Dockers (1999)

Interesting facts

Dockers is a 1999 British feature-length television drama produced for Channel 4 about the struggles of a small group of Liverpool dockers who were sacked and subsequently spent nearly 2 and a half years picketing during the Liverpool Dockers' Strike of 1995 to 1998.

Production

A group of dockers held regular workshops with the production team over a period of 14 months. Once a week, they met with Jimmy McGovern and Irvine Welsh, who were both supporters of the strike and who contributed towards developing the script.

Around 200 of the dockers were employed as extras. Roles for some notable figures were also played by sacked dockers themselves, such as John Ryan, who portrayed his former boss Trevor Furlong, the managing director of Mersey Docks and Harbour Company.

Ricky Tomlinson, who has a notable role portraying Macca, a docker who crosses the picket line, had supported the dockers during the dispute. Tomlinson later said he had to take time to consider if he wanted to accept the role, particularly as he served prison time in 1972 while striking for better conditions.

Filming started on 7 March 1999. When choosing locations for the film, the Transport and General Workers' Union refused to allow filming to take place within their premises, with former dockers being removed from the building at one point when actor Robert Carlyle came to offer support in a scripting session.

Scenes portraying around five large mass meetings were all filmed in a single day on 25 March 1999, with a spokesperson saying that the production team felt it would be easier for all participants if they filmed all the meeting sequences on the same day. Around 100 dockers were hired as extras, while some also had small speaking parts.

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