BT Sport Films celebrates Liverpool FC's unique heritage with 'The Boot Room Boys'

The latest instalment of the award-winning BT Sport Films series examines how Liverpool’s unique club culture underpinned its success throughout the 1950’s and 60’s.

Featuring contributions from from Jurgen Klopp, Sir Kenny Dalglish, Phil Thompson, Ian Rush, Jimmy Case, David Fairclough, Alan Kennedy, the feature-length documentary is fronted by the lead singer of The Farm, Peter Hooton.

Bill Shankly’s arrival as manager in December 1959 was the catalyst for establishing a legendary lineage of Liverpool coaches and managers: Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Ronnie Moran, Kenny Dalglish, Roy Evans: just some of the names to pass through the four walls of the now-famous Anfield boot room, a small meeting place underneath the main stand that served as the epicenter of Liverpool’s dominance in the latter half of the 20^th century.

When Shankly took charge, a struggling Liverpool side were embarking on their sixth consecutive campaign in the Second Division and who, less than a year earlier, had been dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league Worcester City. Unbeknownst to the club, the fans, and the city of Liverpool, the history of football would be changed forever.

The Boot Room Boys explores how Shankly and his successors created the backbone of Liverpool’s success and established the club as one of the most prestigious names in world football, with contributions from the likes of Evans, Dalglish, Phil Thompson, Ian Rush, Sammy Lee and Willie Stevenson. Although the line of boot room descendants was broken in 1998, its legacy lives on: exclusive interviews in the film with Jürgen Klopp, Peter Krawietz and Pep Lijnders reveal how the institution continues to shape Anfield today.

Sally Brown, BT Sport Films Executive Producer and Commissioning Editor, said: “The Boot Room Boys is a fitting a tribute to the legacy and influence of the Shankly dynasty, not just on Liverpool Football Club, but on the English game as a whole, and provides a fascinating insight into football management.”

This is an in-house production produced and directed by BT Sport’s Tom Boswell with Sally Brown as executive producer. The film - an adaption of The Boot Room Boys book written by Peter Hooton - is the latest in the award-winning BT Sport Films series which includes:

·       George Best, True Genius: takes viewers on an evocative journey of how Best rose to become the best player in the world and one of the greatest footballers of all time.

·       Too Good to Go Down: rarely-told story of how relegation in the mid-1970s enabled the modern-day Manchester United to emerge.

·       Two Tribes: how, against a backdrop of social unrest in the 1980s, the city of Liverpool’s two football teams rose to bring fresh hope and a new identity to Merseyside.

·       Standing Firm: Football’s Windrush Story: examines the impact the likes of Tyrone Mings, Rio and Anton Ferdinand and Andy Cole, their descendants and continued Caribbean migration to the UK, had on English football and the national team.

·       Make It Or Die trying: The Frank Warren Story: biopic which reveals how the eponymous promoter rose from humble beginnings in North London to multimillion pound deals in Las Vegas.

The Boot Room Boys will premiere on BT Sport 3 at 10.30pm on 5 April and is available to watch via the BT Sport App and website at any time thereafter.