“I thought he was joking and reckoned it might be a documentary or something, but it was a genuine Hollywood movie. I met him in London for a chat and then he introduced me to the people making the picture and discovered the film was being made in Budapest over a period of six weeks.
“I’d retired from football six months earlier and Bobby had, too, so it was a great opportunity to do something different. We spoke with our wives – mine wasn’t too happy with me being away for six weeks! – but the financial side of it was very good and not long after, Bobby and I met up again in London in readiness to fly out.
“The night before we left, Arsenal star Liam Brady came into the restaurant we were in, saw us and walked over for a chat. He was dubious about leaving Arsenal for Sampdoria and we both said he should take the opportunity to try something different, which he did and made a success of it.
“We flew out at the back of the Hungarian Airlines plane and picked up our visas on our arrival. On landing, we discovered Pele had been sat in first class, but we’d had no idea!
“We collected our luggage but were disappointed to find there was nobody to meet us, so we caught a taxi to our hotel and eventually received an apology from the production team who said there had been a mix-up with the pick-up arrangements.
“The hotel was fantastic – right on the Danube – you’d have thought we were big time movie stars! Shortly after we met the filmmakers and things went from there.
“The next day we went to the prisoner of war camp and learned who we were going to be and what are parts were. Our uniforms were handed out and it was fascinating to see how things worked – they’d take a Polaroid picture of you in the morning and another at the end of the day for continuity purposes. It was all very professionally done.”
Buzzer proved a popular cast member, but there were plenty of faces he recognised that helped bond everyone together and the camaraderie was immediate and created the perfect chemistry Huston had been looking for.
“Paul Cooper, Kevin O’Callaghan, Kaziu Deyna, Ossie Ardiles, Kevin Beattie, John Wark, Russell Osman and several others were all there and we all got along fantastically well, and the friendship remains to this day,” Buzzer continued.
“Kaziu, who had played for City, was a lovely man and a very proud Polish man. He had a problem with one scene because he felt it belittled his country, but a few of us managed to bring him around eventually.
“It was wonderful to meet Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone for the first time. Sylvester had just completed Rocky so was a huge star and there were other famous actors like Max von Sydow and the English actors such as Julian Curry, Tim Piggott-Smith and Daniel Massey – all great Shakespearian actors who were on board because it was a John Huston film – to have a director’s name like that on your CV was a real plus.
“We all had scripts, but for the players, one or two of us had a few lines to say and a few of us didn’t. Some of the lead actors pushed some words on to us so we were more involved in the movie. The first time we went to the pitch at the POW camp and the teams were being picked, I had to head a ball down into the dust and then get up and say a line to Michael Caine.