It includes a visit to Elland Road by the author and the programme's cult presenter, Melvyn Bragg.
The show is being broadcast a fortnight before filming starts on a movie version of the novel.
Most of the action will be shot in Yorkshire, although the exact locations are being kept secret at present.
Michael Sheen, who starred as Tony Blair opposite Helen Mirren in The Queen, will play Clough.
Written from Clough's perspective, the novel tells how he was fired from Leeds in 1974 after failing to win over a dressing room still passionately loyal to his predecessor, Don Revie.
*The South Bank Show: The Damned Utd is on ITV1 on Sunday, May 11 at 10.50pm.