With a fanbase as passionate as Liverpool’s, it is hardly surprising that there have been one or two documentaries made over the years. Some of them take a look at the wider world of Liverpool Football Club, whilst others take a more specific approach to topics that are considered worthy of being explored in more detail. All of them have the same sort of thing in common, which is that they are about the Reds in some way, shape or form. It is important to note that we’re looking specifically at documentaries here, as opposed to dramatisations of various sorts.
That isn’t to say that such dramatisations aren’t worth watching, of course. Jimmy McGovern’s Hillsborough was game-changing in the fight for justice, created for ITV by Granada Television. Similarly, the drama Anne, which was about Anne Williams, was excellent in highlighting Anne’s fight for justice for her son and all of the other victims of Hillsborough and the subsequent coverup. Whilst all of these dramas are very much worthy of your time, we won’t be looking at them on this page as we are instead focussing on the various documentaries that have been made over the years.
Liverpool FC: The 30 Year Wait
In terms of documentaries about Liverpool Football Club, perhaps none have been so long in the making as Liverpool FC: The 30 Year Wait. As the title suggests, this is about the 30 years that it took the Reds to win the top-flight title once again, after the advent of the Premier League and the superiority of Manchester United during the 1990s. Narrated by actor and Liverpool supporter Jason Isaacs, it features interviews with the likes of Rafa Benitez, Brendan Rodgers and, of course, Jürgen Klopp. It also hears from former and current players, including Robbie Fowler and Virgil van Dijk.
As you might imagine, the documentary covers the entirety of Liverpool’s time in the Premier League up until the moment that the Reds finally won it, discussing the likes of the narrow misses and European success that we enjoyed all whilst the biggest prize of them all eluded us. It looks at why it was that the Reds fell away after all of the success enjoyed during the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the manner in which tragedy helped to shape the club’s identity. The story is told by those that helped to shape the club, up to and including John Henry from Fenway Sports Group.
One of the things it looks at most clearly is the revolution that took place at Anfield in the wake of the arrival of Jürgen Klopp. The German manager made his name at Mainz before getting the job at Borussia Dortmund, where he ended their long wait for the Bundesliga title by defeating the all-powerful Bayern Munich. Arguably his toughest job of all, though, was getting the Reds back to the top, which he succeeded when he led the club to its first Premier League title at the end of the 2019-2020 campaign. This documentary touches on it all, making it the best place to start.
Jürgen
Having mentioned the importance of Jürgen Klopp to Liverpool’s return to glory, it is only right to mention Jürgen // A Five Part Docu-Series. Produced by The Anfield Wrap, the Liverpool FC-themed podcast company, it breaks the manager’s career down into five different sections. They are:
- Part One: The Challenge
- Part Two: The Blueprint
- Part Three: The Journey
- Part Four: The Summit
- Part Five: The Legacy
The series interviews the people that were impacted by Jürgen Klopp, whilst also looking at the people and the places that impacted him. It is a deep-dive into what made the German the man that he is, as well as the difference that he made to the lives of those that he either worked with, worked for or improved thanks to his management.
Made in association with ERDINGER, the docs-series explores the five themes that have recurred throughout Jürgen’s career: challenge, culture, journey, winning and legacy. Those from the company travelled to places such as Glatten, Frankfurt, Mainz and Dortmund, as well as around the city of Liverpool, in order to hear unique stories about the man himself.
Shankly: Nature’s Fire
If you want to watch a documentary about the managers who have helped to shape Liverpool, the best place to start is with the one whose statue stands outside the Kop. Shankly: Nature’s Fire looks at the life and career of one of the most remarkable people in football history, Bill Shankly. This is a nostalgic journey that looks not just at Shankly’s history, but also of the very origins of the sport that we’ve all come to love. In many ways, Shankly is someone who personifies the working class roots of football unlike anyone else, whilst his passion is something many can relate to.
The feature-length documentary explores the determination and commitment of the British heartlands from which football emerged, creating the love affair that is still just as strong many decades later. It also looks at Liverpool as a city, which Shankly was able to become the voice of, putting words to the dreams of thousands. Modern day Liverpool wouldn’t be the club that it is without the influence of Shankly, which is why learning where he came from is vital to being able to understand the loyalty and passion that he inspired in others when he worked with them.
There are, of course, links between Shankly and Klopp, with many people thinking that the German is the first manager to truly get the city and the club since the great man. It is why these two make such excellent companion pieces and it is probably worth watching them alongside one another. Both of them had a connection with supporters that allowed them to speak to fans in a way that other managers couldn’t, with both having famous quotes linked to their names that will go down in the annuls of the history of the football club. This is a documentary not to be missed.
Kenny
If you are going to talk about the most influential people in the history of Liverpool Football Club, it would be a mistake to do so without mentioning Kenny Dalglish. ‘The King’, as Dalglish is known to Liverpool fans, was a hero both on and off the pitch during his time at Anfield. Having started his playing career at Celtic, he was signed by Bob Paisley for a then-British record fee of £440,000 in 1977. He was brought in to replace Kevin Keegan, but ended up doing so much more than just that. His time in Red was amongst the most successful that the club has ever enjoyed.
Kenny looks not only at the player, but also the person. It interviews his family members, such as daughter Kelly Cates, and the players that played with him and for him. It works to give an excellent insight into the man that he became, touching not only on his success but also on the darker days that he played witness to. Having taken over the management of the Reds in the wake of Joe Fagan’s resignation after the Heysel Stadium Disaster, Dalglish was player-manager for a time and continued to enjoy remarkable success with clubs other than just the Reds.
Having won three First Divisions, two FA Cups and four FA Charity Shields, Dalglish was Liverpool manager at the time of the Hillsborough Disaster and carried the weight of that for a long time. It ultimately led to his resignation in 1991, much to the shock of Liverpool supporters around the world. He went on to win the Premier League title with Blackburn Rovers and finished second with Newcastle United. He returned to Liverpool during the 2010-2011 season, replacing Roy Hodgson. His life and times are covered in the documentary, which is exceptional.
Make Us Dream
The final documentary worth mentioning that takes a look at one of the heroes of Liverpool Football Club is Make Us Dream. This documentary is about the ups and downs in the life of Steven Gerrard, a player who won every single trophy with the club with the exception of the Premier League title. It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, looking at some of the worst moments of his career as well as the best. That included two dalliances with Chelsea, as well as when he slipped during his game against the London club to hand Manchester City the title of the 2013-2014 season.
It also explores the turmoil that Gerrard felt when he chose to leave Liverpool in 2015, having racked up more than 700 appearances and 17 seasons with the Reds. Because of when it was made, it doesn’t cover his move into management, including his bizarre and insulting decision to take a job working in Saudi Arabia; a dictatorial country in which women are oppressed and it is illegal to be part of the LGBTQ+ community. Instead, it focusses on his time at Liverpool and what things happened during his life to make him the person and the player he become.
As far as Liverpool documentaries go, Make Us Dream is up there as one that provides genuine insight into the subject matter that it covers. You can learn more about Gerrard, including his family life, whilst also getting some insight into the football club itself. The fact that he was not just the captain but also one of the influential players in the Miracle of Istanbul, in which the Reds came back from 3-0 down against A.C. Milan in order to win the Champions League, means that that is also covered well. Something to get your teeth into when you want to enjoy it all over again.
Being: Liverpool
In terms of documentaries you probably can miss out on without suffering too much, Being: Liverpool is high on the list. Long before the days of Amazon’s All Or Nothing series looking at various football clubs, Scott Boggins produced six hour-long episodes about Liverpool’s preparation for the 2012-2013 Premier League season. Narrated by Liverpool fan Clive Owen, the documentary series was shown on Fox Soccer in the United States of America, Sportsnet in Canada and Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, airing between the 16th of September and 26th of October 2012.
The six episodes were titled:
- 1 – Silver Shovel
- 2 – On the Road
- 3 – Anfield Calling
- 4 – To Bleed Red
- 5 – Walk On
- 6 – Red Crusade
There are countless cringe-worthy moments caught on camera, with the documentary being set at the end of Kenny Dalglish’s reign and the start of Brendan Rodgers’. The Northern Irishman was made into something of a figure of fun after its release, largely for his David Brent-like sayings and soundbites. Meanwhile, Ian Ayre, the Managing Director of the club at the time, rode a Harley Davidson through the city and was caught on camera laughing childishly after encouraging Joe Allen to pick the shirt number ’69’ after signing for the club. That being said, it wasn’t aimed at British audiences.
📽️| Remember when Brendan Rodgers called out 17 year old Raheem Sterling on Being Liverpoolpic.twitter.com/8IWxljfjFU
— LFC Rewind (@LFCRewind_) July 17, 2023
Tom Werner, the Chairman of Liverpool after the takeover by Fenway Sports Group, had been hoping for a way of introducing the club to American audiences. He hired people with experience in making such documentaries, with the aim being global exposure. Not everyone was a fan, however. Mark Lawrenson, legendary Liverpool defender, said that Brendan Rodgers had to be ‘off his head to do this TV drivel’. He wrote in a column for the Daily Mirror newspaper that it was ‘ill-advised’ and that ‘Shankly would be turning in his grave’. Funny in hindsight, but one for the ‘avoid’ list.
Two Tribes
Whilst not exclusively about Liverpool, the documentary by what was then known as BT Sport, Two Tribes, looked at the city of Liverpool and the passion of the two teams based here. Amid both the political and social upheaval of the 1980s, Liverpool won nearly everything that there was to win. If it wasn’t Liverpool winning it then it was Everton, with the city responding to the loss of around 80,000 jobs between 1972 and 1982 by dominating the footballing landscape. This was taking place whilst Tory cuts meant that as many as 70,000 people were living below the poverty line.
Winning nine league titles, two European Cups, a Cup Winners’ Cup, three FA Cups and the same number of League Cups is no mean feat, yet that is what Merseyside’s two sides managed between 1981 and 1990. Two Tribes is an excellent look at the contrast between the success of the teams on the pitch and the socio-economic decline taking place in Liverpool off it. There are many that say that we should ‘keep politics out of football’, but one need only watch this documentary to see exactly why that never can, and never should, happen.
Margaret Thatcher’s cultural and social vandalism of Liverpool is laid out for all to see on this documentary, including the declaration that there should be a ‘managed decline’ of the city. Youth unemployment in Liverpool meant that six out of every seven school leavers were unable to get a job, with the population being slashed from 800,000 to 400,000. Even as this was going on off the pitch, the two clubs were establishing an era of dominance that was difficult for one city to repeat, including when the two teams met in the Milk Cup final of 1984 and the fans can be heard chanting, “Merseyside, Merseyside, Merseyside!”
