One Day in Southport forgets the tragedy at the heart of the film

Telegraph

4 days ago

One Day in Southport (Channel 4) purported to be a documentary about the devastating tragedy that unfolded at a Taylor Swift -themed dance class on Merseyside a year ago. Rather like the appalling crime itself, however, the film was soon hijacked by other issues entirely. The result was grimly gripping but ultimately unsatisfying.
Bafta-winning documentarian Dan Reed – director of Leaving Neverland and The Truth vs Alex Jones – investigated the mass stabbing, its febrile aftermath and the nationwide riots which followed. It proved too much to adequately examine in 51 minutes
Reed began his story in simmeringly powerful style. A survivor relived the unfathomable knife attack and read aloud from her quietly furious letter to the perpetrator in prison. As she courageously did so, the camera lingered on her haunted eyes and shaking hands.
This was intercut with dashcam and CCTV footage of a masked, hooded 17-year-old taking a taxi to Hart Space dance studio, silently getting out without paying and calmly entering the building. It was deeply chilling to watch, the stuff of a low-budget horror movie, before all hell broke loose. We heard screams, sirens and the testimony of parents who arrived on the scene to sights and smells they will never be able to forget.
As misinformation about the knife man's identity spread online, the Southport community took to the streets. Angry mobs clashed with police. A local mosque was surrounded and set alight, while the terrified imam and worshippers hid inside. Ground-level visuals – a pacy mix of news footage, phone camera clips and social media reportage – were immersive, stressful and scary.
It was instructive to witness how, in the absence of accurate intel about the murderer's identity, irresponsible speculation filled the vacuum. The assumption took hold that he was an illegal immigrant and a Muslim extremist. The authorities were too slow to disclose that Axel Rudakubana was actually Cardiff-born with Rwandan Christian parents.
We saw how anti-immigration protests and riots spread to 27 towns and cities across the UK. Fuelled by far-Right rhetoric, Muslim neighbourhoods and asylum seekers were targeted by rampaging mobs. In post-apocalyptic scenes, a migrant hotel was stormed and a car full of Romanian workers vandalised.
The Government and law enforcement were completely unprepared, scrambling to catch up with the escalating crisis. When they finally did act, they over-compensated with 1,800 rioters arrested, fast-tracked through courts and sentenced to a total of more than 100 years in prison.
There were wider questions raised here. YouTuber Daniel Edwards described the protests as the 'consequences of not listening to the public'. Videographer Wendell Daniel argued that post-Covid disaffection isn't about race but about social class. Topics tantalisingly touched upon included two-tier policing and mistrust of mainstream media.
Yet framed within a film about a tragedy which felt quickly forgotten, both the personal and the political were done a disservice. As the stricken Southport families mourned or recovered in hospital, narrative focus was elsewhere. We heard about flashbacks, trauma and survivors' guilt, but all too fleetingly.
Rudakubana's victims condemned the rioting and rejected the politicisation of the girls' murders. 'It didn't represent me at all,' said one survivor. You wonder what they will make of this strangely scattergun film.