Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
A LAW UNTO HIMSELF
Martin Freeman plays a police officer accused of breaking the rules – with devastating consequences – in A Confession
Elaine O’Callaghan is enjoying a quiet weekend away in a country hotel when her peace of mind is shattered forever. A phonecall from her son, Liam, informs her that her 22-year- old daughter Sian hasn’t come home from a night out in her home town of Swindon. What follows is every parent’s worst nightmare: a frantic search for a missing child.
These real-life events, which occurred in 2011, are the basis for ITV’s searing six-part series A Confession. The dramatisation begins as a thriller, before morphing into a rather different story.
Initially, it’s about the police, led by Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher (Sherlock’s Martin Freeman), searching for Sian. And – if she’s been taken but not killed – for the person who’s abducted her. As the hours pass, her family makes a television appeal for her safe return and the police pursue a series of leads.
To his dismay, Fulcher is told by civilian police officer Debs Peach that his old friend Ray Hayward, also a policeman, is a suspect. Others in the frame include Mr Barlow, an eccentric living in Savernake Forest close to where Sian’s mobile phone signal was last detected, Sian’s boyf r iend Kevin and a local taxi driver, Christopher Halliwell.
Eventually, the evidence points to one culprit – and here the dra
ma changes course. ‘It becomes about the way Steve Fulcher conducts the inquiry,’ says Martin. ‘He’s still hoping Sian can be found alive so tries to save her by questioning the suspect without cautioning him, has a conversation with him at a remote location, in an effort to make him reveal where he’s been keeping Sian.
‘Fulcher believes he’s doing the right thing, that he’s interpreting the Police And Criminal Evidence Act correctly. Others later disagree.’
Initially, as happened in real life, Fulcher is seen as a hero. He not only gets a confession to the murder of Sian but also to the killing of another young woman, Becky Godden. ‘But the fact that those confessions
were not made under caution proves to be Fulcher’s undoing,’ explains the drama’s writer Jeff Pope.
The series goes on to explore the devastating consequences of the choices Fulcher has made – and how he and the victims’ families cope with them. At one point, Becky Godden’s mother Karen, played by Imelda Staunton, takes up Fulcher’s cause, while also attempting to secure justice for her daughter. ‘I was so shocked when I read what happened to the real Steve Fulcher, and so was Karen,’ says Imelda. ‘It’s why she’s campaigned for a change in the law for years. It’s also why A Confession tells such an important story and why it may start a debate.’