Claim: This Sporting Life was directed by a British television director.
Evidence: This Sporting Life is a 1963 British feature film based on the 1960 novel of the same name by David Storey , which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award.
David Malcolm Storey -LRB- 13 July 1933 -- 27 March 2017 -RRB- was an English playwright , screenwriter , award-winning novelist and a professional rugby league player.