The gruelling walk undertaken by Elle Edward’s dad, Tim Edwards, and John May has become an award-nominated movie
08:29, 09 Nov 2025Updated 08:53, 09 Nov 2025
Elle Edwards’ dad, Tim Edwards, and actor John May arrive at Liverpool’s Pier Head on their Lands End to John O’Groats walk for charity
The “humbling” moment 1,000 people turned out in Liverpool to support the dad of murder victim Elle Edwards, has been captured in a new award-nominated film. Elle, 26, died when Connor Chapman opened fire on the crowded entrance to the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey on Christmas Eve, 2022.
Three months after her tragic death, dad Tim Edwards, 54, joined Liverpool actor John May as he walked the length of the country, from Land’s End to John O’Groats in a stand against gun and knife crime. The journey, full of drama, laughs and fall-outs, was captured on camera, and is now a feature film.
The movie, The Two of Us, has been nominated for best documentary and best cinematography at the Raindance Film Festival, the UK’s largest independent film festival, and is now set for a six-day run at the Plaza Cinema in Waterloo.
Among the high points of the film is the moment Tim and John arrive in Liverpool during their journey, and are greeted by a crowd of around 1,000 people at Otterspool Promenade.
The crowd followed the pair all the way to the Pier Head, in a moment John describes as “magical”. Tim said: “When we got there, we didn’t expect so many people to turn up, because it was a grey, grim day.
Tim with daughter his daughter, Elle(Image: Supplied)
“I remember getting halfway between the Britannia pub and the Albert Dock, and I looked behind me, and the whole prom was full of people.
“You couldn’t see where it ended. It was so humbling, and it showed that this city is what it says on the tin. If one of its own needs a helping hand they’ll get right behind you, and they did. Everyone who turned out was absolutely brilliant. It was a fantastic day.”
From left: John May and Tim Edwards in front of the poster for their documentary, The Two of US(Image: Supplied)
Tim credits the long walk with helping him to grieve Elle following her death. He said: “I messaged John not long after Elle died, and we started talking on Instagram. He was doing this walk for gun and knife crime, which obviously was close to home.”
Tim reached out to John and asked if he could join him, meeting him in Worcester in March 2024, three months after Elle’s death and 300 miles into John’s journey.
Tim and John’s gruelling walk has become the subject of an award-nominated film(Image: Progress Pictures)
The relative strangers quickly became firm friends, and Tim would stick by John all the way to John O’Groats in the far north of Scotland.
Tim said: “It gave me freedom, and gave me a chance to get away from all the chaos that was going on. It gave me a bit of time to get my thoughts together, to grieve Elle and to take in what had happened.
“It would have been so different if I hadn’t done it. If I hadn’t done it, who knows how it would have turned out, but it wouldn’t have been good I don’t think.”
Tim and John reach John O’Groats(Image: Supplied)
Tim is a seasoned walker and has tackled a fair few mountains, but it still took him more than a week to adapt to the challenge of walking dozens of miles each day.
He said: “The physical pain becomes irrelevant, because the mental pain overshadows that, and you’ve just got to get on with it. It took a week or two for me to get going.”
Chapman was convicted of Elle’s murder on July 6, 2023. The following day, as Chapman was sentenced to life imprisonment, Tim asked John to come with him on the leg of the walk he had not completed, from Worcester to Land’s End.
Tim said: “It really grated on my mind, everyone would say I’d walked from Land’s End to John O’Groats and I had to say that I hadn’t.
“So, as soon as the trial finished, I went back to Worcester and walked to Land’s End so I could say that I had done the whole trip.”
Tim and John with the audience at the Raindance Film Festival(Image: Supplied)
The final 300-mile leg took just over two weeks, with the pair reaching Land’s End on the birthday that they share, August 24. Tim said: “We’ve become best mates. You become very close in a situation like that, where you’re thrown together, two relative strangers.”
Actor John recently starred in The Legend of Rooney’s Ring at the Royal Court, created by Motherland writer Helen Serfafinowicz. John has now started a production company, from which The Two of Us is the first creation.
He said: “More happened on that walk than people know. We had fall-outs. I was suffering from my own mental health battles, Tim was suffering with grief, and we had a massive fall-out and split up.
“There’s a lot of laughs and drama in it. The film is about a walk, but more about men’s mental health, it’s about hope, it’s about friendship and it’s about how two strangers could come together and lean on each other prop each other up.”
The film will be screened seven times in six days at the Plaza Community Cinema in Waterloo, beginning November 15.
Tickets can be found through the plaza website here.
Do you have a story? Get in touch at jonathan.blackburn@reachplc.com