A film celebrating the barrier-breaking exploits of Bermuda sporting icon Clyde Best will be shown in the island’s prisons on Saturday.

The feature-length documentary Transforming the Beautiful Game — The Clyde Best Story, will be shown at Westgate Correctional Facility in Dockyard at 9am and 11am, and at the Prison Farm and Co-Educational Facility in St George’s at 2pm and 3.30pm.

Best, who scored 47 goals in 186 appearances for West Ham between 1968 and 1976, hopes the film will inspire inmates to pursue their dreams.

“I hope it’s a good thing especially for young people to look at and say, ‘hey, if I work hard and want to achieve things, I can do it to’,” said Best, who will be attending the screenings.

“That’s the main thing that I am interested in; getting young people to make changes and wanting to help themselves.”

The Bermuda Sports Hall of Fame inductee has previous experience helping inmates in their reintroduction into society as a staff member at the former Transitional Living Centre.

“I did a bit of counselling in the halfway house with the guys; helping them out and talking with them to make sure that they went to the right areas when they had to go for employment and I enjoyed it,” Best said.

Also attending the viewing on Saturday is film producer Dan Egan, who is looking forward to the occasion.

“We are very excited about taking it to both the prison and the farm,” he said.

“I was approached by Dennis Brown [former Department of Corrections principal officer] to take it to the inmates and I loved the idea. Clyde’s father [Joe Best] was second-in-command up there at Casemates [former men’s prison] and Edward “Icewater” Smith has for 40 years been ministering to the inmates and who plays himself in the movie, which is awesome.”

Brown, himself a former Somerset Trojans and Bermuda captain, believes this viewing will be a great opportunity for the inmates.

“A lot of them may not be aware of the accomplishments of Clyde Best and this is a great opportunity for them to actually be a part of history,” he said.

“The inmate population has got younger and some may not be aware of the exploits and accomplishments of Clyde Best, so this is a great opportunity for them to see first-hand the journey of what it took for him to get to where he is today.

“I think it’s a great opportunity, a positive opportunity for those because I know from working in the prison for 32 years that we can’t forget these young men and women.

“The more positive information that we give them while they are incarcerated the better. This is a very positive initiative undertaken by the prison to allow the documentary to be shown within the prison facilities.”

The film depicts how Best, who also played for Trojans and Bermuda before embarking on a professional career abroad, helped change the face of football in Britain while enduring racist taunts from the stands as he paved the way for Black players in the game.

“What I say about Clyde all the time is he is the uniter,” said Egan, who was inspired to launch the project after reading Mr Best’s 2016 autobiography The Acid Test. “Clyde unites people, he unites the island and he united England.

“To be the only Black face on television, to be the first Black superstar, he rallied communities to join together.

“I think that’s a big part of the message of going to the prisons because Clyde is vested in the youth and community of Bermuda, and he has it in his heart to say to people, ‘work hard, be nice, rise above it, excellence can overcome adversity’ and mentorship.

“Icewater mentored boys and he will tell you he had to raise those boys right, and sometimes that was harsh. He benched Clyde Best as a boy and was reining in that attitude and that ego.

“That’s a message that needs to be told and to be able to tell that story in the prison and farm with these characters with us I think is very impactful.”

The film will be shown at the Earl Cameron Theatre, City Hall, on April 21 and 22, and at the Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts in Devonshire, from April 23 to 26.

Egan said the first two nights have already been sold out. Tickets for the remaining dates are available at clydebest.shop.

“We are sold out for the first two nights and then we have some availability moving forward through to the 26th so we are pretty excited about that,” he said.

“We are just so excited about coming to Bermuda with the show.”

Hundreds of people attended the film’s red-carpet world premiere in London last month attended by Best.

Among the dignitaries attending were David Burt, the Premier, Speaker of the House of Assembly Dennis Lister, Best’s West Ham team-mate Ade Coker, former Newcastle United and England striker Les Ferdinand, and Luton Town and Bermuda striker Nahki Wells.

“This has been a five-year journey and to see the reception of the movie in London was overwhelming,” said Egan, who has sailed in several Marion Bermuda Races and attended school in Maine with Best’s nephew Jerry.

“The biggest stars came out to support Clyde, and Bermuda is special because the story has sort of been out there about Clyde for so long but now the whole story is coming together.”