Last week, I had the opportunity and privilege to watch the Oscar winning film maker’s Asif Kapedia latest piece of cinematographic majesty, a documentary on the life and career of arguably the best footballer to grace British football grounds in the 1970s and 1980s – ‘King’ Kenny Dalglish who played for two contemporary giants – Glasgow Celtic and Liverpool where he also assumed the mantle of player manager and manager.
Having previously seen his films on two other legends sadly no longer with us - Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona – I wondered how he would portray somebody with somewhat less mercurial and more unstable reputations than those two performing giants of our times. I didn’t need to have any concerns as Asif convincingly shows how his rootedness in a loving Glaswegian working class family; the mentoring and whole hearted support he got at Celtic from the legendary Jock Stein; the seamless way into which he fitted into Boot Room ethos of egoless camaraderie at Anfield and the rock of his own loving family fashioned the grounded and decent human being. It helps that, despite growing up in North London Arsenal territory and a family of Gunners supporters, Asif Kapedia has been a Liverpool fan since childhood!
But it is not just his exploits on the football pitch that the film focuses on; it deals with the trauma, horror and visceral injustice of the Hillsborough disaster and its impact on Kenny Dalglish. We see him becoming a de facto community leader for the loved ones of the Ninety-Six; attending endless funerals and visiting the survivors in Sheffield Hospitals. We also witness the psychological toll Hillsborough took on him and how it ultimately influenced his decision in his shock resignation as Liverpool manager.
The documentary is a pastiche of all the memorable moments from Dalglish’s career with the narrations from the subject himself, teammates, distinguished football journalists like Henry Winter, various Liverpool fan spokespersons, and the academic commentator Phil Scranton whose analysis of the culpability of the British state in Hillsborough.
It starts with scenes from the Glasgow of the 1950s and 1960s and of Kenny’s early family life. His father was an engineer and a talented footballer in his youth. It does not take long for the film to touch upon the sectarian realities of Glasgow. Dalglish senior was a solid Rangers supporter and when Kenny was 14, the family moved to within a stone’s throw of Ibrox Park. The young Kenny so wanted to go to the local Catholic school which had a proper football pitch. He was quickly made aware that such a move was just not on due to the entrenched divide of certainly that era, so it was off to the state (or Protestant) secondary school. However, Kenny while playing underage football was to attract the attention of Celtic scouts at the age of 15 and, on the advice of his father, he signed up for the Bhoys. The fact that the Celts were such the predominant power in Glasgow at the time (Stein’s charges won nine Scottish league titles from 1966 to 1974) was probably the decisive factor in his advice.
With voiceovers from Big Jock and the Celtic captain “Caesar” Billy McNeill, the shows wonderful archive footage of the Lisbon Lions European Cup final triumph in 1967 all of whom were born within a 25-mile radius in Glasgow and of training drills involving Kenny. He made his debut for Celtic in August 1971, and his first goal was a penalty he took in an Old Firm derby. We are given a powerful insight into the mental ordeal that he went through before converting the spot kick. What would have been the effect on him if he had fluffed his lines? Perish the thought.
Instead, he proceeded to win four Scottish League tiles and the same number of Scottish FA and League Cups. The archival coverage of his sublime finishing for the Hoops is particularly touching as soccer fans outside Scotland did not have full access to his wizardry. He played the role of the false No 9 long before it became part of modern lexicon and , for me anyway, it was an education in this art.
Having previously seen his films on two other legends sadly no longer with us - Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona – I wondered how he would portray somebody with somewhat less mercurial and more unstable reputations than those two performing giants of our times. I didn’t need to have any concerns as Asif convincingly shows how his rootedness in a loving Glaswegian working class family; the mentoring and whole hearted support he got at Celtic from the legendary Jock Stein; the seamless way into which he fitted into Boot Room ethos of egoless camaraderie at Anfield and the rock of his own loving family fashioned the grounded and decent human being. It helps that, despite growing up in North London Arsenal territory and a family of Gunners supporters, Asif Kapedia has been a Liverpool fan since childhood!
But it is not just his exploits on the football pitch that the film focuses on; it deals with the trauma, horror and visceral injustice of the Hillsborough disaster and its impact on Kenny Dalglish. We see him becoming a de facto community leader for the loved ones of the Ninety-Six; attending endless funerals and visiting the survivors in Sheffield Hospitals. We also witness the psychological toll Hillsborough took on him and how it ultimately influenced his decision in his shock resignation as Liverpool manager.
The documentary is a pastiche of all the memorable moments from Dalglish’s career with the narrations from the subject himself, teammates, distinguished football journalists like Henry Winter, various Liverpool fan spokespersons, and the academic commentator Phil Scranton whose analysis of the culpability of the British state in Hillsborough.
It starts with scenes from the Glasgow of the 1950s and 1960s and of Kenny’s early family life. His father was an engineer and a talented footballer in his youth. It does not take long for the film to touch upon the sectarian realities of Glasgow. Dalglish senior was a solid Rangers supporter and when Kenny was 14, the family moved to within a stone’s throw of Ibrox Park. The young Kenny so wanted to go to the local Catholic school which had a proper football pitch. He was quickly made aware that such a move was just not on due to the entrenched divide of certainly that era, so it was off to the state (or Protestant) secondary school. However, Kenny while playing underage football was to attract the attention of Celtic scouts at the age of 15 and, on the advice of his father, he signed up for the Bhoys. The fact that the Celts were such the predominant power in Glasgow at the time (Stein’s charges won nine Scottish league titles from 1966 to 1974) was probably the decisive factor in his advice.
With voiceovers from Big Jock and the Celtic captain “Caesar” Billy McNeill, the shows wonderful archive footage of the Lisbon Lions European Cup final triumph in 1967 all of whom were born within a 25-mile radius in Glasgow and of training drills involving Kenny. He made his debut for Celtic in August 1971, and his first goal was a penalty he took in an Old Firm derby. We are given a powerful insight into the mental ordeal that he went through before converting the spot kick. What would have been the effect on him if he had fluffed his lines? Perish the thought.
Instead, he proceeded to win four Scottish League tiles and the same number of Scottish FA and League Cups. The archival coverage of his sublime finishing for the Hoops is particularly touching as soccer fans outside Scotland did not have full access to his wizardry. He played the role of the false No 9 long before it became part of modern lexicon and , for me anyway, it was an education in this art.
Having achieved all that was possible at Parkhead (apart from two unsuccessful attempts to win a second European Cup in 1972 – Quarter Final and 1974 – Semi Final), thoughts begin to turn towards greater goals, especially the elusive European Cup. Kenny wrestles with the conflict between his ambitions and loyalty to Jock Stein who nearly died in a car crash in 1975. His integrity shines through his negotiation of this dilemma and, eventually with the advice of the Big Man, he moves to Liverpool in August 1977 for a then British transfer record of £450,000.
He fits seamlessly into the No 7 shirt vacated by the original Special K iconic figure at Anfield – Kevin Keegan who in the year of the Merseysiders’ first European Cup triumph was transferred to SV Hamburg in a widely trailed move before what turned out to be his last match for Pool on that glorious night in Rome when Liverpool beat Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 (also the occasion of goalscorer Tommy Smith’s valedictory appearance).
With fellow Scotsman Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen signed the same season, Dalglish formed a Tartan backbone to English football’s superpower of the mid and late 70s and 80s. Under the unassuming but wily Geordie, Bob Paisley, who had succeeded the legendary Bill Shankly three years previously and with the engine that was Liverpool’s Boot Room coaching figures of Roy Evans, Ronnie Moran and Joe Fagan Pool hoovered up five League titles, three more European Cups and four successive League Cups from 1978 to 1984 (season 83-84 saw a treble of League title, European Cup and League Cup under Ronnie Moran who had assumed the reins from Paisley.
In partnership with prolific Welsh international striker Ian Rush, over 13 years Dalglish scored 174 goals in 515 appearances for Liverpool but it was his goal in the 1978 European Cup Final at Wembley against FC Bruges which ensured Liverpool’s retention of the trophy is aguably the one that he probably most treasures as it was his life time ambition to lift the trophy and really marked his arrival on the global stage.
But it was by no means all sweetness and light in the wider community around Anfield. The film starkly portrays the effects of mass unemployment, deindustrialisation, and racism on Merseyside (depicted most vividly in Alan Bleasedale’s series The Boys from the Blacksmith) and its outworking in the Toxteth riots in July 1981; the worst seen in Britain. It was era when the Thatcher government was seriously considering a strategy of ‘managed decline’ for Merseyside. The film well conveys how Liverpool Football Club became a badge of identity and a locus of pride in which the hopes, aspirations and spirit of a people often cast out and ‘othered’ by the British establishment.
But it is not just economic and social deprivation on Merseyside that forms the backdrop to this biopic. There is raw and public tragedy. The first was the Heysel disaster in Brussels when disturbances between Liverpool and Juventus fans on the crumbling terraces before the 1985 European Cup Final led to the collapse of wall causing the deaths of 39 supporters of whom 21 were Italian. As the rumours turned into awful facts and as the body count mounted, the morality of proceeding with a football match seemed outrageous; a sentiment that seemed to accord with Dalglish’s feelings. Eventually, in what basically is a footnote in history, the match did proceed with Juventus 1-0 victors. Five years of the exclusion of all English clubs from UEFA competitions followed.
The day after the Heysel disaster on 30th May 1985, Kenny Dalglish was appointed player manager of Liverpool after Joe Fagan stepped back. In his first season 1985-86, he won, for only then the fifth time in English soccer history, the League Championship and FA Cup double with his goal at Chelsea on the last day of the season securing the title. A 3-1 victory over their rivals across (then) Stanley Park, Everton, brought him the one trophy that had eluded Paisley and Fagan – the FA Cup.
On Kenny’s watch, Liverpool underwent significant renewal with the signings of John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, John Aldridge, and Ray Houghton. The signing of Barnes was a particularly important statement as it was Liverpool’s first high profile black signing (Howard Gayle had made his debut in 1977 and was an acknowledgment of Liverpool’s black community) and did experience overt racism in his first season; the image of him lifting up a banana thrown at him is especially iconic. Barnes and Beardsley became the attacking lynch pins of the side that won the title in 1988 which was arguably the most rhythmic and attacking Liverpool side ever. Kapedia shows footage from a really vintage match of that season, a 5-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest featuring passing movements and ball retention of such telepathy as to invite comparisons with Don Revie’s Leeds side in their pomp in 1972 or the Arsenal Invincibles Premiership winning team of 2004.
But Kenny Dalglish’s time at Liverpool is not defined purely by his artistic genius on the pitch alone. For in 1989, Liverpool Football Club was plunged into tragedy of incalculable proportions as a result of the deaths of 96 supporters due to crushing at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground at the start of the FA Cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The story of this monumental disaster and all the egregious injustices that have flowed from it have been well documented and analysed elsewhere. What is most poignant about Kapadia’s portrayal is the fear and agony etched on Kenny’s face as he awaits news of his son Paul and daughter Kelly (now a successful football presenter) who had attended the match. He takes us through how Kenny assumes the role of unofficial spokesperson for the injured and bereaved of Hillsborough. He attends the injured in hospital almost miraculously bringing one fan out of a coma. He goes to as many funerals as is humanely possible. He dedicates the 1989 Cup Final in which Liverpool again beat Everton 3-2. But the psychological effects of him being a public face of the Hillsborough bereaved take their toll. His wife attests to his frequent depressive episodes. Breaking point comes in February 1991 when after a 4-4 Cup replay draw with Everton, he resigns as manager, breaking the apostolic succession from Bill Shankly and the Boot Room regime.
A wonderful exploration of football prior to the Premier League and its cash accumulator culture. A vanished era where a club whose players were born within a 25 miles radius could reach the commanding heights of Europe. When the top English sides had a Caledonian spine. The only omission in the film is his excellent Scottish international record reaching three World Cup Finals in a row.
But what sums up his commitment to the people of Liverpool and to truth and decency was his response to the entreaties of Kelvin McKenzie, who as Editor of the Sun published the sickening falsehoods of Liverpool fans stealing from the dead and urinating, seeking to apologise. Kenny’s response “Put on the Front Page that You Lied.” Bullseye!
On Amazon Prine Video from 6th November 2025.
⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.
