REVIEW: ‘Untold UK: Jamie Vardy’ Unearths Football’s Ultimate Underdog

Untold UK: Jamie Vardy is a sports documentary directed by Jessie Vile. The documentary explores the upbringing, talent, personal life, and success of Jamie Vardy. A footballing legend for more than just what he has won, the documentary follows Vardy from his beginnings outside the professional game to his reaching the very zenith of football at both England and Leicester City.

The documentary’s storytelling is fantastic, capturing the most integral moments of Vardy’s life in a condensed narrative. It starts with his humble, unlikely roots. He’s a factory worker, a party boy who enjoys drinking and playing football. He plays in non-league, the term given to levels below the professional game. Those playing at that level have to balance working full-time with scraping away on uneven surfaces, nonexistent finances, and a lack of exposure. Vardy is then the subject of a late entry into professional football, part of a truly meteoric rise through the league system.

The documentary brilliantly captures the speed and unlikelihood of this progression, all the while exploring each move in fantastic detail. There’s a terrific balance between the footballing excitement and the personal strife and upheaval, often weaving between the two. When it looks like Vardy should be having the time of his life, he’s actually mired in feelings of stress or caught in controversy that affects his emotional state.

Untold UK: Jamie Vardy tracks the athletes rise to fame. 

It’s important to note that Untold UK: Jamie Vardy has a very specific focus. It isn’t the Sheffield-born man’s full career under the microscope. It’s almost entirely focused on the rise, because that’s the most fascinating part of Vardy’s life. Even though it follows a man reaching the absolute pinnacle of sport, the movie tries to stay grounded and relatable throughout.

Deeply troubling personal moments and incredibly critical conversations occur around the most monumental periods of Vardy’s professional career. It stops the documentary from aggrandizing the subject too much and losing sight of where he came from.

The choice of subject in Untold UK: Jamie Vardy is rich with potential. Jamie Vardy’s journey is one of the most incredible sports stories in history, especially when mixed with that of Leicester City. Combined, the football club and the player went on to achieve one of the greatest accomplishments the sport has ever witnessed. And yet, Vardy is a very raw individual. He has not received media training or perfected his on-camera presence over the years. By his own admission, he’s uneducated. And that makes him an honest individual.

The Netflix documentary refuses to absolve Vardy for past missteps. 

It’s very surprising just how critical the documentary is of Vardy’s life and his actions. It doesn’t absolve him of blame or excuse him in the slightest, either. It just keeps hammering home the point that the interviewee is a very complicated individual. The whole documentary seems to consist of a single interview with Vardy, which is then used throughout the film.

And at the start, it’s evident that Vardy isn’t comfortable sitting in front of the cameras and film crew. But he’s still very forthcoming with his answers, often short responses peppered with cursing or self-deprecating retorts.

The other interviewees include old friends, his wife, Rebekah, and teammates from both his on-league days and his Premier League career. And all have a balanced view on his personality and what he’s like. They hone in on his faults and his formidable ability. Many of the people involved know him more as a person than as a footballer, and it shows in the way they talk about him.

Untold UK: Jamie Vardy needed more energy to match its subject. 

The production uses some creative techniques, but some sections could be improved. The shots of interviews and the general editing aren’t anything special, apart from a few exceptions. Conversations are held through multiple interviews, bouncing between the two as Vardy responds to what the other subjects have said about him. It corroborates their stories and makes a connection between the subjects.

There is also a fantastic graphic used throughout Untold UK: Jamie Vardy. It’s a display of the English football pyramid, with the non-league divisions at the bottom and the Premier League right at the top. It’s a handy guide for those unfamiliar with the structure, and it also documents the enormity of Vardy’s climb.

The major negative in the documentary is a distinct lack of energy or change. The same kind of music, slow and emotional, is used from start to finish. The film moves at the same pace, and even the football clips themselves lack a sense of speed. This is particularly important, given that the man at the center of the entire documentary is all about energy.

Untold UK shines the light on an underdog. 

Vardy is a maverick, a wild player known for bursts of pace, winding up opponents, and an intense party atmosphere. That intensity and ferocity of playing style deserve to be reflected in the editing, too. Because there are times when Untold UK: Jamie Vardy gets bogged down and feels slow and tiresome, and the influx of energy would have been helpful to reinvigorate it.

Untold UK: Jamie Vardy unearths the secret of football’s ultimate underdog. What’s appreciated about this documentary is just how candid it is. It’s not a glorified puff piece, although it includes a lot of glory. Vardy has achieved an incredible amount of success in his life, and that is celebrated. But there has also been just as much strife, struggle, and solemnity, and that is also captured.

The humility is refreshing and gives the documentary grit and real emotion. Vardy is rough, and trying to present him in this film as anything other than that would be disingenuous. The pacing could use a bit more velocity, but the subject’s personality is perfectly captured and explored.

Untold UK: Jamie Vardy is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.