Doc Brown: For the first time in 50 years kids want to be Crystal Palace fans!

Comedian, actor and musician Doc Brown has told William Hill’s Stripped Podcast that he believes for the first time in 50 years, kids growing up in south London are choosing to become Crystal Palace supporters.

Brown was speaking on William Hill’s Stripped Podcast, a new series in which ex-footballers and celebrities are invited to take a trip down memory lane by revisiting their favourite football shirts. He began by touching on how he became a Crystal Palace fan despite being born and raised in north London.

He said: “First off, I never felt any affinity to Arsenal even though I was from north-west London; my local team was QPR. My dad was a Crystal Palace fan from Croydon, so that was straightforward. My mum was also from the south-east; Lewisham. All of my family was from south-east London, but they moved to the north-west, so I already had the south-east connection. It was really down to my first live footballing experience.

“The guy who lived in the flat beneath us was an insane Liverpool fan. Instinctively, I thought Liverpool were too obvious. I wanted a connection, and even at that age I wanted to feel at home. I didn’t have any connection to Liverpool other than John Barnes, who I loved. My dad suggested Palace. What helped make it an easy decision was that at Loftus Road, I experienced so much racism; at Palace, there was an anti-racism drive, and the team was three-quarters black: Ian Wright, Mark Bright… It was crazy, the team was mainly black, and we were good. I felt welcome. It felt like home immediately.

“I found it easy to love Palace. I was so welcome there, and it is a beautiful feeling every time I go still. But then something magical happened that solidified my love for Palace forever; we got to the semi-final of the FA Cup the same season and played Liverpool at Villa Park. Everyone thought Liverpool were going to win easily, and there was no way Palace would get anything. We beat them 4-3, went to the final to play Manchester United, and were in a kick of beating them. They equalised in the last minute, and we went to a replay on a Wednesday night. Yes, there were FA Cup final replays!”

Losing 1-0 in the 1990 FA Cup final replay to Manchester United didn’t quell Doc Brown’s love for the club or their growing momentum. The next season they finished third in the First Division, higher than Manchester United, Everton and Leeds.

He said: “We finish in the old First Division third, higher than United, Leeds and Everton. It was a great team. Then, the following season they announced the Premier League, and that football would be changed forever. Everyone in this First Division is joining the new rebranded Premier League. And what happens? United win the Premier League, and Palace get relegated and became a yoyo team from then on.

“It’s only now that we have come back. If we had won the FA Cup, we would have gone to the Cup Winners’ Cup. We would have played European football. We might have been rubbish but we would have had that experience, we would have attracted those better players, and we would have come back and been a power. We finished third in the old First Division, and a year later it would have been the Champions League. It went the other way for us.”

Now regarded as having one of the best atmospheres in English football, Crystal Palace are climbing the ranks once again and have cemented their position as Premier League regulars.

Doc Brown said: “Palace has the atmosphere. I am biased but I would say it is in the top three in the league. It has always been noisy. In the 30s and 40s, you could get over 100,000 in there. There was no limit. But then the fan base dropped off completely and we are just building it back now. Now you are seeing for the first time in 50 years, kids who want to be Palace fans. In the past, if you are a Londoner and a kid, why would you support Palace? There are so many better options. Now, if you are a south Londoner you are going to support the best south London team, Palace.

“Palace is one of the last Premier League top-flight clubs that is still tightly linked to creating talent from the local area. It means we are constantly in tune with the community. Kids that live in south-east London know all about Palace, either through trying out or opportunities to play or through the foundation which I work with. There is that production line element and community element and all of these things combine to create an atmosphere that is quite unique. And we are always the underdog. We always feel it’s a big game, so we get a big game atmosphere.”

Forging a successful career as an actor and comedian and becoming one of the more well-recognised Crystal Palace supporters, Doc Brown was asked to write and direct an advert for the Palace For Life Foundation, a charity pledging to raise money for the disadvantaged young people in the south of the capital.

Doc Brown said: “I wrote and directed an advert for the Palace For Life Foundation. I had access to all of the players and big Patrick Vieira himself. We’re aiming to raise one million pounds over three years, so I wanted to do something funny and light-hearted to get a serious point across. Football is entertainment. I thought there had to be a fun way to raise money for a serious cause. I was a youth worker for 10 years, so it was a perfect fit for me.

“I chose ‘Made in south London’. There is so much talent in south London. I imagined Palace players, if they weren’t playing football, what would their talent be? I got Joel Ward as a greengrocer, Marc Guehi as a lollipop man, Eberechi Eze as a barber. I wanted Wilfried Zaha as a window cleaner or busking, but he didn’t want to do it, unfortunately. In the end with Wilf, I got him to be an Uber driver – he could sit in his own car and not get out. That’s why it was so funny.

“Marc and Joel loved it and they were so good. By the end Marc was actually stopping traffic and talking to little kids. It was amazing. Joel was so natural as a greengrocer and after a while, a queue formed, and he didn’t know what to do! He ended up selling some fruit! It was amazing, the club and the community loved it. A great shoot! It was another example of how close the community in the south-east is.”