Jonah Inserra

Very touching and brave testimonies from both sides of the conflict that are truly affecting. There is a pronounced bias in favor of the British and Unionist line though which is pretty ahistorical and unfortunate. Just a few instances are : - letting stand that Michael Stone was a 'freelance loyalist paramilitary who acted alone' when he was in fact a card-carrying member of the UDA who had killed before in cold blood on purely sectarian grounds. - pressing the one woman who testifies to becoming involved in the IRA and learning about Irish history and the very real and completely uncontroversial fact of oppression suffered by Irish people by the British for centuries, whether she knew if she was getting 'a biased education' as if every British schoolchild wasn't getting the same thing - generally giving very little context for the underlying reasons behind the violence and portraying a conflict denuded of politics whereby resistance will of course appear all the more savage and brutal because what is being resisted is not made clear. - Plenty more, many of which are subtle choices of tone, framing and omission. There are enough awful things that were carried out by the IRA and various factions thereof (and just as many by Unionists, many against fellow Protestants as the film does touch on) but portraying any of them without proper context and letting viewers decide is just dishonest. Quelle surprise that this is a BBC joint. Shame for all the really eloquent and courageous people who gave their testimonies that the final product is such a disappointment.