Paul Hill prison letters documentary to air on BBC

Guildford Four man’s words give a real sense of an ordinary young man caught in a terrible miscarriage of justice, trying to reassure his mother, growing up at a distance from the world and his loved ones

From his cell, Paul Hill watched the world change: the birth of his child, the Thatcher years, punk, the miners’ strike, the death of John Lennon, Glasnost. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Fri Oct 03 2014 - 10:59

A documentary based on Paul Hill’s prison letters will be broadcast tomorrow, Saturday, October 4th, at 8pm on BBC Radio 4.

From Inside: the Guildford Four centres on the previously unheard letters home of Paul Hill, written during his 15-year wrongful incarceration for the Guildford pub bombings. Paul Hill was one of the Guildford Four, who were subsequently found to have been wrongly convicted of IRA pub bombings in England in 1974. After a lengthy campaign, their convictions were quashed and they were released in 1989.

Martin McNamara presents this collection of passionate, evocative, angry and poignant letters written by Hill to members of his family, especially his mother, sister and uncle. His words give a real sense of an ordinary young man caught in a terrible miscarriage of justice, trying to reassure his mother, growing up at a distance from the world and his loved ones. They eloquently chart the nightmare of being jailed for something he did not do.

At the original trial, where the convictions were based solely on confessions, the judge regretted that he could not impose the death penalty. From his cell, Hill watched the world change: the birth of his child, the Thatcher years, punk, the miners’ strike, the death of John Lennon, Glasnost.