Jimmy McGovern: Writing Anthony taught me so much about diversity

This article was published in July 2020

One of Jimmy McGovern’s favourite pieces of short writing, he tells BBC Bitesize, is by George Orwell.

Called A Hanging, it’s an essay by the Animal Farm author which first appeared in 1931. It deals with Britain’s colonial history and, more specifically, the death by capital punishment of a man in Burma, now known as Myanmar.

The line which always draws the screenwriter’s attention is ‘one mind less, one world less’. A man has died, but if he had lived and gone on, as Jimmy puts it, to: “Impress people, disappoint, affect, meet, marry, love people - he would have had his own world. All the people he could have had that impact on have been deprived that because of his death.”

While the essay wasn’t a direct inspiration for his BBC One dramatisation of the life of murdered black teenager Anthony Walker, it is a piece of writing he has always carried around, and fits in with the premise behind this unusual telling of a tragic tale.

Called simply Anthony, viewers gain important glimpses of the life the Liverpool teen could have lived up to the age of 25, showing him exploring the world of work, as well as becoming a husband and father. Jimmy hopes this unusual storytelling technique will amplify the sense of loss felt by all those who knew Anthony.

Jimmy, who has also written about the Hillsborough tragedy and early episodes of the Channel 4 soap Brookside, was approached by Gee Walker, Anthony’s mother, to write the drama. They have known each other for more than 10 years and Gee would often advise Jimmy on ways his characters could portray loss. The element of exploring Anthony’s alternative future was also suggested by her.

The impact of Black Lives Matter

What nobody involved in the production could have anticipated is how a drama about a racist killing would be broadcast in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in the USA, and the activism which followed from the Black Lives Matter movement. This production in particular has, Jimmy admitted, refocused his thoughts on diversity, particularly within the film and television industry.

Jimmy said: “I have learned so much from doing this. I am not the same man I was. I am much more aware of the needs for diversity in the British film and TV industry.

“In the past, as a writer, I have not felt responsible for the ethnicity of the people behind the camera, but I will in future, I promise you that. It’s not just the writing, it’s the crew, not just the actors and the directors."

Although the focus of Anthony is loss, racism is still touched upon in the drama’s imagined life for the title character.

Jimmy explained: “There’s a scene, when Anthony goes out for the first time with the young woman who becomes his wife, he is subjected to racist abuse. He has a friend who is also there, who comes along and helps him out.”

Later, as Anthony is walking his girlfriend home, they discuss the possibility of him visiting America to work in civil rights and talk about racism in the USA and UK. Separate from that sequence, the subject of racism is tackled most starkly in the scenes surrounding Anthony’s death.

A diversity of voices

Research is important for many projects, whether it’s adapting a real-life story like Anthony’s or writing a history essay. For this script, Jimmy spoke to as many people involved in Anthony’s life as possible. As well as his immediate family, including his sisters and brother, and Anthony’s friends, he also spoke to people who were in contact with Anthony on the night he was killed, or involved in the immediate police investigation. This included speaking to the surgeon who attempted to save Anthony’s life. The different viewpoints helped create the most authoritative script possible.

Jimmy is also responsible for the afternoon drama anthology Moving On, which gives new writers an opportunity to have their work seen on screen. This is another area where he hopes diverse voices can be given new opportunities, although he also points out that a strong, original story always has to be the starting point, whoever it comes from. He said: “There are so few black writers in the industry, that those which we have are busy. Established black writers are always in demand, so we can’t always get them.

“But I am not the same man now [after Anthony]. I would do all I can now to encourage diversity within all aspects of the British film and television industry.”