Hillsborough (2016 documentary)
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''Hillsborough'' is a 2014 documentary about 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 ...
. Directed and produced by Daniel Gordon, the two-hour film chronicles the disaster, the investigations, and their lingering effects; it also includes interviews with survivors, victims' relatives, police officers and investigators. It was co-produced by ESPN and BBC, first airing as a part of ESPN's series of sports films entitled ''
30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...
'', under the heading "Soccer Stories". ''Hillsborough'' aired in the United States on ESPN on 15 April 2014, the 25th anniversary of the disaster. The documentary could not be shown in the United Kingdom when it originally aired in 2014, due to the High Court inquest of 2012 still being in progress. However, after the verdict of the inquest had been announced, the BBC aired the documentary on 8 May 2016, with additional footage from the inquest and final verdict.


Events described in the film

In 2012, the
Hillsborough Independent Panel The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal Crowd collapses and crushes, human crush during a association football, football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-fina ...
released its report and established an archive of media relating to the disaster. Much of the evidence reviewed by the panel had not been previously released to the public or to the media. Gordon's film draws on this newly available evidence to describe the events of 15 April 1989, as well as their causes and their consequences.


Before the disaster

* In 1981, at an FA Cup semi-final ( Tottenham Hotspur v. Wolverhampton Wanderers) at Hillsborough, there was entry congestion at the Leppings Lane end, "things got crushy", and the fans were allowed in through Gate C; there was crushing including bruised ribs, but no deaths, and the congestion in the terraces was relieved by letting fans come through onto the edge of the pitch and sit on the perimeter track. Afterwards, someone said at a meeting that otherwise there might have been deaths, and got the reply "Bollocks!"; criminologist
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 ...
, interviewed during the film, stated that this reply was a sign of deep-rooted institutional complacency. * In 1985, the pens were set up at Hillsborough. * Six months before the disaster, a young policeman was lured into a remote place in Ranmoor and attacked and left handcuffed by two men in balaclavas with pistols, but who proved to be two Yorkshire policemen. The enquiry into this severe
hazing Hazing (American English), initiation, beasting (British English), bastardisation (Australian English), ragging (South Asian English) or deposition refers to any activity expected of someone in joining or participating in a group that humiliates, ...
-type assault caused disciplinary measures in which four Yorkshire policemen were sacked, two were demoted and two transferred away, and
Brian Mole Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meani ...
- who had served since the early 1980s and was very experienced in football-related matters - was transferred to
Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
, and as man in charge at Sheffield, he was replaced by David Duckenfield, who was much less experienced than his predecessor; at the briefing before the match, he spoke for a long time, but never mentioned crowd safety, and fumbled the name of Nottingham Forest club so badly that he appeared to know little about football.


The day of the disaster (15 April 1989)

* Ninety minutes before kickoff, few fans had arrived; the big crush came in the last 20 minutes or so before kickoff. In the pens behind the goal, the two central pens were very full; the outer two pens were much less crowded. The control box was above one end of the Leppings Lane end terraces, and could easily see all along those terraces. Outside, staff pulled some fans in through the turnstiles to try to relieve congestion. One policeman got so nervous at developments outside that he frantically radioed "For fuck's sake open these gates!" several times, despite police rules about language on radio. * About eight minutes before kickoff, Duckenfield ordered Gate C to be opened. At first, the crowd walked in orderly, but up to and around kickoff, this changed into a crush. Unlike in 1988, no order was given to close the entry tunnel's gate when the terrace pens were full. There was no order to delay kickoff. When the player
Peter Beardsley Peter Andrew Beardsley MBE (born 18 January 1961) is an English football coach and former footballer who played as a forward or midfielder between 1979 and 1999. In 1987, he set a record transfer fee in the English game and represented his coun ...
kicked and the ball hit the goal's crossbar, this seemed to make the crush much harder. People tried to climb the barriers and were ordered not to. Six minutes after kickoff, the referee stopped the game. Gates in the pitchside barrier were opened, people were allowed on the pitch, and casualties were laid out there. Some spectators were helped to climb up into a spectator area above the terrace. A camera view afterwards showed that some of the metal-mesh barriers were bent and crumpled. Someone compared the crush in the two pens to fish caught in a
trawl net Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...
. * Fans did not force the gate, which was opened by police order. However, in the control room, Duckenfield told Graham Kelly, an English football administrator, that Liverpool fans had charged, forcing entry to the central pens and thus causing the crush. A BBC commentator believed that statement and passed it on to camera. * Emergency services failed to activate Sheffield's
major incident plan Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actuall ...
, so resources were not diverted to Hillsborough. A traffic jam of ambulances developed in Penistone Road outside the stadium; the event was at the opposite end of the pitch. Emergency equipment such as defibrillators were not brought onto the pitch. Basic
airway management Airway management includes a set of maneuvers and medical procedures performed to prevent and relieve airway obstruction. This ensures an open pathway for gas exchange between a patient's lungs and the atmosphere. This is accomplished by either cl ...
tools such as tubes and oxygen were in short supply. * Ten of the casualties were pronounced dead in hospital; all other fatal casualties were taken into Hillsborough Stadium's gymnasium. The emergency enquiry telephone number was jammed solid with callers, and one spectator's father seeking information had to drive to Sheffield over the Snake Pass, with the delays caused by the narrow twisting hilly road. Friends and family searching for loved ones were directed to a Boy's Club opposite Hammerton Road police station in Sheffield, and told to wait. From there they were carried in a double-decker bus to the Hillsborough stadium, and into a room, from which they were led one at a time into a room with
Polaroid Polaroid may refer to: * Polaroid Corporation, an American company known for its instant film and cameras * Polaroid camera, a brand of instant camera formerly produced by Polaroid Corporation * Polaroid film, instant film, and photographs * Polar ...
photographs of the faces of the dead on a wall. In that wall-display, the photographs were not sorted by skin colour or gender or race or age, characteristics which might otherwise have helped relatives to know which part of the display to look in; and the shiny surface of Polaroids hindered visibility of the image. If a relative identified a photograph, the body was brought out in a body bag on a trolley, and the relative was asked questions including many about alcohol drinking in a rather accusatory manner. Over 400 living casualties were treated in hospital. * The police who were involved in the disaster, were ordered to write their reports not in their personal notebooks, but on sheets of A4 paper which were provided. Those sheets were collected. On those sheets, much text was marked for deletion, either by
strikethrough Strikethrough is a typographical presentation of words with a horizontal line through their center, resulting in . Contrary to censored or sanitized (redacted) texts, the words remain readable. This presentation signifies one of two meanings. In ...
, or by drawing a rectangle around the text and then drawing that rectangle's diagonal lines; and words to be added were handwritten in. Those sheets were then transcribed in typewriting on other sheets of A4 paper, obeying the deletion and insertion instructions, and producing apparently clean reports which were shown as authoritative evidence to the first inquest. It was noticed later that all or most of the deleted text was criticising the police's equipment supply and handling of the event. * Dividing the terraces into separate pens stopped the fans from easing congestion by moving away sideways along the terraces, as they had done before.


After the disaster

* On 16 April 1989, Margaret Thatcher and Bernard Ingham and others arrived at Hillsborough. Although the official inquiry would state that fan behaviour was not the cause of the disaster, Ingham attributed the disaster to a "tanked-up mob of Liverpool supporters." * Soon after that, newspapers published falsehoods about fan drunkenness and hooliganism including fans urinating on police. The stories were based on unsubstantiated claims made by, among others, a senior police official and a local MP who had not attended the match. * Investigators examined the turnstiles for their mechanical performance and determined how many people arrived and when. Despite claims that "thousands" of fans had rushed in, the Gate C surveillance camera showed about 1400 people entering (approximately the capacity of the four central terraces). * An attempt had been made after the disaster, to allege that the exit gate called Gate C had been forced open by rowdy fans trying to enter the ground before the match; it had in fact been opened on police order. * On order of the coroner
Stefan Popper Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...
, the dead were blood-tested for alcohol. Those found positive, when identified, were checked through police records for criminal records. * The movie described a case of nervous breakdown in a policeman who had been at Hillsborough, precipitated some weeks afterwards by being stopped by the barrier coming down at an unmanned railway level crossing in Beighton in Sheffield. * August 1989: the preliminary version of the Taylor Report came out. * January 1990: the final version of the Taylor Report came out. It did not believe the stories about fan misbehaviour. But the
coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...
, acting independently of Taylor, reported " accidental death" for all the victims. * March 1993: life support for Tony Bland was switched off, and he became the 96th victim of the Hillsborough disaster; see Hillsborough disaster#Stuart-Smith scrutiny. * 1996:
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 ...
, who spoke in the movie, saw a man on television talking about disaster, and recognized him as a policeman who had been at the Hillsborough disaster. After several months of attempts at contact, the two met in
Hathersage Hathersage ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Peak District in Derbyshire, England. It lies slightly to the north of the River Derwent, approximately south-west of Sheffield. Toponymy The origin of its name is disputed, although it is ...
, and again twice more. At the third meeting, the (now former) policeman brought in and showed a
boxfile A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...
containing some of the policemen's typed reports, with the alterations described above, and called it "sanitising". * 1997: the Labour Party came into power and promised to revisit Hillsborough. * October 1998: Scraton went to the House of Lords's reading room in Parliament in London, and there was shown the police report papers, stacked untidily on a table in cardboard boxes. Inside the boxes, the police reports were in a thoroughly disordered and
shuffled Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to help ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome. __TOC__ Techniques Overha ...
condition, some as photocopies. He sorted them into the three versions of each report (handwritten, original typed, edited), collated them, examined them, and reported what he found. * 2000: The Hillsborough Family Support Group private-prosecuted Duckenfield and
Bernard Murray Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brave ...
for dereliction of duty, etc., at Hillsborough. The jury acquitted Murray and were
hung Hung may refer to: People * Hung (surname), various Chinese surnames * Hùng king, a king of Vietnam People with the given name Hung include: * Hung Huynh, Vietnamese-American chef, winner of the third season of the television show ''Top Chef'' ...
on Duckenfield. * 15 April 2009: to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, 30,000 people attended a memorial service at Anfield in Liverpool. During the service, a speech by then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
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 ...
was interrupted by a repeated chant started among the audience: "Justice for the 96!", drowning out the rest of his speech. * January 2010: the British government established the
Hillsborough Independent Panel The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal Crowd collapses and crushes, human crush during a association football, football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-fina ...
, to oversee the release of documents about the disaster.


References


External links

* {{30 for 30 Hillsborough disaster 30 for 30 2014 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films