Pierrepoint
Just finished watching Pierrepoint, a biopic of Albert Pierrepoint, perhaps Britain's most famous executioner, responsible for hanging 608 people, including those hanged by the British in the aftermath of the Nuremberg trials. It's an excellent movie and tallies well with what I understand from having read about the man. It portrays vividly his struggle to devolve himself from his job, and his mental and personal strength in having succeeded for so long. It's an extremely interesting thing to see the executioner as a person, someone who has the strength to accept the law and carry out a feared and hated role out of respect for the law and a sense of duty, with compassion and respect also for the subject of the execution. A very good movie and comes well recommended, as does reading about its protagonist, an extremely interesting character.