True story of East End mercenary to be screened

A FILM retelling the true story of an East End mercenary’s bid to kill Pablo Escobar is to be shown on the BBC next month.

Killing Escobar uses never-beforeseen footage to bring Peter McAleese’s doomed escapade to life and features accounts from a host of figures involved in the 1989 raid.

McAleese, who grew up in Riddrie, was tasked with leading a team to take out the drugs baron, only for disaster to strike.

The documentary, made by filmmaker David Whitney, premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival last month.

Whitney told us then: “It’s a relatively unknown story but I really felt passionately that there was a feature here, which is why I pursued it.

“It has everything.

It has action, it has intrigue.

“It’s got danger. It’s a true story. It’s a team of mainly British mercenaries. “What is there not to like about this? It’s an amazing story and so dramatic, “That’s what filmmakers look for. We look for the drama and the human stories and at the heart of this story is Peter McAleese.”

Filmed during the course of the last year, Whitney and his crew visited Glasgow – where he explored McAleese’s upbringing – America, and, crucially, Colombia itself.

“There’s an awful lot of content out there about Escobar but this is a really fresh angle that people probably won’t have seen before,” Whitney continued.

“This film is not about Pablo Escobar. “It’s about Peter McAleese and his men and what they went through.

“We really wanted to have real depth to the film and speaking to the people who were there is how you do it.

“[McAleese] has led an extraordinary life.”

Killing Escobar will be shown on the BBC Scotland channel between 10pm and 11.30pm on Tuesday, May 4.