About Little Boy Blue
Jeff Pope tells James Croot about the effect one child had on him.
From Pierrepoint to Philomena, Jeff Pope has been the creative mind behind some of the most memorable based-on-fact dramas of the past 20 years.
The current head of factual drama at ITV, the 55-year-old Bafta-winner’s latest project looks at the shocking murder of 11-yearold Liverpudlian Rhys Jones in 2007 and the toll the resulting quest for justice took on his family and the police. Here, Pope chats about Little Boy Blue.
What persuaded you this was something you wanted to dramatise?
I’ve got three sons and my middle son was born in the same year as Rhys. So when the murder happened, it had a profound impact on me. It was the idea that your son could go off to sport training and never come home. It was a peculiar sort of horror that it evoked in the public when the crime happened – I remember it very clearly.
I filed it away and then a couple of crucial things happened. One was Dave Kelly, the lead detective retired. He’d had a pretty rough time and he was in a position where he felt he wanted to tell the truth of what happened, warts-and-all. He gave me fantastic insight into exactly what happened and he also introduced me to Melanie and Steve, Rhys’ parents. It was their insight that made it take off in my mind as a project.
But how do you balance a commitment to the truth with creating something compelling for audiences?
It’s a knife edge. You have to ask yourself all along – why are you doing this? The answer can’t just be entertainment.
It has to be beyond that with these types of films, because you’re dealing with a young boy who’s been murdered and his family who have just marked the 10th anniversary of his death.
What were some of the biggest decisions you had to make in terms of finding that balance?
In the first episode it definitely was: How do we deal with Rhys’ murder? I talked through it a lot with Sinead (Keenan, who plays Melanie) and Mel and Steve and we decided we wanted it to be as if you were on Melanie’s shoulder from the moment the coach came around the house saying ‘‘something has happened’’.
Then, in real time, we stay with her as she gets in the car making a frantic journey, phones Steve, only for her phone to run out battery, and then the chaos when she arrives on the scene.
We felt we had to show that – and it’s an incredibly tough watch – in order for people to understand what the rest of the story was about.
Moments like that are why I have, over the years, specialised in telling true stories. Because by definition, you’re going to get something unique because we all behave differently in different situations.
The closer you go into the DNA of the story the more likely you are to find things that are unexpected, surprising or incredibly truthful. That was the process with Melanie during the four or five long sessions we had.
We talked and talked... and gradually the layers were added. I remember her recalling that her niece was a nurse at the hospital and when they said he’d gone, she just said to her, ‘‘they’re saying he’s gone, but go in there and check because he can’t have, he can’t have’’.
You’re heart’s breaking, but you’re thinking, ‘‘I’ve never heard it expressed that way before’’, and it inspired me to want to reflect that moment.
You didn’t film in the areas where the murder took place, but Liverpool is very much a character in the series.
[Filming at Everton Football Club] was one of the most extraordinary days I’ve ever had on a set.
We wanted to recreate the moment where the supporters had a minute’s applause for Rhys.
We asked the Everton chairman Bill Kenwright and he and the club were incredibly welcoming. Then, on social media a week in advance of filming, we asked if supporters could remain in their seats and help us recreate it.
It was an incredibly emotional day. We had 38,000 extras and I don’t think that’s going to happen again in any of our careers.
Speaking of your career, one of the highlights must have been winning a Bafta with Steve Coogan for Philomena.
But in The Trip to Spain, he jokingly describes you as a glorified typewriter. Did you know that was coming?
He did mention it to me before it came out and he actually got really worried about it – so I strung him along for a bit. And then when I saw it, I laughed.
Finally Jeff, what do you look for in a real-life story in order for it to be good candidate for dramatisation?
The first part is what I call the iceberg theory. There’s the bit of the story that we know about – the hook that everyone remembers. Then when you dig into the story and investigate, you find a whole lot more under the surface.
But I guess, more importantly, the thing I’m looking for all the time is what allows the viewer to think ‘‘that could be me’’, so they can put themselves in the position of protagonist. In this instance, it was there in abundance.
The vast majority of adults can understand what it’s like to be a parent. They can have some empathy for Mel and Steve. There are moments when you’re thinking, ‘‘my god that could be my sister, my wife, me’’.
Little Boy Blue screens 8.30pm, Sundays, Rialto Channel.