Editor's note: Wednesday night, October 5, "On The Set: Four Minutes," a show about the making of the movie, will air at 10:30 p.m. And finally, the movie itself will premiere October 6 at 7:00 p.m. All times EST. Be sure to check your local listings.

The 1939-45 War was barely over when Roger Bannister entered Oxford University. He knew that being a medical doctor would take his full attention, and at one of the finest universities in the world, sports were considered recreation. When Bannister ran a nice mile in the Oxford freshman sports day, and then won the mile at the Oxford- Cambridge meeting, he showed his natural talent.

But where did his medical studies fit in along with his pursuit of the mile? This challenge is the theme of Bannister's pursuit of the four-minute mile, and is a story as daunting as Sir Edmund Hilary's attempt on Mt. Everest.

"Four Minutes," ESPN's made-for-TV movie, with screenplay by Frank Deford (probably America's best-known sports writer), and with fine British director Charles Beeson, is an entertaining couple of hours - especially if you can forget that you're a track geek and just enjoy it. The film does a nice job in giving the average sports fan a feeling of what life was like in postwar England, the importance of the 1948 Olympics, and the journey of Roger Bannister, from a gawky freshman to the man who would first break the four-minute mile.

The camaraderie between actor Jamie Maclachlan, who plays Bannister, Drew Carwash as Chris Brasher, and Grahame Wood as Chris Chataway, seems honest, and that makes for some of the best moments in the movie. Leon Pownall portrays Dr. Walker, an Oxford professor who challenged Bannister in class, and the surprise of surprises, Bannister was one of the few students who actually listened to Dr. Walker's lectures.

I enjoyed the movie. The ESPN version of the pursuit of the mile captures much of the excitement, the ups and downs, of any noble human quest and the conflicts that arrive when one pursues something that many believe to be foolish.

However--my old college history profs would pummel me with copies of Roger Bannister's 1955 book, "First Four Minutes," if I did not mention one tiny little problem--THEY CHANGED HISTORY!

Case in point--Christopher Plummer, one of Britain's finest actors, played the late, great Franz Stampfl, Bannister's actual coach, quite well. But in the movie he is called Archie Mason! What was that about? Why not stick with the facts?

In our sport, the relationship between coach and athlete is critical. Most athletes find that being able to speak to someone about training, and life, is vital to their success. Think of the coaches in "Personal Best " (Scott Glenn) or "Without Limits" (Donald Sutherland). Christopher Plummer's portrayal of a coach in the postwar era was excellent, but the examination of his relationship with Bannister never truly played out. Stampfl, the real life coach of Bannister, was as big a character as Archie Mason, perhaps even more.

Frank Deford, one of the best sportswriters of our time, has written a strong screenplay, one that gives the typical viewer a chance to see the sport of track and field in a positive light. They'll see Roger Bannister as a young man with a loving family and supportive friends; a young man who makes no excuses about his pursuit of education--and his pursuit of sport on his own terms--during a time when his country really needed heroes. Deford caught much of the story, and his parallel storyline of the attempt on Mt. Everest is a wonderful comparison. Scaling Everest and breaking the four-minute mile were two of the noble pursuits left in the world. Deford should be congratulated for accomplishing much more than others might have been able to convey.

"Four Minutes" is a strong piece of sports entertainment, and it should be viewed. The challenges that confronted Bannister, and his failure in the 1952 Olympics at Helsinki, make the breaking of the four-minute mile show Bannister as the man he was and is--a modern man exploring both vocation and avocation on his own terms.

He ran under four minutes and lived, and now more than a thousand have followed him in the quest for the four-minute mile.