Hidden Agenda

Set in Northern Ireland. Hidden Agenda depicts an investigation into the murder of an American civil rights activist in Northern Ireland by the police while driving in the company of a Provisional Irish Republican Army sympathiser. The activist’s girlfriend and a tough police detective investigate the killing and a conspiracy is gradually revealed which involves the highest levels in government.

Though given a theatrical release, was originally conceived of as a television documentary/drama.

Although fictional, the film was inspired by the investigation into the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s alleged ‘shoot to kill’ policy. Cox’s character represents John Stalker the leader of that investigation. E4A an undercover unit of the Royal Ulster Constabulary claimed to be involved in the killings is mentioned briefly in the film.

During one scene late in the movie a renegade SAS agent possessing an audio tape that incriminates the British government is kidnapped by an SAS squad and bundled into a van on O’Connell Bridge in Dublin a very busy river crossing in the center of the city. Loach filmed the scene with a hidden camera and without letting passers-by know that they were witnessing a movie shoot.