Peterloo movie: Is Peterloo based on a true story? What is the Peterloo Massacre?

The Peterloo movie is based on the true story of one of the most significant moments of British history.

Of the massacre, historian Reginald J White said: “With Peterloo, and the departure of Regency England, parliamentary reform had come of age.”

The film was written and directed by Mike Leigh whose, filmography and playwriting credits span decades.

With an OBE to his name and as a member of the Royal Society of Literature, Leigh is perhaps the best person to undertake such a loaded story.

Is Peterloo based on a true story?

Yes, is the short answer. The Peterloo Massacre took place on August 16, 1918 at St Peter’s Field in Manchester, England.

Leading up to the massacre were periods of famine in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars.

This, exacerbated by the Corn Laws and poor economic conditions coupled with a lack of suffrage in Northern England lent itself to political activism.

As a result of the unrest, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group calling for parliamentary reform, organised a demonstration.

Present at the demonstration would be the, then, well-known radical orator Henry Hunt.

The demonstration started out relatively peacefully, with approximately 60,000–80,000 people gathered to hear Hunt speak.

However, local magistrates soon called the Yeomanry of the area (Yeomanry is a group of men who held and cultivated small landed estates) to arrest Hunt and his compatriots.

These men, however, undertook their task without tact.

The men charged into the crowd and knocked down a woman and killing a child.

Eventually, they apprehended Hunt, but in the crowd of demonstrators the Yeomanry became separated and soon chaos erupted.

To quell the gatherers, the 15th Hussars – a horse-mounted group of the British army – were summoned to disperse the crowd.

However, they charged into the group with their sabres drawn, killing 15 people and injuring approximately 400–700 people.

While some say Peterloo did nothing to speed up the change in government, others credit it as one of the drops of water in a rising tide which ended with parliamentary reform.

The massacre was given the name Peterloo to draw an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier.

Peterloo’s release will mark the 200th anniversary of the massacre.

The historical drama will have its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in Manchester.

Peterloo’s screening is the first time the London Film Festival has held a premiere outside London.

Leigh said via a statement he was delighted that Peterloo would be premiered “where it happened.”

Peterloo will be released in cinemas on November 2