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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Drama
    Drama TV Shows - 1990s 3 Mins Read

    Shoot to Kill

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    1 9 9 0 (UK)
    1 x 120 minute episode
    1 x 60 minute episode

    This dramatised documentary reconstructed police shootings of suspected terrorists in Northern Ireland and the obstacles faced by the subsequent Stalker Inquiry.

    Led by Deputy Chief Constable John Stalker, the Stalker Inquiry (1984-86) investigated the killings of six unarmed men by a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) anti-terrorist unit in 1982.

    Shoot to Kill explored the incidents and, like Stalker’s 1988 memoir and Ken Loach’s fictionalised Hidden Agenda (1990), documented the inquiry’s failure amidst alleged cover-ups, obstruction and smears.

    Broadcast on consecutive nights on 3 and 4 June 1990, the first part dramatised the shootings, debriefings and the Stalker team’s arrival, and the second part depicted the team’s investigations, led by Stalker (Jack Shepherd) and Detective Chief Superintendent John Thorburn (David Calder), and their interactions with the RUC’s Chief Constable, Sir John Hermon (T.P. McKenna).

    Although a compelling drama with striking visuals and thriller atmospherics, the programme was researched like a documentary – with three years of journalism plus advice from Thorburn – and prioritised documentary record overdramatic devices.

    Writer Michael Eaton faced legal scrutiny, minor annoyances (several major characters called John) and masses of research – Stalker’s memoir detailed many interviews and complex procedures, such as the real negotiations for a vital MI5 tape – that required dramatic structuring and sensitive compression.

    The programme repeatedly voiced balancing arguments, mainly the RUC’s particular challenges in combating terrorism, but the real Sir John Hermon still complained of bias and inaccuracy and settled out-of-court in a libel action against Yorkshire TV.

    Shoot to Kill was broadcast across ITV – but not in the Ulster region – after the IBA’s full board previewed it.

    They requested audience warnings about its drama documentary status and diluted a caption regarding the Attorney General’s announcement that RUC officers would not be prosecuted despite evidence suggesting they had perverted the course of justice.

    As required with controversial material, a discussion programme followed transmission on 4 June 1990.

    Shoot to Kill: The Issues featured an Amnesty International representative, a Conservative MP, Nationalist MP Seamus Mallon (mentioned in news footage in Shoot to Kill), Unionist MP David Trimble (whose criticisms included dialogue that compared the RUC with a “death squad in a banana republic”), and Shoot to Kill Director Peter Kosminsky, whose subsequent career would be dominated by similarly hard-hitting drama documentaries.

    Deputy Chief Constable John Stalker
    Jack Shepherd
    DCS John Thorburn
    David Calder
    DCI John Simons
    John Ryan
    Chief Constable Sir John Hermon
    T.P. McKenna
    DCI Samuel Flanagan
    George Shane
    DS Eileen Scarrett
    Jane Cunliffe
    Assistant Chief Constable Trevor Forbes
    Ian McElhinney
    DS Thomas Anderson
    Oliver Maguire
    Constable John Robinson
    Richard Hawley
    Constable David Brannigan
    Gary Whelan
    Sergeant X
    Aaron Harris
    Constable X
    Daragh O’Malley
    Constable Z
    Dick Holland
    MI5 officer
    Peter Cellier
    Martin McCauley
    Breffni McKenna
    Michael Tighe
    Barry Birch
    Mr Tighe
    Peadar Lamb

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