This paper explores the mythologizing of Bannister's sub-four minute mile, through an analysis of the film Four Minute Mile. It discusses the ways in which themes of class, work, patriotism, amateurism and professionalism, rural and urban are articulated. Consideration is given to the ways in which such themes are common in representations of sport, whether in drama, documentary or hybrid forms such as drama-documentary. The paper then returns to the place of the mythologized event at a moment when television was in its formative moments both as a technology and a cultural form.