| As well as being Middleton’s greatest comedian this side of Bernard Manning, Steve Coogan has taken on some challenging acting roles, not least when playing a version of himself. To set aside Alan Partridge, Tommy Saxondale, Paul Calf and those who still think Tony Ferrino was quite funny, actually, much of his acting reputation relies on those real-life figures he has brought to screen. Manchester man Tony Wilson, bongo king Paul Raymond, Stan Laurel, a loose appropriation of rag-trade tycoon Philip Green and that jingle-jangle former DJ it’s really best not to mention are on the list. Coogan is a fine impressionist; on Spitting Image he did Neil Kinnock and Ronnie Corbett. He has never shied away from controversy; see previous paragraph for details. His latest proposed role is another embracing a situation that once rocked a nation, is still argued over, and to which a solution was never truly found, regret and recrimination reverberating to this day. More than two decades on, the fixation remains steadfast. Saipan is the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Western Pacific, it says here. In Ireland, regardless of geographical location – even if that was part of the problem – it means one thing, the football civil war that exploded between Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy and captain Roy Keane before the 2002 World Cup. The tale – cheese sandwiches and all – barely needs retelling here and remains a huge event in 21st-century Irish history. In Cork, the rebel county from whence Keane hails, Football Daily heard tales of families holding emergency meetings to establish their position on whether Roy was right to ask to go home, or Mick was right to expel Roy. The lines between those two standpoints remain blurred to this day by two protagonists, who, if they share anything, is a granite core of stubbornness. Neither has wavered since. Interviewers only ask Keane about Saipan at their peril. You won’t get much change from Mick, either. Jason McAteer meanwhile has regaled many a sportsperson’s evening with b@ntz about the caper. If Coogan probably does a decent Roy, he’s 58 these days so is playing Big Mick, brushing up on his bluff Barnsley accent and quiffing up greying locks. Mick was just 43 back then! That the film is scripted by Paul Fraser, who wrote Dead Man’s Shoes, gives rise to thoughts of Éanna Hardwicke, 27, a Corkman cast as Keane, playing some kind of Paddy Considine-like revenger. Can the film, directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa, who did the rather decent Good Vibrations, right the wrongs and bring final closure? That’s as likely as Roy and Mick signing up together as a pantomime horse for a season at Bognor Regis. Still, there’s the denouement, the explosive meeting where all hell breaks loose to look forward to. As will be the casting of whoever gets to play Steve Staunton, Robbie Keane and Niall Quinn. | 