PICK OF TODAY’S TV

MARYLAND, 10.05PM, BBC2

THIS is one of the most powerful, gut-wrenching 25 minutes of television you will see in a long time. Lucy Kirkwood’s 2021 play Maryland — written in just two days in the wake of the horrific murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa — has been adapted into a short film, co-directed by Kirkwood with the acclaimed documentarymaker Brian Hill. Hayley Squires and Zawe Ashton play two women, both called Mary, who arrive at a police station to report a sexual attack, while in the background, a chorus of women — a modern-day version of the Furies of Greek mythology — deliver their stories of assault. Daniel Mays and Justine Mitchell play the police constables dealing with the two Marys’ cases, treating them like just another offence to be processed. ‘I wrote the original play as a howl against the way we have normalised violence against women as something to be accommodated by women themselves, rather than protested by all of us, said Kirkwood. ‘I hope

the film will give new oxygen to that protest, but I wish it was not still such an urgent conversation.’ It’s a loud howl that deserves to be heard — and seen — by all men.