Jonny Madderson (PH 93-98), Co-Founder and Filmmaker at JustSo, has won a BAFTA for his short film Hustle and Run, a documentary that tells the inside story of a literal band of underdogs and one very special whippet named Hustle who changed the sport of flyball forever. It is a film about love, community and whippets, set in Kent.

Jonny tells us a little about making his heartwarming film:

"The Usain Bolts of the canine world. A posh game of fetch. Whatever you call it, the sport of flyball is joyful, exhilarating - and untapped. As filmmakers, it felt like a chance to bring together two much-loved storytelling worlds - sports docs and dog stories - into something feel-good and thrilling. Something with a shot at that elusive inter-generational, inter-species audience. Full disclosure: I'm not impartial. I'm a whippet ultra and Enzo (sitting next to me as I type this) has melted my heart. When I stumbled across flyball at Crufts on YouTube - millions of views, utterly electric - I was hooked immediately. Teams of friends and their pets going pedal-to-the-metal under the lights of the world's greatest dog show. My co-director Jono Stevens has a sighthound too. He's also a big softy. With dogs in our lives and given all the sports docs we've made together, we felt there was something in flyball. The sport had charmed our socks off. 

We started ringing round flyball teams, and the early conversations were sweet - love, teamwork, community - but lacked the edge of a great sports doc. Then I rang Jeannette Shelley, captain of the Aces flyball team in Kent, and everything changed. One of those rare encounters every documentary filmmaker chases: that feeling of gathering excitement as someone tells their story, and the tuning fork going off in your heart. Jeannette, maverick captain of an underdog team once ranked in the lowly 200s, had stormed the sport with a revolutionary strategy. For 25 years, flyball had been dominated by border collies. Whippets - fast as lightning but deemed too lazy, too naughty, too mercurial - had never won on the elite stage. Jeannette saw something others didn't. She bet on the long shot. In her own words: "we gambled on balls-to-the-wall speed." This was Moneyball with whippets.

The making of this film shared a similar underdog energy. No major sports IP, no famous names. But Channel 4 saw the potential and we are so proud of our film Hustle and Run, co-directed by myself and Jono Stevens, produced by Sara Conlon and the wonderful team from JustSo. The film won Sports Documentary of the Year (under 60 mins) at the Broadcast Sport Awards, and last week won we won a BAFTA. We are so happy that the film has made this impact, because it's about things the world needs more of right now: love, community and whippets. To win the BAFTA with friends I've been working with for years was a very special moment... and just goes to show - every dog has its day."

Watch Hustle and Run here on Channel 4.


Jonny and Hustle