Fishwives' fight for justice could become a TV drama

Lillian 'Big Lil' Billocca who campaigned for safety on trawlers

The story of how Hessle Road fishwives took their protest from Hull's docksides to the heart of Government could be told in a new TV drama.

The tale of how hundreds of Hessle Road fishwives, led by Lillian Bilocca, Christine Jensen, Mary Denness and Yvonne Blenkinsop, took their calls for safety improvements in the fishing industry to the Government is being developed into a two-part film, writer and director Mark Herman said yesterday.

It follows the signing of a deal between independent TV production company Red Production Company and Dr Brian Lavery, the author of a book about the women, The Headscarf Revolutionaries, which was published to rave reviews last year.

Herman, whose work includes Brassed Off, Little Voice and The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, tweeted: “Proud and delighted to be doing this Brian. Hope we can all do the story justice.”

The women’s fight followed the city’s triple trawler disaster of 1968 in which the boats St Romanus, Kingston Peridot and Ross Cleveland were lost in under three weeks. Only one man, Harry Eddom, mate of Ross Cleveland, survived.