Anne review: Hillsborough drama is almost too painful to watch
ITV series tells the story of Anne Williams’s battle for justice

ITV’s four-part drama Anne serves as a reminder that even if we “all know about Hillsborough” – the 1989 FA Cup semi-final disaster in which 97 Liverpool fans were killed – “we didn’t live it, and then relive it, viscerally, relentlessly, as the bereaved did”, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. Written by Kevin Sampson, who was at the game, the series follows Anne Williams (Maxine Peake), the mother of 15-year-old victim Kevin, as she fights, year after year, to “extract the truth from a swirling miasma of misinformation, police mistakes, cover-ups and lies”. Williams is living a “waking nightmare”, and Peake brilliantly captures her transformation from ordinary Liverpool mum to tenacious battler for truth.
It would have been easy for the series to slide into “inspirational hagiography”, said Dan Einav in the FT. Instead, Anne shows us how Williams’s relationships, health and very identity were eroded by her “single-minded pursuit of justice”. The pacing could have been sped up a bit, and the writing sometimes lacks sharpness, but the heartrending power of many of the scenes more than makes up for these limitations.
This is a fine drama, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times – “tight and knotty and well acted”. But it’s so painful it’s virtually “unwatchable”. From the moment Kevin fails to come home, it’s clear that we’re about to watch a “shattered woman” facing a death sentence, without being able to actually die. I hate to ask, but isn’t this just a bit too much for cold nights in January?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The Week Unwrapped: How did Japan become a space superpower?
Podcast Plus, why on earth are Labubu dolls so popular? Will buy-now-pay-later cause a new financial crisis?
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures A tomato fight, painting behind bars, and more
-
Mountainhead: Jesse Armstrong's tech bro satire sparkles with 'weapons-grade zingers'
The Week Recommends The Succession creator's first feature film lacks the hit TV show's 'dramatic richness' – but makes for a horribly gripping watch
-
Mountainhead: Jesse Armstrong's tech bro satire sparkles with 'weapons-grade zingers'
The Week Recommends The Succession creator's first feature film lacks the hit TV show's 'dramatic richness' – but makes for a horribly gripping watch
-
Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists – a 'riveting' exhibition
The Week Recommends Pallant House exhibition offers fascinating instances of painterly reciprocity
-
Geoff Dyer shares his favourite books on war
The Week Recommends Out of Sheer Rage author chooses works by Martha Gellhorn, Michael Herr and Dexter Filkins
-
6 sun-drenched homes by the sea
Feature Featuring a large patio overlooking the ocean in Laguna Beach and a marble rainfall shower in Norwalk
-
Garsington Opera opens its summer festival with two 'very different productions'
The Week Recommends A 'fabulous' new staging of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and Donizetti's fake-love-potion comedy L'elisir d'amore
-
The Rehearsal series two: Nathan Fielder's docu-comedy is 'laugh-out-loud funny'
The Week Recommends Television's 'great illusionist' has turned his attention to commercial airline safety
-
The Ballad of Wallis Island: bittersweet British comedy is a 'delight'
The Week Recommends A reclusive millionaire lures his favourite folk duo to an island for an 'awkward reunion'
-
Aston Martin Vantage Roadster: 'a rare treat indeed'
The Week Recommends The Roadster version of Aston Martin's new Vantage coupé makes even 'the most mundane journey feel special'