Hillsborough: Never Forgotten

Back in the 1980s, Liverpool was an easy city for the police and right-wing press to demonise. Synonymous with riots, heroin addiction, unemployment and hard-left politics, it seemed a city in decline. Indeed there’d been discussion – at cabinet level, no less – of its ‘abandonment’.

This was the backdrop to the events of April 15 1989 which, as the years went by, graduated from human tragedy into full-blown source of national shame. This affecting, enraging film hears from survivors, justice campaigners, silenced witnesses and church leaders. All have moving and striking stories to tell; it’s clear that wounds remain incredibly raw – hardly surprising given the vigour with which the police, judiciary and media have filled them with salt.

The cover-up is itemised in all of its mind-blowing cynicism, but so too is the grief – the Hillsborough scandal has so much to tell us about the conduct of our law enforcers that it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that behind it lies the horrible simplicity of bereavement. Highly recommended.