Butcher: Invisible Wounds, the documentary on Town and England legend Terry Butcher and the death of his son Chris, a former captain in the Royal Artillery, who suffered from PTSD after serving in Afghanistan, is being screened on ITV4 this evening (10pm).

The powerful film, which was directed by George Burley’s son Stuart, was premiered at King Street Cinema in Ipswich last month in front of family and friends of the former central defender, among them Town teammates Roger Osborne, John Wark, Kevin O’Callaghan and Jason Dozzell.

Interviewed alongside Butcher, his wife Rita and his other two sons, Edward and Alastair, in the documentary were former Blues Russell Osman, Alan Brazil and Kieron Dyer, England teammate Gary Lineker and fellow Rangers man Ally McCoist.

“It was really hard-hitting, really powerful,” Butcher said when interviewed on stage afterwards by Nigel Seaman, the founder of Combat2Coffee, the armed forces well-being organisation of which the one-time Town and England skipper is a patron and which features in the film.

“And there's a big message there and that message is what drove us to do it, really. I knew it was going to be tough, but tonight has been the toughest, toughest night.

“I'm glad it's done and the way it's come out, and hopefully people will pick up a message and carry on.”

Butcher, 67, admits speaking about Chris’s death in 2017 was very difficult and he questioned whether he should continue while filming his main interview for the documentary.

“I remember halfway through I was thinking, ‘why am I doing this?’” he said. “I was finding it really tough, I didn't enjoy it very much because you’re bringing up the past and all that sort of thing.

“But I stumbled on a little bit with the interview and then I thought, ‘hang on a minute, I really want to do this’. It just sort of struck me that I have to do this.

“We’ve come so far, but I have to do this because it's not about me, it’s about all the veterans and their families and all the people that have helped us and all the people that help Combat2Coffee and all the other charities. They're doing it for a purpose - to save lives, to help lives, to help people and their families.

“And that's a bigger challenge, that’s a bigger mission than me just kicking a ball about the park or whatever I did. That doesn't matter. What matters is now is the present, move forward and we want to move forward, and we want to move forward and spread the word.”

Butcher says the experience of making the film has been cathartic: “They’ve done a fantastic job and I think because of that it helped me and helped the family to, not get rid of a lot of grief, but it made it a bit easier, made it a bit more comfortable to talk about death, to talk about tragedy.

“A lot of people will go through this, not just military, but having lost someone very dear to them, and it's about dealing with that.”

Photo: TWTD