Just when you think you’ve witnessed all there is to admire about Sir Kenny Dalglish, another distinguished figure makes a surprising entrance, offering an unexpected twist to the legend’s story.

In a new feature-length documentary chronicling Dalglish’s extraordinary career, audiences are treated to an unexpected cameo by Sir Paul McCartney. This comes in the form of an archival interview conducted during Dalglish’s early days at Anfield, following his departure from Celtic, as he began to rise to stardom.

In the interview, McCartney shares, “Do I have any idols in music? No, I don’t. I’d probably say my idol’s a footballer, actually. Kenny Dalglish. He’s revered as a Liverpudlian, even though he is a Scotsman – and so he should be.”

The documentary is directed by Asif Kapadia, an Academy Award-winning filmmaker renowned for crafting compelling portraits of iconic figures. His acclaimed works include Senna, Maradona, Amy, and Oasis: Supersonic.

For Kapadia, this project is undoubtedly a passion-filled endeavor. As a devoted Liverpool supporter and at 53 years of age, he would have fond memories of watching Dalglish and Ian Rush, whose seemingly telepathic connection on the field led to a cascade of trophies under the legendary stewardship of Bob Paisley.

A new documentary about Sir Kenny Dalglish is a brilliant dive into his life and times 

Dalglish, 74, is one of the greatest figures in the club’s history as a player and manager 

For those of Kapadia’s generation, there is a chance to wallow in nostalgia and remind yourself of what a footballer Dalglish was, a man who could seemingly see pictures quicker on a football pitch 50 years ago than AI would now.

The gauge of how ahead of his time Dalglish actually was is at the beginning of the film, which is being shown in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on October 29 and 30 before its release on Amazon Prime in November: the section devoted to his career at Celtic is a gem.

We might obsess these days about coaches such as Pep Guardiola and how he has reinvented the game but when you have listened to old footage about Jock Stein talking about ‘the wee man’ and how he wanted to best deploy him in his team, you understand again who the visionaries really were.

Dalglish explains: ‘Jock says to me: “You see those three midfielders? They will be behind you. You see those two forwards? They’re ahead of you. Now you see this big space here between them? That’s where you’re going to be.’

There you have it. Dalglish was playing as false nine in the Scottish Premier League 35 years before Guardiola unleashed Lionel Messi in the same position during a Champions League semi-final for Barcelona against Real Madrid with the same devastating impact.

History, essentially, is at the heart of Kapadia’s production. There will, certainly, be viewers who will come away from watching it and think: ‘I knew that already’ – for there is a lot of footage that has been broadcast many times. Blackburn fans, too, will feel shortchanged that their title success in 1994-95 is not covered.

But, crucially, there will be a huge number of viewers aware of who Dalglish is, but don’t appreciate his remarkable story and what exactly he went through in the life-shaping events of Heysel and Hillsborough. Someone watching in 2025 will absolutely say: ‘I didn’t know that.’

And that is what matters. The darkness of 1985 and 1989 forms a huge swathe of the 100-minute production but it is vital that it does – these chapters cannot ever be closed and the need to explain the events around them to a fresh audience is critical.

The documentary takes time to revisit the Hillsborough (pictured) and Heysel tragedies 

Liverpool fan Asif Kapadia has directed the show and is an expert at putting on masterpieces

The documentary brings together input from those who knew him best and even features a surprise appearance from Sir Paul McCartney, who calls Dalglish his ‘idol’ 

Young or old, you will not be able to sit through the Hillsborough section without being consumed by emotion and outrage that something so appalling could be allowed to happen through human irresponsibility. Kapadia, absolutely, hammers that message home.

The input from Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen, the other members of Anfield’s ‘Jock Mafia’, is enlightening, in the same way as Lady Marina, Dalglish’s childhood sweetheart, shines a softer light on their relationship, which began with a trip to the cinema and a bag of fish and chips.

Such moments of lightness are crucial. Yes, tragedy forms a huge part of the Dalglish story but there has been so much more to it – how remarkable that he was the same age as Virgil van Dijk is now when being the Player-Manager who led Liverpool to the League and Cup double in 1986?

As he says himself: ‘I would nae change anything I did.’ Nor would anyone else.