Amazing Grace

Michael Apted directed this film which focuses on William Wilberforce’s (1759-1833) long campaign to end the British slave trade. Played by Ioan Gruffudd, Wilberforce was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British Parliament. The film  recounts the experiences of John Newton as a crewman on a slave ship and his subsequent religious conversion, which inspired his writing of the poem later used in the hymn for which the film is named. Newton is portrayed as a major influence on Wilberforce and the abolition movement.