A fit of Peake over Rochdale scandal...
MAXINE Peake has told of her dismay at the “mind-blowing” lack of care shown to the vulnerable girls who were victims in the Rochdale sex grooming scandal.
Next week a three-part BBC1 drama, shown on three consecutive nights, will tell of the awful abuse that took place from 2008 to 2012.
In Three Girls, Maxine plays brave sexual health worker Sara Rowbotham, who repeatedly voiced her concerns to police over the abuse of underage girls by groups of middle-aged Asian men.
She was repeatedly ignored and, after whistleblowing, was axed from her job by Rochdale council.
Maxine, who met Sara to research the role, says: “No one seemed at all interested in helping these young girls who were in desperate situations. The lack of care, I felt, was mind-blowing.”
Now the actress says she is proud to be bringing the real-life story to people’s living rooms. “I thought it was a story that needed to be told about a swathe of society that have constantly been ignored and bullied.”
The drama follows the devastating stories of sisters Ruby and Amber and their friend Holly (the names have been changed).
All three, aged 13 to 15, were abused over several years and all three became pregnant. Lisa Riley plays the mother of Ruby and Amber, while Paul Kaye and Jill Halfpenny take the roles of Holly’s parents. Lesley Sharp plays campaigning detective Maggie Oliver.
The producers found police failures stemmed from a lack of respect for the 47 working-class victims.
Director Philippa Lowthorpe says: “It felt to us like institutional neglect for certain strata of society. These girls were like riff-raff, undeserving poor. They were not deemed worthy of care. That was the overriding thing we learned.”
Writer Nicole Taylor says the drama has the support of the victims and their families, who endured years of not being listened to.
She says: “I took on the project because I had a burning question: how can it be that if the law says you can’t consent to sex if you’re under 16, there’s a whole class of person to whom that doesn’t apply, a category of person in society exempt from that protection?”