Hill

If you are at all interested in the history of Formula One and/or in the history of television sport, then this should provide you with quite an illuminating documentary. Otherwise, it's really nothing at all special. Using two single-shot piece to camera interviews with Damon Hill and his wife Georgie, we are taken on a whistle stop tour of his life that started with World Champion father Graham before a plane crash rendered him fatherless and his family all but bankrupt. He was originally more of a bike man, but later in his twenties managed to get himself a job as a test driver for Williams Renault and the rest, as they say... Motor car racing is a sport that has always benefited from being at the more expensive end of our pastimes, and that meant that much more of it was filmed, much more of the lives of those taking part was filmed and fortunately here the archive researcher/producer has trawled widely to find some remarkable footage of Hill as a youngster from home movies and married them with action photography as his racing career stuttered off the grid and into the history books. The camera liked him - he had Hollywood good looks and a cheeky smile, but the lack of contribution from any of his contemporaries as to him, his personality, his strengths and flaws rather leaves us with a chronology of the sport rather than much of an insight into a man who probably has blood made by Castrol. It is watchable, but facts being what they are it tries to build a sense of jeopardy and excitement where there wasn't and in the end becomes a little too procedural and sterile a story of a man who must have had more going on than this.

Hill (2025) is a quietly powerful and thoughtful documentary that really stays with you. It doesn't chase drama or overhype. Instead, it lets Damon Hill's story speak for itself with honesty and calm reflection. The blend of personal childhood footage with his racing years gives the film a grounded, human feel. It touches on his early career, but it's in the aftermath of Senna's death where the film really finds its depth, showing Damon's shift from a thoughtful competitor to someone who truly found something within himself. There's also a strong emotional thread running through it, with the weight of living in the shadow of his father, Graham Hill, and what it means to step out of that shadow in your own way. There's no gloss, just a clear and respectful look at a man who has always done things on his terms. A genuinely moving portrait of a sportsman defined not by noise, but by resilience, character and quiet strength.

I watched hill documentary on my sky q yesterday I found the interview with Damon hill and his wife very heartwarming and touching with him losing his father in 1975 and I liked the archive commentary from the great Murray walker and I liked the clip were Damon wins the 1996 world title and Murray walker says I have got to stop I have got a lump in my throat brilliant nostalgia 90s footage and Simon lazenby did well by producing the documentary and I totally enjoyed it.

This is a moving documentary. As far from 'drive to survive' and it's fictional concoction of racing as you would get.

Damon Hill has always been an outsider, who conversely should have been the ultimate insider. The documentary skims across his early racing on motorbikes and his journey into formula one.

In two sections though it really works well, the post Imola section where we get to see the moment that Hill discovered his inner racer in the wake of Senna's death. Damon speaks with customary truthfulness and understatement and it's enthralling.

The second section is more of a theme that runs throughout the movie. The sense of the loss of his father. Grand Prix champion Graham Hill. The documentary ultimately balances the career and the journey of a son to walk in his illustrious father's footsteps really well. Without ever being mawkish or sentimental.

It's probably a documentary for dipped in gasoline petrol heads like me, but as a document of one of the finest and most sporting of sportsmen it is a very good watch.

Damon Hill always came across as a gentleman and here he does prove the gentle men can come first and do have steel and grit. You can do it all on your own terms with luck and a fair wind.

Recommended.

Firstly and foremost F1/Motorsport fans have been spoiled this year so far with so many movies/docs coming out this year (BBC/Canal+ Doc series about Prost, The Seat, the upcoming F1 Academy docuseries and of course the F1 Movie, just to name a few), and now Hill.

I was a bit skeptical at first as this being a Sky Documentary production overall but in the end it really it was an independent production and it definetly felt like it.

This documentary I think is a must for any knowledgable and non to check this one out, absolutetly superb viewing, similar to the Williams 2017 documentary, which on this one it geniunely felt like a movie.