TV & Film
Powerful new drama about the Hillsborough disaster starring Maxine Peake is coming to ITV
The four-part series will tell the tale of one mother’s fight for justice
A powerful new drama series about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster will be airing on ITV in the New Year.
Anne will tell the tale of the late Anne Williams, a grieving mother who dedicated her life to getting justice for the victims of the disaster after her own son, Kevin, was among the ninety-seven football fans killed.
The four-part series was written by Kevin Sampson who was at Hillsborough on the day of the disaster. An official ITV synopsis reads: “Refusing to accept the coroner’s original verdict of accidental death, Anne was determined to unearth the truth about what happened at Hillsborough.”
ITV
The activist fought back against the highly-publicised claims that football fans were to blame for the disaster, and worked tirelessly to prove that it was a result of police negligence.
Anne’s campaign work, which spanned over twenty years, sought new medical opinions, found witnesses who had tried to revive her son on the pitch, and lobbied ministers for new inquests.
Other parents and relatives of those who died in the disaster went on to join Anne in her fight for justice to prove that their loved ones had died unlawfully and as a result of police negligence.
Anne will be played by Bolton-born actress Maxine Peake, who said she hopes the new drama will showcase the power of standing up in ‘solidarity’ against the establishment.
ITV
Speaking on ITV’s This Morning, the actress said on Anne, who died in 2013: “She never gave up. There are times you see in the drama where she maybe felt like it, but she continued on. You felt she never got bitter.
“She was angry, but she channeled her anger and that’s what drover her forward. She was very dignified with it. She famously said: ‘They’re trying to grind me down, but I’ll grind them down first.'”
The series will also star Bobby Schofield, Lily Shepherd, and Clare Calbraith.
Episode one of the four-part drama series is set to air on ITV on Sunday, January 2nd, 2022.