06/11/2017 Inside Out North West

Hello and welcome to

Inside Out North West

with me Dianne Oxberry.

Tonight: Could the emergency

services have acted faster

on the night of the Manchester Arena

bomb?

I just kept shouting

"We need paramedics!

We need paramedics now!"

How life after top level

sport can be traumatic.

When you are part of the team.

It's absolutely brilliant and that

got pulled away from me and it

had a massive impact

on my mental health.

And why Liverpool is the star

of a new Hollywood movie.

Are just want to go back to

Liverpool. Say it again, Peter.

Liverpool.

Oh! Wow!

In May a suicide bomber killed 22

people at Manchester Arena.

Hundreds more were injured.

Inside Out has learned that some

of the most seriously wounded

victims had to wait for over an hour

before receiving expert

medical treatment.

Colin Paterson, who was one

of the first reporters on the scene,

also investigates why firefighters

were held back for nearly two hours.

On May 22nd, Salman Abedi made his

way to the Manchester Arena.

He waited in the foyer of the Arena

for the Ariana Grande

concert to finish.

As fans started streaming out,

Abedi detonated a suicide device.

There was rubble, dust,

smoke everywhere and then

there was just screaming.

There was rubble, dust,

smoke everywhere and then

there was just screaming.

There was just too much for just

three paramedics to deal with.

That night, emergency services

treated hundreds of people,

many of whom had suffered

life changing injuries.

But we have learned that some

of the most seriously wounded had

to wait for more than an hour

for expert medical treatment.

12 months before the bomb,

a training exercise was staged

at the Trafford Centre,

on the outskirts of Manchester.

Authorities were pleased

with how it had gone.

We are delighted.

The aim of the exercise

was to really stress test

all of the organisations that

would respond to a terror attack.

But what happened on May 22nd when

a real terror attack took place?

Abedi triggered his

bomb at 10.31 pm.

I was here in Manchester that night.

In the immediate aftermath,

I was here for BBC Five Live,

trying to piece together

what had happened.

Everybody started running as fast as

we could.

The building shook. Bodies

everywhere.

How long were you there for?

Probably an hour.

So on the night, people

were telling me, that some

of the injured were waiting

an hour for treatment.

Shortly after 11 o'clock,

most walking wounded had been

evacuated from the Arena foyer,

here to Victoria Station approach.

Ambulance crews from across England

treated the injured who'd been able

to escape the scene.

But for those in the foyer,

expert help was still very limited.

Before the police cordon

was made secure, only one

North West Ambulance service

paramedic made it into the foyer.

Over the next hour, two more

paramedics were able to join him.

But eye witnesses we've talked

to say that far more help

was desperately needed.

Kim and Phil Dick from Bradford

were in the foyer to collect

their daughter and granddaughter.

Seconds after the explosion a victim

with serious injuries

collapsed in front of Kim.

She could hardly walk,

she was stumbling, bleeding

from her arm, and her mouth

and her leg.

And all her hair was burnt

and I just grabbed her,

because I thought she was

going to fall.

How long was this over?

It's over an hour,

just over an hour.

And I just kept saying you've been

really brave but we could hear

the ambulances all the time.

As time passed, concern

grew about the lack

of paramedics in the foyer.

The armed police came running in,

normal police, armed

police and you know,

I just kept shouting

"We need paramedics!

We need paramedics now!"

And they just said,

"We're just making sure

there are no more bombs".

An hour after the explosion,

the wounded in the foyer

were still only receiving basic

first aid, rather than

expert paramedic help.

The longer it went on the more

silent it became and it was,

it was really eerie and people

who I had seen a little

earlier, who were severely

injured, were now dead.

They made a decision at some point,

about an hour and ten minutes

after the explosion,

I think, that the medical staff

weren't coming up to foyer

but were going to evacuate

all the casualties.

The girl they looked

after did survive.

Security fears may explain why only

three paramedics could enter

the so-called "hot zone"

where the bomb had gone off.

But it's harder to understand

the delay in the arrival

of Fire and Rescue staff.

Commanders on the night held fire

and rescue staff back

at their stations until 12.18am.

Fully one hour and 47

minutes after the blast.

The fire service made

a decision to go to a RV point

which is what is normal practice

as did the ambulance service.

The ambulance service were called

forward and at this stage I am

unsure as to why the fire service

were delayed so long.

Greater Manchester Fire

and Rescue Service's has

a Technical Response Unit These

are people trained specifically

to deal with terrorist situations.

That Unit took part in the Trafford

Centre exercise last year.

It's still uncertain

who on the night made the decision

not to deploy that unit.

Save the UK Fire Service is the

leading firefighters' online forum.

On the evening of the bomb,

Greater Manchester firemen

vented their frustration

on the pages of the site.

They were frustrated that they were

not being sent to the arena.

I've been a firefighter

in Manchester for nearly ten years.

And I've never ever felt so much

guilt in all my life.

We were only half a mile

away from helping.

Half a mile away from

potentially saving lives.

And that will always

stick with me forever.

A paramedic lady came to us,

pleading with us to help.

because they needed it.

This firefighter, who is not based

in Manchester, runs the site.

If the firemen had been deployed,

how much use could they have been?

Well every fire engine carries

immediate emergency care medical

packs and every firefighter

is trained in the use of those.

We're not a replacement

for the ambulance service,

but certainly we can relieve

the pressure on an ambulance crew.

Those trapped in the foyer that

night remain very grateful that

so many people were willing

to put their own lives at risk

to help save lives of others.

But almost six months on,

some remain concerned that emergency

medical help was so slow to arrive.

They want to minimise the risk

to as many people as possible,

I perfectly understand that.

But they deployed tens if not

hundreds of police officers

into that foyer and into the arena

and if some of those had been

medically trained, then,

you can't say for certain,

but some people's injuries

could have been dealt

with quicker and perhaps,

just perhaps, some lives

could have been saved.

You've got this golden hour.

In that hour they need

to be treated...

Immediate care needs to be given.

That improves peoples'

chances of survival.

But one man who collected his son

from the Arena, believes

the authorities did the absolute

best that they could.

You'd like every single medic every

doctor that was in Manchester should

have been there and they would have

liked to have been there.

And everybody would have been

in there helping everybody

and nobody would have died.

But it couldn't happen.

The mayor of Greater Manchester,

Andy Burnham has now set up

an Independent Review under

Lord Kerslake to learn lessons

from the events in May.

It's due to report next year.

There was a feeling at the time

that the wrong call

was made in those moments.

Now it seems to me that there

is some substance to that

and it was one of the reasons why

the independent review was set up.

But it's not about feelings is it?

That's the point, isn't it?

It's about "what is the evidence?"

It's about "what is the evidence?"

and that evidence is being

looked at by the review.

Those in charge of the emergency

services after Abedi's bomb in May

faced a horrific dilemma.

Save lives by deploying

as quickly as possible

but while there was still the risk

of a second explosion.

Or wait until the scene

could be declared safe,

but accept that this would delay

urgent treatment to the bomb

victims as a result.

We contacted all the emergency

services and they gave us

these written responses.

North West Ambulance Service told

us, its staff are fully insured to

attend terrorist related incidents.

Greater Manchester Fire

and Rescue said it has

conducted its own debrief

of the organisation's response

to the Manchester Arena Attack

and is cooperating fully

with the Kerslake Review.

Greater Manchester Police told

us that they contacted

the North West Ambulance Service

within three minutes of the incident

being declared and they followed

their major incident plan.

None of these organisations

wanted to appear in this

film while the Kerslake

review is ongoing.

The life of a professional

sportsman - or woman -

can be incredibly glamorous:

the fame, the financial

rewards, the adulation.

But what happens to all that

when they've stopped competing?

Our reporter is former

athlete Diane Modahl.

Or, as she was known

when she was winning gold

in the Commonwealth

Games, Diane Edwards.

Commentator: Diane

Edwards, in Lane 3...

Those were the days.

I've always thought

that a sporting career

is like running

a long distance race.

Running wide of the Australians.

They come up now. Is it fast enough?

Occasionally there will be barriers

along the way ? there may

be falls but there'll

also be fantastic highs.

The Australians are recovering now.

They are into the wind...

So what actually happens

when you reach the finishing line ?

sometimes I think that can be

the hardest part of all.

Danny Sculthorpe was

a successful prop forward

with Wigan and England ? for him

rugby league was everything ?

especially when it was a big game.

The hairs on the back

of your neck are on end.

The adrenaline that's

going through your body

is absolutely unbelievable.

I can't explain how good it was.

It was brilliant,

absolutely brilliant.

But towards the end of his career

Danny had serious injury problems

and when his final club,

Bradford Bulls tore up his contract

in 2010, he was devastated.

He was just 31.

I lost my job.

I lost my career.

I lost our family house

and I had two young kids

and a wife that I couldn't support.

And that's when the

depression started.

I know for a long, long time I did

what most men do when they struggle

with mental health issues.

I kept it to myself -

I thought I will deal with it.

I'm supposed to be this 6 feet 4,

17 and a half stone rugby league

prop forward and I can't tell

someone I am struggling

with mental health issues.

I found myself in

the middle of Wigan

in my car with a bottle of gin

and a box full of pills that

would have killed half of the town

and I was going to take my own life

- now for some reason I didn't.

I was just lucky that you know

I decided not to do it on that

time, that occasion.

I remember coming home and that's

the day after that when my mum

and dad and my wife sat me down

and you know call me out on it

and changed my life, saved my life.

Danny's experience is actually not

that unusual in the world

of professional sport,

as neurologist and former footballer

Tony Faulkner told me.

If they haven't developed options

and opportunities to transition

into a further a career,

then their brain can

go into a threat state

and their thought process can

become more negative,

can become more irrational and more

impulsive and that can lead

to many issues including

clinical depression,

we are aware of certain athletes

who have taken their life

because of their loss of identity

that retirement brings.

And

As an amateur boxer, Natasha Jonas

won a stack of titles,

including European Championship Gold

and World Championship Bronze.

She made history at London 2012

when she became the first British

woman to box in the Olympics.

Boxing is just a skill

but you learn so much more.

And you learn a lot of life

skills being in the gym.

There was loads

of little milestones.

Obviously, the Olympics was by far

my greatest boxing achievement.

But then a foot injury led to defeat

in the Commonwealth games,

and failure to qualify

for the Rio Olympics.

Natasha made the decision to retire.

Can I do it for another four years?

And I came to the conclusion

that I couldn't.

My time was done.

I don't think I could've

been that athlete again

so I thought, now's the time.

Natasha started to prepare

for life outside the ring.

She found work with sports

organisations and broadcasters.

And there was another

compelling reason for Natasha

to re-appraise her future plans.

She was pregnant with

her daughter, Meela.

I had a whole new world and I kept

myself busy with the baby

kept myself busy with new companies,

busy with work.

For the first year of her life

you're trying to get her

into a routine just generally

so my mind was off what I needed

to do cos it was so focussed on her.

Despite the perception

that she had it all, the pull

of boxing proved too powerful.

When I left boxing I

realised that that routine

was the thing I missed.

The thing that I said I hated,

I actually missed the most.

I'd left boxing on a bit of a low.

I hadn't gone to Rio,

I'd got beaten in the Commonwealth

games and I should've won a medal.

So my drive was that I had

unfinished business with it.

And once I'd got over

the physical stuff I thought,

no, I've still got it.

And so earlier this year

she turned professional.

Working with Manchester trainer

Joe Gallagher, she's already

won her first three fights.

Ben Burgess is known

to these schoolchildren

at Hawes Side Academy in Blackpool

as their favourite teacher.

If the

But to thousands of football fans

he's remembered as a striker

at nearby Bloomfield Road.

His 14-year career took him to no

fewer than ten clubs ?

including Blackburn,

Oldham and Stockport.

But after years of wear and tear ?

and 21 operations on his knees,

Ben realised in 2012

that he wouldn't be able to fulfil

a new contract he'd just

signed with Tranmere.

When your body can't do

what your mind wants it to do it's

the most frustrating thing

in the world.

We just wrote the two years

of my contract off and that was it

we just sort of parted.

And I was pretty emotional

at the time, it was a lot to take

in and as I was driving home

from Liverpool I had to stop the car

and gather my thoughts.

The key factor which helped

with Ben's transition

into the real world was that -

unlike most athletes -

he'd planned ahead.

I always had in the back

of my mind that I was

going to need something.

I managed to get

a journalism degree.

And was doing a bit of freelancing

while I was still playing.

As I knew my career was coming

to an end it was "what can I do

with my qualifications?"

Someone mentioned if

you've got a degree

you can do a PGCE and become

a qualified primary school teacher.

You could say that Ben's transition

from footballer to school

teacher is a lesson for all.

Whilst they are competing,

it's important

for them to have other interests

outside that sport.

That allows them to switch

off ? it's cathartic.

What it also gives them

is an insight into another world,

another interest which can then lead

into their transition when they come

to the end of their career.

Danny Sculthorpe's

in a good place now.

His failed suicide attempt proved

to be a turning point.

My family mean everything to me.

Absolutely everything.

I could have done something stupid

that day, and spoilt it -

could have ruined their lives.

So to see them growing up, healthy,

just means the world to me.

I absolutely love them to bits.

He's now working with State of Mind

? a mental health charity.

We have spoke to 27,000 people

over the last 6 years.

28 people have told us that

because of one of our sessions

they have changed their mind

about taking their own life

which is absolutely unbelievable.

Family life is at the centre

of Natasha Jonas' world too ?

and she's a winner once again.

But she knows the day will come

when retirement beckons once more.

It is scary ? but I can't

walk away from boxing.

I don't think I'll 100% ever

leave - I'll always have

something to do with it.

Children are at the heart

of Ben Burgess's daily life too.

Football's in the past ? he's

concentrating on developing

the citizens of the future.

I don't want the children

to see that you're either

clever or you're not,

or you're talented or you're not.

They've got to see

how hard you work.

It's clear that some

athletes handle the move

into retirement better than others.

But for me, there is a duty of care

for everybody involved in running

sport to ensure that our athletes

can make that transition

as easily as possible.

There's a bit of an Oscar buzz

about a new movie called

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool

which is out later this

month and stars Annette

Benning and Jamie Bell.

It tells the remarkable

true story of a man -

whose life was turned upside down

when he met and fell

in love with a Hollywood

superstar back in the 1970s.

I've been to meet him.

and drink, you can hustle with me, I

need a banana for my dance class.

If you fix me a drink I will come in

and fix your bathroom.

It is a

classic man meets woman love story.

She was a former Hollywood screen

goddess and he was a local Liverpool

lad. Far-fetched? Maybe, but this is

a true story. It begins and the like

1970s.

Gloria came to do a play in

London. She came to rent this ground

floor apartment in this house and I

was at the top of the house.

Where

you are aware of who she was

immediately?

No. I knew... Gloria

Grahame, I just didn't really know.

I hadn't seen any of her films.

What

the young Peter Turner hadn't

realised was that 20 years earlier

Gloria Grahame was at the top of the

Hollywood tree. She had starred in

classics like It's A Wonderful Life,

Oklahoma, and played a femme fatale

to Leeds like Humphrey Bogart and

Lee Marvin. By the time she met

Peter she was on a Saturday night TV

show. She admitted she has been cast

against type in one of her most

famous roles.

# I'm just a girl who can't say no,

I'm in a terrible fix #.

He asked if I could sing, I said no,

he said of course you sing, I said I

don't. He said, you sing in the

shower? I said no, I couldn't carry

a note in a bucket.

We just

connected. There was a big age

difference in the relationship. At

that time it was controversial. She

didn't play the film star, movie

star, Schuster travel around the

bus, the Tube, weight in queues, or

things like that. -- she used to

travel around on the bus, the Tube,

wait in queues.

The final dramatic

scenes would be played out in

Liverpool. Gloria would spend her

last days here, and Peter's family

home near Sefton Park. It all

followed a phone call from the Dukes

Theatre in Lancaster. That phone

call that came to this house, what

did it say to you?

What does it say?

It was very brief. I was told she

was very ill. I said how ill? They

said very, and could I come

immediately. She came to Liverpool

when the chips were down. A place

where she felt safe. She wanted to

get better. It was futile. I think

that really now she knew she was

going to die. She knew she had left

it late.

Peter eventually wrote a

moving account of the difficult days

that followed, and the two fabulous

years which preceded them. The book

was published in 1986 and now it has

been turned into a book starring --

film starring Annette Bening and

Jamie Bell as Peter.

We expected the

Gloria Grahame from Birkenhead, not

the one from the picture Palace, we

never expected that one in our

kitchen making a bacon sandwich

asking for tomato sauce.

CHUCKLES

Mattress from Manchester, his many

successes include the film Control,

about Ian Curtis from Joy Division.

He's very much at home with great

Northern stories. -- Matt is from

Manchester.

I immediately felt

warmth toward it. Especially his

family, Bella, Joan, and that

Northern set up, kind and loving and

as soon as you have got that you

have got more of Peter. I think this

book was him letting a lot of stuff

out. Therefore it was easy for me to

get to the truth of what his

character was.

Once he had seen the

script and read Peter's book, Jamie

Bell was determined to get to know

the real Peter Turner.

It is the

relationship that has meant the most

him. It has affected him the most. I

would spend many hours with him just

sitting down, probably asking him

the pointless questions, but to me

they're meant everything. As he

would recount these tales, you can

see is reliving every moment.

Has

anyone ever told you you look like

Lauren Bacall when you smile?

Yes,

Humphrey Bogart, I didn't like it

then, either.

This is it. This is

the backstage at the Playhouse,

fantastic, isn't it?

When Gloria was

seriously ill at his family home,

Peter was appearing in a play at the

Playhouse. The theatre is the

location of one of the most moving

scenes in the film and Peter has a

small cameo.

It was so strange, you

know? Surreal today on a stage with

Jamie.

Being you.

Being me. Playing

that part. And with a -- and with

Annette playing Gloria, it was like

a kind of Time Capsule, really.

Where am I? What's going on? Life is

full of surprises.

Another star of

the film is Liverpool itself.

Huskisson Street doubles up as a

road in London. And the famous

Philharmonic pub does a turn as a

London bar. The Turner family home

has moved to a terrorist

-- the Turner family home has moved

to a terraced stomach Street.

They

said would I to be able to lend my

home to them? I said yes. They made

it a lot more old-fashioned.

They

repainted?

They repainted my door.

How did you feel about it?

It was

OK, because they put it back again.

Annette Bening films in the bedroom.

And Jamie Bell needed a favour.

There was a scene over the road

where they had rain coming down.

They had to come and get dried. He

put all of his clothes in the tumble

dryer.

You've had Annette Bening in

the bedroom and you have had Jamie

Bell's clothes in your tumble dryer?

Yes, it was lovely.

We would

basically take over streets,

people's houses.

CHUCKLES

Playing football with the kids in

the streets. Just lovely, lovely

people. Very lucky to be able to get

to shoot there.

Then there was the

crucial job of being able to do

Liverpool accent.

It's tricky

accent. It's a melodic, sing song,

very specific sound, there is a

certain personality that goes with

that. It was a bit of a test, yes,

kind of tricky.

31 years after

writing his book, and 36 years after

he'd last seen Gloria, Peter Turner

finally got to see the film. He

watched it at a private screening

with the producer.

At the end of the

screening, Barbara had to be. I said

I just wanted to sit by myself.

Barbara left her seat. She gave me a

big cuddle because I was in bits.

Such a significant part of your

life, isn't it?

Yes. It will always

be defining. The whole period, the

whole relationship, you know, kind

of, it has given me so much. To find

who I am.

The film is a heartfelt

tribute to Peter Turner's love

affair with a remarkable woman. A

relationship which took a young man

on a journey which changed his life.

And the film is released

on the 17th of November!

Inside Out is back in

the New Year ? see you then.