The Dunblane tragedy was the hardest story I have ever had to cover.. it doesn’t go away
TV host returns to town on anniversary of massacre
Jennifer Hyland
Lorraine Kelly has spoken of her emotional return to Dunblane to film a documentary on the 25th anniversary of the gun tragedy in the town.
The presenter, who reported on the events for GMTV, has revisited the community which was the scene of the UK’s only mass school shooting.
Gunman Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children and their teacher in the gym hall of Dunblane Primary School on March 13, 1996, before killing himself.
Lorraine, 61, spoke to survivors and families of the victims and said filming the programme for ITV brought all the memories of that day flooding back.
She said: “I was just back there at the end of the year, just before we went into lockdown.
“I did a documentary which is going to be about later this year, the beginning of March I think, because it’s 25 years.
“It never really does go away and (I think about it) any time I see a sign for Dunblane or whenever there is something in America, where as we know it happens far too often.
“That was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life and I don’t think there will be anything else like
I remem ber the press confere nce.. I was seeing grown men in tears
that. Going back, I was remembering a lot of things.
“I remember the press conference and journalists are pretty hard-bitten – they have to be just to survive – but I was seeing grown men in tears.
“I remember the quietness and nobody quite knowing how to absorb this and how to cope with it. It’s things like that you remember and it just makes you realise how lucky you are.”
Speaking S on The Convex Conversation podcast, po Lorraine said her style of presenting pr allowed her to tell more of the th human stories behind tragedies like lik Dunblane.
She S added: “Unl ike other news organisations, org you are allowed, not to be mawkish ma in any way, but to put it into perspective and talk about emotions in a really, really grown- up, proper way and not in a self-indulgent way.
“That’s what I think is a real strength of the kind of television that we do. You can sort of say, ‘Oh gosh, this is horrific’.
“You can reflect how people are feeling because I think that’s really important but it’s got to be done in the right way with respect.”
Scottish band Glasvegas have written an original musical score for the documentary, which has the working title Dunblane – 25 Years On with Lorraine Kelly.
When the show was announced last year, Tom Giles, ITV controller of current affairs, said: “This is a very sensitive yet important film which looks to explore some of the complex layers of grief and emotion surrounding one of the most tragic events in our recent history.
“And it aims to throw light on how the community at its heart somehow, quietly and resiliently, pulled together.”
Andy Murray and his brother Jamie were at the school on the day of the massacre and knew the killer, though they did not witness the shootings.
In a documentary released in 2019, three- time Grand Slam champion Murray, who was eight at the time, said playing tennis helped him to cope in the aftermath of the tragedy.
The shootings led to handguns being banned in the UK and stricter controls on gun licensing.