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A heart-rending new drama from Jimmy Mcgovern tells the story of a real tragedy – and imagines what could have been
Our 52-page guide includes Jaci Stephen’s Soap Watch, your essential Movie Planner, plus a special preview of Jimmy Mcgovern’s new drama Anthony
When Jimmy Mcgovern was thinking how to create his new film, based on the true story of a racist murder, he pondered the lost generation of the First World War.
‘Until the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month they kept fighting, even though they knew the war was over,’ he says. ‘Thousands died and I kept thinking how many of those men could have achieved something in their lives. A cure for a virus, perhaps.’
It’s why his heart-breaking BBC drama starts happily: Anthony Walker is 25, a successful family man. Minutes later we see him aged 24 and helping a beggar in the street. At 23, he’s married with a baby. Tragically this is all a fantasy and a clock is ticking down to the fateful night in 2005 when, aged 18, Anthony was murdered in a random racist attack in Liverpool by Michael Barton and Paul Taylor, the brother and cousin of footballer Joey Barton.
The ‘what might have been’ takes up half of this 90-minute drama and was based on Jimmy’s talks with Anthony’s mother Gee. ‘I’ve known Gee for a while – I always went to her to learn about grief and loss – and one day she said, “It’s my turn, I want you to write about Anthony,”’ says Jimmy. ‘The BBC had just made a film about Damilola Taylor and I didn’t want to repeat the idea of the aftermath of a black boy’s murder. So I thought of a fresh way in: the wedding and child he never got, the friends he may have saved.’
Gee recorded a piece about her son, who wanted to be a human rights lawyer, which was seen by the cast. She was also a script consultant and insisted Jimmy took out the swear words as her practising Christian son didn’t use them.
‘She came to see us record the wedding, and I was all suited and booted,’ recalls Toheeb Jimoh, who plays Anthony, of him marrying fictional wife Katherine (Julia Brown). ‘She said, “Wow, this is what my son would have looked like if he got married.” It was so poignant. We had a long hug.’
The drama also coincides with the global Black Lives Matter movement. ‘Had I been born at a
different time and at that same spot in Liverpool, that could have been me,’ says Toheeb. ‘Anthony’s story could’ve been anyone’s.’
Rakie Ayola, who plays Gee and was recently in another show about race, Noughts + Crosses, says the drama highlights the futility of racism. ‘This film really highlights how nobody wins,’ she insists.
‘Anthony’s family didn’t win, the people who killed him didn’t gain as much as a pound coin. There was no reason at all to kill that young man. There is something so pointless about putting your energy into hatred in that way.
‘So, if you don’t quite understand why everyone is up in arms about this racism thing, here you go.’