Two Line of Duty actors are among the line-up for this year’s Liverpool Literary Festival

Liverpool Literary Festival returns this October with a line-up that includes two actors from BBC’s Line of Duty and the Liverpool-born writer behind The Responder.

Now in its ninth year and part of the city’s cultural calendar, the Liverpool Literary Festival features a programme of readings and discussions covering all kinds of writing.

Alongside fiction, non-fiction and poetry, this year’s event – which runs from Friday October 4 to Sunday October 6 – has a focus on screenwriting.

On the final day of the festival there’ll be a free exclusive screening of the powerful BBC drama Mothers’ Day, which is based on the real-life events of the 1993 IRA bombing in Warrington town centre.

That will be followed by a discussion with Colin Parry, father of 12-year-old Tim Parry who was killed in the attack, Warrington-born writer Nick Leather and actors Anna Maxwell Martin and Daniel Mays who took on the roles of Colin and Wendy Parry.

The one-off event, at the University of Liverpool’s Eleanor Rathbone Building, will reveal the challenges of making a tragedy into a drama.

Daniel and Anna, who is currently on screen in BBC One’s Ludwig, will give an insight into how they approached playing Colin and Wendy, and Colin will talk about the drama and his ongoing work promoting peace.

On the Saturday evening, Tony Schumacher will be In Conversation, sharing his journey from police officer to writer. He spent 10 years as an officer with Merseyside Police before using his experience to pen two series of the award-winning TV drama The Responder, starring Martin Freeman.

Both events are among an eclectic programme which also features poet and performer Levi Tafari, and best-selling author Adele Parks.

Festival Director Greg Lynall says it’s all about the power of writing in a variety of different ways:

“In terms of our choice of authors, one of the things we think about is having a good range of people who work in different genres,” he says. “This year we have screen as well as what we might think of as more traditional literary genres like the novel, poetry and drama.

“The Mother’s Day screening and panel has come about because of the connections the university has with the Peace Foundation in Warrington and also Anna Maxwell Martin is an alumna, she studied history here, so we’ve been keen to get her involved for some time.

“The fact that we’ve got Anna Maxwell Martin, Daniel Mays, Nick Leather and Colin Parry all together is a fantastic coup for us and it’s brilliant that they’ve been able to make time in their diaries for it.”

Greg says the Liverpool Literary Festival not only brings lovers of writing to the city from all over the country, it’s a way to introduce more people to the University of Liverpool.

“One of the key things we want to do is showcase the university to the public so we’re always trying to find ways to bring people into the buildings and onto the campus who’ve never set foot before.

“This is our ninth year and I think we’re well established as a cultural event in the city now. We do have people who’ve been every year but there are still other audiences who we’d like to see, so each year when we put together the programme we’re also thinking about who might come and experience the event for the first time.”

Find the full Liverpool Literary Festival programme of events and book tickets here.

Find more events across Liverpool here.