I caught up with some TV tonight by watching the final episodes of the BBC’s Five Daughters TV Drama. Stephen Butchard had a tough task on his hands to to take this sensitive subject interjected with actual TV coverage of the real live incidents and make a watchable TV drama. What a really good job he did.
This was without doubt one of the best home produced TV dramas that I have seen in a number of years. It brought together the circular world of drug addiction and how users raise money to pay for their habit – in this case by prostitution and the risks (fatal in some cases) that the girls take when going out at night.
It really is tough viewing and contains many upsetting scenes as well as contributions from a number of the families involved in this very sad tale.
However, I was glad to see that although these events ripped apart five families, this tragedy has resulted in a number of local projects involving many agencies that between them claim to have almost eradicated drug related prostitution off the streets of Ipswich.
Well done the BBC for tackling a really tough subject and making such a milestone piece of TV drama.
A number of reviews have been written here and here and in case you still want to watch it on the BBC-iPlayer click here.
Beasley's Place 