Hillsborough is the defining moment of Liverpool’s recent history. Growing up I felt the destructive legacy that the disaster had left on my home town: the negative media coverage damaged the city’s reputation and left the people of Liverpool feeling betrayed by their country’s government and legal system. But over the years the bereaved families have fought a tireless campaign for justice, uniting generations of Liverpudlians in a collective search for the truth.
In our media obsessed societies these battles must be publicised,
but how can these families manage their grief as public property?
I am interested in how the bereavement process is distorted when a child dies as the result of someone else’s actions; exploring how it is possible to recover from such a loss when the circumstances of death are deliberately obscured.
Anne’s search for the truth is fuelled by her sense of injustice, and her investigation will form the core of the narrative structure as she carefully pieces together the final moments of her son’s life.
The script will vividly depict Anne’s grief as she realises her son is not coming home, and her anger when she discovers that his life could have been saved.
This story is not just about this tragedy. The UK press has recently been inundated with stories of families struggling against state injustice, with the British police attempting to fend off numerous accusations of dishonesty, brutality and institutional racism. I feel that Anne’s story has a universal resonance, and that it says something important about individual courage in the face of an unchallenged, corrupted Establishment.
Depicting real people and documented events in fictional drama is a delicate balance. My aim is to create an authentic character study of a mother, whose relentless commitment to her campaign came at the cost of her marriage and her health. Ultimately Anne’s fight for the truth is empowering, and I hope the audience will engage with her story while absorbing the political context of the disaster.