Fighting with the internet is not a battle I was ever cut out for. I’m quite simple when it comes to tech. Yes, I know how to plug in a computer and do the basics like sending emails and messages but I am not the kind of bloke who can wrestle with the finer points of web-building.

At least I thought I wasn’t.

As it happens in the last few months I have managed not only to build a new website (vivelecricket.com – complete with buttons for people to buy tickets for the show) but I have now managed to set up a means by which ‘The Road to Sparta’, a film I made over a decade ago with my old pal Roddy Gibson, will be available for rental or for purchase.

Cue fanfare and applause rippling round the gallery. Yes, medals will be acceptable for both tasks, each of which is a minor success for someone who is adept at whizzing around the various configurations but a major triumph for a thumb-struck ninny such as me.

For ‘The Road to Sparta’ this is long overdue and I hope will please the many people, including Dean Karnazes who features largely in the movie, who have been badgering me for the last decade.

In this age of digital immediacy it is ridiculous that a film that premiered in 2016 is only now getting what might be termed a global run, in the sense that it will now be available to viewers all over the world. The blame for this rests entirely with me.

As a novice in Filmland I tried to do things by the book. The film went to a number of festivals and won a number of awards. Kind things were written about it in the press. It was included in the market at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival in 2017.

I was wet behind the ears and didn’t understand the significance of being selected for the market — so I didn’t go to Thessaloniki. We hadn’t been accepted to screen as part of the festival so I thought what’s the point. Fool. I missed a golden opportunity to sell the film, to meet agents, distributors, broadcasters, international festivals. I was an idiot.

But there was a sales agent there who did see the film and liked it well enough to contact me and offer to take it in.

“I will formulate a plan,” he sad. “I will talk to Netflix, Amazon. This is a beautiful film. There is a market for it.”

Flattery will get you everywhere with the ‘wet behind the ears’.

I have no idea if it ever got as far as Netflix or Amazon: the only bite I had from television came directly to me from the Greek station Cosmote. They’d seen it in Thessaloniki and wanted to buy it which sounded wonderful until they spouted their terms. They wanted:

• A version with Greek subtitles (Fair enough)

• Regional rights for two years – the regions to include the Balkans and Cyprus (Negotiable)
• To pay 900 euros (erm…) … plus another 200 euros for subtitles and further editing

“What do you mean ‘further editing’?”

“Well we want to show Greece in a good light so we need to cut the first five minutes and the last five minutes.”

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I ended the call.

If you haven’t seen the film, the start and finish are key in contextualising the race and the runners, linking the threat of the invading Persians on ancient Athens with the economic threat that was crashing over Greece in 2015. At times we show the dirty side, whether it’s the riot police dealing with a demo, or the grime, grit and graffiti of the city streets.

Lose the start and finish, you lose the soul of the film.

The Road to Sparta will be available from October 28, 2026 – click here

I began to get concerned with my sales agent not just when nothing materialised but also when he

1) turned down my proposal for a face to face meeting

2) declined to enter any kind of formal agreement whilst asking me not to try selling the film myself, and

3) became slower and slower in responding to emails.

I was, to use the vernacular, slowly being dumped.

After a wasted year, I employed the phrase that so irritated me a couple of years earlier and “took back control”.

That led to a busy year of festivals in 2018, including the prestigious Melbourne International Documentary Film Festival. When 2019 came round I invested in creating a batch of DVDs and started planning a mini-tour with Q&A to coincide with major marathons and half-marathons. Show the film, flog the merch was the idea.

But then came Covid – scuppering the tour plans – and a massive upsurge in digital television, rendering DVDs obsolete almost overnight. (If there are any collectors out there I still hold a good stock in my garage – call me.)

In 2020 I found a new sales agent in Ireland. These guys had a great track record (including an Oscar for Pan’s sake) and were entirely genuine. Meetings in Dublin were warm and encouraging. They added the film to their portfolio and got selling, except in 2021 it was now an old film. And it didn’t quite fit into a comfortable box.

Yes it was sport but it was sport with history. And poetry. And there was no celebrity presenter to talk through the links which work best with silence or the haunting original soundtrack of Old House Playground. The length was also a conundrum. Running at 60 minutes it didn’t fit the ‘broadcasters’ hour’.

They succeeded in placing it with Tubi in North America and that was it. Nothing in the UK or indeed anywhere in Europe.

Last year we both agreed that it was time once again for me to take back control. They paid us out our dues from Tubi, a massive 300 euros. Who said films make you rich?

And so, after much tearing of hair and wringing of hands, here it is. The child can finally take its place in the world.

We have chosen to put it out on’ October 28 or ‘Ochi Day’ Why? Because it’s a special date in Greek history. In 1940 it was the day they said no to Mussolini’s hopes of a bloodless takeover. ‘Ochi’ means no in Greek

On the other hand, it has always been a kind date for us. In 2017 we had a joyous screening at the Lighthouse cinema in Dublin on ‘Ochi Day’ and a year later we were awarded Best Documentary at the Satisfied Eye FF in Epsom.

So thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years for showing such patience.

Here’s hoping that all of you, whether you know the Spartathlon legend or not, enjoy the movie — and share the link with your friends.

The Road to Sparta will be available from October 28, 2026 – click here

@Barney Spender 2026