I had thought right away that because SHOOT TO KILL had the name Peter Kominsky in the credits I`d be watching an entirely biased , speculative infactual docudrama that portrayed Northern Ireland policeman as SS troopers while armed terrorists were going to be shown as being either fiesty freedom fighters or peace loving pacifists . I must say I was surprised
This docudrama revolves around the very real life case of the investigation brought against E4A , the Royal Ulster Constabulary ( RUC ) elite undercover unit who were responsible for shooting dead several republican terrorists engaged in terrorist activities in 1982 . This led to the director of public prosecutions in Britain setting up " The Stalker Inquiry " where Deputy Chief Constable John Stalker ( Played here by Jack Shepard ) of Manchester police force investigated the cases to see if there were any unlawful killings by the RUC .
As I stated at the start of this review as was expecting there to be pro republican bias throughout but there`s none . In fact it`s a refreshing change to see terrorists in Ireland portrayed as terrorists with SHOOT TO KILL opening with a car bombing that murders three police reservists . The teleplay also shows the resentment shown by RUC men that the British state are investigating them when they`re engaged in a conflict against ruthless killers and Stalker is told " In the last year tweleve policemen , twenty eight soldiers and fifty seven innocent civilians have died at the hands of terrorists " , so thanks to the production team for pointing out that the IRA and INLA are not the boy scouts . The only thing the RUC men seen here are guilty of is that they falsified statements when engaged in their dangerous activities , and that they shot a couple of teenage boys who they genuinely thought were IRA members , and if after watching this you left unsatisfied by the conclusions the real life The Stalker Inquiry met the same fate as shown on screen here
This docudrama revolves around the very real life case of the investigation brought against E4A , the Royal Ulster Constabulary ( RUC ) elite undercover unit who were responsible for shooting dead several republican terrorists engaged in terrorist activities in 1982 . This led to the director of public prosecutions in Britain setting up " The Stalker Inquiry " where Deputy Chief Constable John Stalker ( Played here by Jack Shepard ) of Manchester police force investigated the cases to see if there were any unlawful killings by the RUC .
As I stated at the start of this review as was expecting there to be pro republican bias throughout but there`s none . In fact it`s a refreshing change to see terrorists in Ireland portrayed as terrorists with SHOOT TO KILL opening with a car bombing that murders three police reservists . The teleplay also shows the resentment shown by RUC men that the British state are investigating them when they`re engaged in a conflict against ruthless killers and Stalker is told " In the last year tweleve policemen , twenty eight soldiers and fifty seven innocent civilians have died at the hands of terrorists " , so thanks to the production team for pointing out that the IRA and INLA are not the boy scouts . The only thing the RUC men seen here are guilty of is that they falsified statements when engaged in their dangerous activities , and that they shot a couple of teenage boys who they genuinely thought were IRA members , and if after watching this you left unsatisfied by the conclusions the real life The Stalker Inquiry met the same fate as shown on screen here