Nothing Personal

Film On Four's Premiere Season continues with Thaddeus O'Sullivan's searing drama Nothing Personal. Set in Northern Ireland in 1975 at the height of The Troubles, Nothing Personal was adapted from his novel All Our Fault, by Daniel Mornin and stars John Lynch, Michael Gambon, James Frain and Ian Hart. The lives of a group of Belfast residents - Catholics and Protestants, terrorists and their targets, adults and children - cross paths over the course of a single night as they move through the city under constant threat of violence. In the bloody aftermath of a pub bombing, Catholic single father Liam joins the effort to rescue survivors while in another part of town, a Republican and a Loyalist boss meet in secret to negotiate a cease-fire. Loyalist squad leader Kenny is warned to keep his rogue paramilitary unit under tighter control but this is impossible for his pathologically vicious right-hand man Ginger who fans the flames of hatred by igniting a petrol bomb which kills a Catholic youth. Liam is wounded in the rioting following this latest incident and coincidentally, seeks shelter in the home of Kenny's ex-wife Ann. His two small children meanwhile grow concerned at their father's long absence, and his daughter Kathleen sets off with her teenage friend Michael to locate him. Trying to return home, Liam is picked up by Kenny and Ginger, then brutally interrogated and only let go when Kenny recognises him as a childhood playmate. As he is being released, however, Kathleen and her friend arrive and Michael, misinterpreting the situation, prepares to shoot Liam's captors. Kathleen tries to stop him and is fatally wounded. Ginger's gloating at the child's murder incites Kenny to shoot him which in turn draws the fire of the British army patrol. Two days later, Kenny and Kathleen are buried at the opposite ends of the same cemetery..