‘Downton Abbey’ creator back with soccer tale ‘The English Game’
The fates of a 19th-century cotton mill, two rival soccer teams and a troubled marriage are bound together in “The English Game,” a mild entertainment from “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes. Anglophiles frothing at the mouth for Lord Fellowes’ usual costume-drama eye candy may be disappointed, as the bulk of the story takes place in the grimy world of serving wenches, poorly lit taverns, muddy roads and grim cotton mills of Lancashire. Maggie Smith does not drop in for an acerbic cameo.