“Events, my dear boy, events,” British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan said when asked about the most difficult aspect of his job,or at least according to the legend.
For the team behind Welcome to Wrexham, which returns this week for a second series, those five words must ring true but for a very different reason. Namely, how on earth do you cram so many events — everything that befell Wrexham AFC after the first series ended with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s disappointment at being defeated in the National League play-offs up to their eventual promotion last season — into 15 episodes?
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for season 2 of Welcome To Wrexham.
Over the last year or so, the show propelled this previously unassuming provincial football club onto the global stage, setting them up with an annual income expected to top £20million in the current financial year. Wrexham were also involved in the most relentless title race in British football history, hosted the new king and queen, welcomed more film stars to their home than your average Hollywood studio, broke umpteen long-standing football records, and became embroiled in a furious FA Cup row that culminated in a falling out in the tunnel.
Wrexham lost the replay with Sheffield United at Bramall Lane (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
And that’s just the headline news from a truly tumultuous 2022-23 season that brought new life to a town whose traditional industries closing down had led many to lose hope.
It was a season of nerve-shredding drama as Wrexham and title rivals Notts County battled it out at the top of the National League. At stake, a return to the EFL (English Football League) as champions, into the fourth tier of English football, and the restoration of pride which had been surrendered when relegated years earlier.
In the end, it all boiled down to one never-to-be-forgotten afternoon at The Racecourse Ground as Ben Foster wrote himself into Wrexham football folklore with that penalty save to seal a 3-2 win.
GO DEEPERThe story of Wrexham's epic 3-2 win over Notts County - told by people who were thereHad Notts left the Easter Monday showdown with a point, chances are they and not their hosts would have gone up as champions, casting Phil Parkinson’s side into the unforgiving jeopardy of play-offs for a second consecutive year.
As it was, Wrexham went on to clinch top spot with a record 111 points to finally end their 15-year stay in the non-League wilderness. It meant mission accomplished for a season that had bordered on the surreal.
Elf star Will Ferrell flying in to watch the Wealdstone game? Ant-Man Paul Rudd being there for the promotion-clinching win over Boreham Wood? McElhenney being joined by fellow cast members of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for one midweek fixture that ended with actor Charlie Day trying — and failing miserably — to keep up with Wrexham’s substitutes during their on-field post-match warm down?
Welcome to Wrexham, Will Ferrell! 👋
🔴⚪️ #WxmAFC pic.twitter.com/H6nJETlXiZ
— Wrexham AFC (@Wrexham_AFC) February 11, 2023
Thanks to the show, local pub The Turf has become a stop-off for tourists with amiable landlord Wayne Jones regularly welcoming up to 50 overseas visitors per day. Other breakout stars from series one included local band The Declan Swans and Wrexham’s inspirational disability liaison officer Kerry Evans.
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In season two, viewers will catch up some of the characters, including Humphrey Ker, who ultimately set McElhenney and Reynolds on the path towards buying the Welsh club. His tears on the open-top bus parade in May were shared by many of those who had turned out to celebrate promotion for the men’s and women’s teams.
Shaun Harvey, the Hollywood duo’s go-to man since first setting their sights on buying Wrexham in 2020, will also return, along with Parkinson, who put his hard-earned managerial reputation on the line when dropping down to non-League. His drive to be successful led to Wrexham’s players turning to the restorative powers of cryotherapy — The Athletic joined them on one bone-chilling March morning in the Racecourse car park.
GO DEEPERColder than Siberia in Winter: Trying the incremental gains Wrexham hope will push them to the EFLThere was also that FA Cup run. In any other year, a 4-3 win at Championship side Coventry City would have been the clear highlight of the season, but the third-round win was nothing compared to the drama that followed against Sheffield United in the next stage.
A 3-3 draw at the Racecourse was shown live on TV in the UK and USA, leaving the watching Reynolds so emotionally drained in the directors’ box that wife Blake Lively couldn’t resist telling her 37.3 million Instagram followers: “I bought ESPN+ today. Just to watch my husband experience crippling anxiety live. Worth it.”
The replay took place 10 days later amid ill-feeling, with both teams accusing the other of disrespect. United prevailed 3-1 but that just lit the blue touch paper as Billy Sharp — now at LA Galaxy — and Parkinson became embroiled in an on-field spat that was followed by both teams clashing in the tunnel.
Such mayhem could surely have filled an entire episode of the documentary on its own. Ditto Foster’s penalty save or the many other dramatic on-field moments that led to spikes in blood pressure levels across north Wales, including a 7-5 home win and a slew of important late, late goals.
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Well done to the production team who had to slim it all down.
GO DEEPERWrexham's Hollywood promotion: How Reynolds and McElhenney helped end 15 years of hurtWelcome to Wrexham, series two, launches on September 12 in the USA at 10pm ET/PT on FX, streaming the following day on Hulu. The UK premiere is September 13 on Disney+.
(Top photo: Ryan Reynolds, King Charles, Queen Camilla and Rob McElhenney in 2022; by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
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