The unlikely diary clash between the Cannes film festival and the Division One play-offs is always in the mind of top film producer and keen Bradford City fan Steve Abbott.

Steve, whose film credits include producing A Fish Called Wanda and Brassed Off, wants the club to gain automatic promotion to the Premiership by finishing the season in second place.

He has one eye on his diary because the prestigious film festival on the French Riviera could clash with crucial play-off matches to decide who will become the third team to enter the top flight of English football.

Fellow Bantams fan George Layton, the actor and writer who grew up in Bradford, attends away matches with Steve when the team play anywhere near London, where they now live.

The pair met not at a showbiz party but at a Bradford City match, said Steve.

Both are fully behind the Telegraph and Argus The Only Way Is Up! campaign - and Steve frequently turns to the special supplement produced by the T&A to mark its launch.

His parents still live in the Haworth Road area of the city and regularly send articles from the T&A to their son.

"Since I left Bradford in the mid-70s, I've always gone to as many away matches as possible. The Bantams site on the Internet is a lifeline - I've been all over the world and you get team news as if you're at home," said Steve, who is now 44. "I sit at my desk and every couple of hours I check my e-mail messages from fellow City supporters.

"When I come back home to Bradford I try to make it coincide with home games. I first went to Valley Parade when I was five and have been going regularly since. It's part of my upbringing.

"When we went to Wembley I was living in California and I managed to get back two days before the match.

"We've got such a good squad at the moment. I hope we can get automatic promotion -- otherwise there will be severe wear and tear on my nerves."

Steve is currently working on a new film with actor Pete Postlethwaite, who was also in Brassed Off. Details are being kept under wraps at present but an announcement is expected soon.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.