''Anne'', subtitled ''One Mother's Story'', is a British historical drama television miniseries developed by

World Productions World Productions is a British television production company, founded on 20 March 1990 by acclaimed producer Tony Garnett, and owned by ITV plc following a takeover in 2017. History The company's first major series was the police drama '' Betwe ...

. Starring

Maxine Peake Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her roles as Twinkle in the BBC One sitcom ''dinnerladies'' (1998–2000), Veronica Ball in the hit Channel 4 comedy drama '' Shameless'' (2004–2007), Marth ...

as the titular campaigner Anne Williams, the four-part drama revolves around the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...

of 1989 and its aftermath. The series premiered on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

on 2 January 2022 and aired for four consecutive nights.

Cast

as Anne Williams *

Stephen Walters Stephen Walters (born 22 May 1973) is an English actor. A regular in British television and film, he has played a wide range and variety of character roles in both drama and comedy. Walters is most commonly associated with unpredictable, compl ...

as Steve Williams * Campbell Wallace as Kevin Williams * Bobby Schofield as Michael Williams * Lily Shepherd and Ellie May Davies as Sara Williams *

Clare Calbraith Clare Michelle Calbraith (born 1 January 1974) is an English actress, born in Winsford, Cheshire, and raised in Liverpool and Cheshire, whose appearances include roles in the ITV period drama series '' Home Fires'' and ''Downton Abbey'', toge ...

as Sheila Coleman *

Rob Jarvis Robert S Jarvis (born 1965) is an English television and film actor. He is best known for his roles as Eddie in ''Hustle'' the long running BBC series, Graham Shand in ''Luther'' and as Russell Posner in ''Emmerdale''. From the Wirral, he is fre ...

as John Glover *

Matthew McNulty Michael Anthony McNulty (born 14 December 1982), known professionally as Matthew McNulty, is a German-born British actor. Early life McNulty was born on 14 December 1982 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, West Germany, and lived in Berlin and Münster ...

Andy Burnham Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...

* Polly Kemp as Ann Adlington *

Raymond Waring Raymond Waring (born 21 July 1977) is an English actor. He was born in Liverpool and grew up in Runcorn, Cheshire, where he attended St. Chad's Secondary School. In 1994, he was accepted into the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and, i ...

as Steve Hart *

Ian Puleston-Davies Ian Puleston-Davies (born 6 September 1958) is a Welsh actor and writer. He is best known for his role as builder Owen Armstrong in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' from 2010 to 2015. In November 2014, ITV announced that Puleston-Davi ...

Phil Scraton Phil Scraton (born 3 May 1949) is a critical criminologist, academic and author. He is a social researcher, known particularly for his investigative work into the context, circumstances and aftermath of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. More rece ...

* Gracie Kelly as Debra Martin

Production

Development

The series was in development as of 2018. After some deliberation, the dramatisation of Anne Williams' life and work by

for

received approval from her real life daughter Sara, who was nine when the disaster occurred. She would help with the script, written by Kevin Sampson, author of ''Hillsborough Voices''. Bruce Goodison would direct and Simon Heath of World Productions would executive produce the drama.

Casting

It was announced in September 2018 that

would star as Anne Williams.

would co-star as Williams' husband Steve.

Filming

Principal photography was scheduled to begin on location in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in summer 2018. Cast and crew were reported in

Formby Formby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 22,419 at the 2011 Census. Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under "For ...

, at St George's Hall, and at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

that October. Steve Kelly, who lost his brother Michael in the Hillsborough disaster and was consulted for the series, stated he did a "double take" watching Peake on set.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 100% based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10.

Awards

References

External links