The good shepherd
BROKEN BBC One, Tuesday, 9pm
SEAN Bean stars as Father Michael Kerrigan, a Catholic priest presiding over a northern urban parish, in Jimmy McGovern’s new landmark six-part drama.
Modern, maverick, and reassuringly flawed, Fr Michael is a man who must be confidante, counsellor and confessor to a community struggling to reconcile its beliefs with the realities of daily life in contemporary Britain.
After Mass, Fr Michael meets Christina Fitzsimmons (Anna Friel), a mother of three who works at the local betting shop and is saving money for her daughter’s First Communion.
But when her attendance in church sparks an unfortunate chain of events, she is left with no way to feed her children or keep a roof over their heads.
Pushed to the edge when tragedy strikes, Christina makes a desperate plan to alleviate her situation. Will she go through with it, or can Fr Michael – suspicious that all may not be as it seems – offer the family a lifeline?
Elsewhere, Fr Michael visits his mother and brothers, sparking memories of his childhood – and revealing that he is a man with secret struggles of his own.
Writer Jimmy McGovern says: “One of the huge advantages of telling a story about a Catholic priest is Confession, where a person will walk into the room and tell a priest the absolute truth – and the viewer will know it’s the absolute truth, because it’s Confession.
“It’s also really interesting to explore the clash between the soul and the body. Between principles and practicalities. We all know what we should do – you know what the code you should abide by says, but the practicalities sometimes mean you have to divert from that. That’s what episode one is all about. Christina (Anna Friel) knows what she’s doing is wrong, but the practicality is she’s got to feed her kids.
“I’ve also spoken to so many wonderful priests on Merseyside and I wanted to write a drama about a priest who’s a good man trying to do the right thing to reflect that.”
Sean Bean adds: “Fr Michael is the parish priest for the particular small town where Broken takes place. He’s embedded in the community amongst the people who live there, and he has an interesting relationship with many of the characters that you see across the series.
“He’s fighting an uphill battle with quite a few of them, as to them he represents an organisation, a religion, that has not really lived up to their or their loved ones’ expectations in the past. This means some are reluctant to have anything to do with him and don’t believe in what he believes in.
“Then there are others who see him as a figure of respect and go to him for advice when they’ve noone else to turn to – it’s a real mix.
“Fr Michael therefore has to adapt to each character as he sees them. In a productive way, he understands that there’s a certain kind of negativity towards the priesthood and towards religion in general, so it’s not a simple job for him to find his way through this mini battlefield of how people regard him as a priest. He does his best to accommodate and approach them in a way that is very honest.
“It’s a community that has mixed feelings about religion these days, which I think is representative of our country as a whole.
“He’s very wellmeaning and he’s also someone who is carrying a lot of sadness, grief and guilt – and very horrific memories of the past.”