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m er e’s st women over 30 – got the vote. And women under 30 had to wait until 1928. Manchester-raised director Mike Leigh says he was increasingly aware of the film’s significance as shooting progressed. He adds: “Those who were fighting for the vote would be horrified to find that 200 years later we have Mike Leigh with star Maxine Peake To mark the bicentenary of Peterloo and Mike Leigh’s film, we’ve teamed up with Visit Manchester to offer an overnight night stay for two in the luxurious Radisson Blu Edwardian, plus a meal for two in Peter Street Kitchen restaurant, two tickets to see Peterloo at HOME cinema, a meal for two at HOME restaurant; and a poster signed by Mike Leigh. For a chance to win, answer the question at visitmanchester.com/Peterloo. Q: When will Manchester mark the bicentenary of the Peterloo Massacre? a) 2020 b) 2019 c) 2021. (T&Cs on the website above) it but we don’t use it.” Dr Poole puts Peterloo in the same category as Bloody Sunday, Tiananmen Square and the Soweto riots – a sacrifice of innocents leading to eventual progress.
Others draw parallels with Hillsborough and the miners’ strike in the way the authorities tried to cover up wrongdoing and smear victims.
Leigh echoes the sentiment. “It was an important event in the long road to democracy. Some say, ‘So what? It didn’t achieve anything immediately’.
“I don’t subscribe to that. It stands as an inspiration to freedom of expression and democracy. And it was about people’s right to demand what they haven’t got.”
■ Peterloo, starring Maxine Peake, is in cinemas now.