at their local. In the 1970s, however, it made the transition onto our TV screens, suddenly becoming an immensely popular sport. Such was the popularity of the sport that it even resulted in a new game show, with Bullseye making a household name of Jim Bowen.

    The manner in which darts seemingly came from nowhere to be a sensation is charted well in the BBC documentary Bullseyes and Beer: When Darts Hit Britain, charting the way in which the players became famous.

    Bullseyes and Beer When Darts Hit Britain Documentary

    Narrated by Siobhan Finneran and featuring interviews with the likes of Jocky Wilson, Phil Taylor and Bobby George, it looks back at the history of the sport and explores how it is that it is able to cross both gender and class barriers.

    There is no question that television played a key part in making darts the phenomenon that it is in the modern era, thanks to the manner in which the cameras are able to show doubt in a player’s eyes as well as the ecstasy of triumph. If you are keen to know how it is that darts went from a pub game to a global sport, this is a good starting point.

    Arrows

    At the end of the 1970s, Eric Bristow was just a young player in his 20s, hoping to find a way into the sport. The BBC documentary Arrows follows him around the pubs and working men’s clubs of the country, challenging the best local players to a game and taking their money from them.

    The man who would go on to become one of the sport’s finest ever players, known as the ‘Crafty Cockney’, was looking for his first World Championship, but was always happy to engage in the likes of exhibition matches. At one point, he even roundly dismisses an arrogant local radio host.

    Although the piece is only about half an hour long, it catches the magic of Bristow’s personality and his talent with a set of arrows in his hand and a board in front of him. Although he would go on to sponsor a young Phil Taylor, guiding him to become the best-ever darts player, with the pair also being involved in the split in the sport as they left the BDO in order to form the World Darts Council, this documentary is all about the experiences of a young lad searching for his place in the game.

    Although far from a nice man as he grew older, the youngster in this film has the world at his feet.

    Dart Kings

    Once written off as a working-class pastime, darts is a much-loved sport nowadays. That is largely thanks to the work of players in the 1970s and 1980s, who are celebrated in the documentary Dart Kings, which makes no bones about feeling as though the sport was somehow purer back then.

    One viewer once wrote a letter to their newspaper saying, “If you can smoke when you’re doing it, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not a sport.” That might well be an attitude that many agree with, but there is little question that darts is a sport of immense skill and ability, as shown in this film.

    Dart Kings Documentary

    It is a trip down memory lane for older darts fans, following a different player in each episode. In the first, we see the rise of Eric Bristow until the moment that his death is announced to a crowd of people watching a darts tournament in Liverpool. In episode two, Jocky Wilson is the focus, looking at a player who wore his heart on his sleeve.

    Then in episode three, it’s all about Phil Taylor, getting contributions from former darts players and even Bristow’s first wife, former darts player Maureen Flowers. Of course, in a lot of ways it is the darts themselves that are the star of the show.

    House of Flying Arrows

    Offering viewers a mix of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, House of Flying Arrows looks at the history of darts from its beginnings as a humble sport through to the heyday of the 1970s and 1980s. It also looks at how darts turned professional, taking you through to the World Championships in 2015.

    Given the fact that this hour and a half or so documentary was released in 2016, it’s fair to point out that it isn’t exactly up to date. Even so, it is a great chance to see some archive footage of some of the game’s greatest ever players, as well as get a sense of the drama.

    In addition to interviews with players such as Michael Van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Raymond Van Barneveld, there are also talking heads moments with celebrity fans like Ronnie O’Sullivan, Will Greenwood and Alistair Cook.

    Yes, there is an extent to which this documentary was ‘of its time’, but if you’ve heard countless people make reference to the most exciting period of time in the history of the sport as being back in the ‘70s and ’80s, this is a chance to get more of a sense of what on earth people are talking about. A must-watch for any lover of darts or even just sport in general.

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