'Sunday' begins in 1968 with the events leading up to the start of the Free Derry movement, before shifting to the
days before 30 January 1972. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association planned a peaceful march in Bogside
in a protest against the British Government's policy of imprisoning people without a trial.  Over 15,000 civil rights
protestors participated in the march, with every intention of holding a peaceful protest. A group of youths broke
away from the marchers and began throwing rocks at the British paratroopers. The soldiers inevitably opened fire,
using rubber bullets at first, but then started using live bullets and the bloodshed began. A total of 13 people died
on the day, and 14 were wounded, although in the aftermath General Ford claimed that the British soldiers only
fired three shots, and only after being fired upon by the demonstrators. The inquiry that followed found that the
Paras were not to blame for the events of Bloody Sunday, which did not go down well with the people of Derry, 
and provided an incentive for many to join the IRA. Indeed, the closing scenes of the telemovie show young Derry
men pledging their allegiance to the IRA, ironically while General Ford is presented to the Queen to be made a
Commander of the Order of Bath.

The verdict: The telemovie does a fantastic job of recreating the march and the violence that followed, as well
as the ensuing government inquiry. Christopher Eccleston is only in a few scenes, but he is superb as General
Ford, except for the completely unconvincing upper-class accent he adopts for the role. It is such a contrast to
his usual Northern accent, and detracts from what is otherwise an excellent performance. There is a particularly
chilling scene before the march, in which Ford dictates a memo to his superiors in which he recommends the 
deliberately shooting of selected members of a youth gang in order to clamp down on violence in Derry.