BT Sport to premiere ‘Walk On’ film

ON THE 14th April BT Sport premieres the BT Sport Film, ‘Walk On’. The film focuses on the iconic song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, an anthem that can be heard ringing out from stands throughout the footballing world, and in particular at Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC.

Liverpool fans are particularly associated with the song. Picture: Contributed

This documentary film explores the song’s rise, from its origins on Broadway via Anfield to eventually become arguably the most famous football song in the world.

Although most obviously associated with Liverpool FC and Celtic FC, the song is also the club anthem for Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Monchengladbach, St Pauli and FC Tokyo to name but a few.

First-hand accounts of the song’s importance are gathered in interviews with current Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard; ex-Anfield defender Jamie Carragher; Liverpool legends Kenny Dalglish, Ian St John and Phil Thompson; and from the likes of ex-Celtic men Jimmy McGovern, Tom Boyd and Joe McBride.

Origins at Liverpool and Celtic

This exclusive BT Sport Film discovers how and why the song was first appropriated by Liverpool Football Club under Bill Shankly, and then by Celtic Football Club under Jock Stein. The documentary investigates how the song’s meaning has fluctuated over the years, having been ever present during the highs of Liverpool’s UEFA Champions League Final victory in Istanbul, 2005 but also its meaning as a song of reflection during the lows of the Hillsborough disaster, 1989 and the subsequent fight for justice that is still ongoing to this day.

Written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, the Broadway song writing team behind the Sound of Music, the King and I and South Pacific, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was later recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley but is most widely known in Europe because of the version recorded by Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers in July 1963. The song has now become a part of popular culture and has been played at events such as the last night of the proms and the World Cup.

BT Sport Films

BT Sport sets out to tell the stories behind sport with its BT Sport Films programming strand. BT Sport Films feature one-hour documentaries which look at the back stories behind some of the sports we love to watch and the human challenges and achievements involved. Films to have aired to date include Silver Lining, a study in the dynamics of sporting relationships and the contrast in emotions between Great Britain’s London 2012 Olympians Gemma Gibbons and Euan Burton, Football Outposts, where Arsenal fan, author and ex-EastEnders star Tom Watt embarks on a journey to various British football outposts, and, Winning Ugly, a look back to the hard playing, hard drinking, win-at-all-costs mentality of sport in the 70’s and 80’s and comparing it to what some would term the slick, professional sporting culture we have today.

• Live on BT Sport 1, 14 April at 10pm