Anne (ITV - True Story on the Hillsborough Disaster)

Slydice · 07-01-2022 11:43PM #1

I saw this 4 part series and noticed it was 8.8/10 on IMDB and 100% on RT. It's around the events of The Hillsborough disaster.

I've heard of the disaster but I'm not very aware of the events. Just that it had involved crushing. I checked on the wiki and the disaster had 97 deaths and 766 injuries in 1989 that occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The deaths and injuries were from overcrowding and fatal crushing in standing-only pens allocated to Liverpool supporters.

IMDB says: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9252090/

The story of Anne Williams fight for the truth of her son's death.

I found this trailer on youtube: Anne | Official Trailer | ITV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVg2wCyW5Ro

Part 1: This episode immersed into the 1989 - 1990 setting. It felt tense throughout and left me feeling something was off. It showed the immediate events alright but definitely something feels off.

Slydice · 08-01-2022 01:14AM

Part 2: Hrmmmm, right at the start of this one.. it sounds like someone spent 6 hours with that policeman to get him to change his word.

Then as it was going along, I'm painting this terrible picture of the boys last moments in my head. It sounds terrible. Sounds like his something in his neck was crushed.. that it blocked his airways but worse than that was what came next. Then it sounds like the policeman, PC Bruder, might have gotten air to his lungs with that kiss of life.. that maybe the kid, that Kevin I mean, might have been in and out of consciousness. That he might have been alert to his situation and aware of his own choking to death 🙁

After that, it looks like Steve just can't handle the situation and is leaving. I thought he might have been grieving differently at first but then packing away his stuff. I think he's leaving.

Slydice · 08-01-2022 02:31PM

Part 3: That was just so frustrating watching as each of the appeals just kept getting thrown out.

They conveyed the passage of time well in this. First with Kevins sister getting older than he was, then through the appeals and to the 20 Years anniversary.

Found Annes book on goodreads: When You Walk Through the Storm: The Hillsborough Disaster and One Mother's Quest for Justice

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2469434.When_You_Walk_Through_the_Storm

Found real footage of the Justice for the 96 scene on youtube:

LFC-TV: Andy Burnham's speech, interrupted by shouts of "justice for the 96"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z3mBIi084Q

Slydice · 08-01-2022 09:20PM

Part 4: Ah f*ck, that was a sad ending with her death 🙁 Fu*k cancer!

Then the extra kick of no one held accountable and all the prosecutions being dismissed in May last year.

What a fighter Anne Williams was though! Glad she at least got to see that the new inquests were going to happen. I'm doubtful she'd have been OK with no one being held accountable and the prosecutions being dismissed like that though.

I checked on youtube for 2013, it turns out she died three days after the Boston Marathon bombing. One minutes applause for Anne Williams & Boston bombings was given at the Liverpool vs Chelsea that weekend:

Liverpool vs Chelsea 21/04/2013 Anne Williams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkqDorX159s

I think this interview was from the day of the memorial service in that final scene:

Anne Williams attends 24th Hillsborough memorial service and vows fight for justice will go on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc2mi5-lrXE

JP Liz V1 · 09-01-2022 10:40PM

Maxine Peake is a great actress

Be right back · 09-01-2022 10:51PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118446812#Comment_118446812

She was brilliant as Myra Hindley in the TV series about the moors murders.

Annasopra · 09-01-2022 11:08PM

Ive only seen part 1

Radio5 · 11-01-2022 12:31PM

As a teenager, I saw those events as they happened at Hillsborough on TV that day with my parents. Very difficult to watch this at times. It made me more aware of just how early the official cover-up started and the different layers of tragedy unfolding over time, with families finding out, as Anne did, that their relatives could possibly have been saved, and for those who survived the reality of being damaged forever by what they saw and did on the day and losing so many people they knew.

I agree Maxine Peake was excellent. Was that Mark Womack playing Anne's brother that she lived with towards the end? I thought it was but can't find him credited on it.

trashcan · 11-01-2022 03:17PM

Yep, I remember watching Hillsborough live as it unfolded. OP really made me feel old there 😛. Was shocking to witness at the time, though I think it’s fair to say no one watching live would have really appreciated the extent of the deaths that we we watching.

Jimmy McGovern did an excellent drama on the events a few years ago. Christopher Eccleston was one of the stars. Really showed the extent of the police negligence and subsequent cover up.

Atlantic Dawn · 13-01-2022 01:04AM

Watched this over the last few nights, very well done.

One thing I got from it is Liverpool Football Club didn't seem to be directly offering support to the families mounting the campaign for justice from a financial and legal point of view at the various stages of appeals, at least this seemed how it was portrayed. I know the team visited the funerals and held regular events over the years commemorating the disaster.

I hope the husband of Anne was consulted before the show and accepted how he was to be portrayed or it may be very upsetting for him to see how he was shown. Perhaps it's exactly what he wanted portrayed that the strain on his life was imense and pretty much destroyed his relationship with Anne.

Anne (ITV - True Story on the Hillsborough Disaster)

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