The hour-long show looks at how Yorkshire author David Peace came to write The Damned Utd – a book he has described as "an occult history" of Leeds.

* CLICK HERE TO ENJOY A PICTIURE SLIDESHOW OF IMAGES FROM BRIAN CLOUGH'S 44-DAY REIGN AS LEEDS UNITED MANAGER.

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It includes a visit to United's Elland Road ground by Peace and the programme's presenter, Melvyn Bragg. The show also turns the spotlight on the author's other work – much of which has been inspired by turbulent episodes in his home county's recent past, such as the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper and the miners' strike.

Contributors include broadcasters Michael Parkinson and Eamon Dunphy and playwright Alan Plater. The show is being broadcast a fortnight before filming starts on a movie version of the novel.

Most of the action will be shot in Yorkshire, although the exact locations are being kept under wraps at present.

Michael Sheen, who starred as Tony Blair opposite Helen Mirren in The Queen, will play Clough. Other cast members include Jim Broadbent and Timothy Spall.

Written from Clough's perspective, the original Damned Utd novel tells how he was fired from Leeds in 1974 after failing to win over a dressing room still fiercely loyal to his predecessor, Don Revie.

* The South Bank Show: The Damned Utd is on ITV1 on Sunday at 10.50pm.