Floodlights

5/29/2022

This is quite an harrowing story about how a real-life football coach - portrayed well here by Jonas Armstrong - managed to dupe just about everyone for years that he was a reputable and upstanding individual whilst at the same time, was routinely abusing the trust of those around him to prey on the younger boys who thought he offered them a path to escape the drudgery of their day-to-day lives. On the face of it, it is quite astonishing that he got away with it for so long; but this man was clever. Bennell played upon the aspirations of parents and children alike. Not just their desires for fame and success, but for more ordinary things like inclusion, affection, being part of a team. This story focusses on the young Andy Woodward, whom Bennell cleverly manoeuvred into his bed with promis