A powerful weapon against the politics of hatred
There aren’t many dramas that pack as solid an emotional punch as Mother’s Day (BBC Two). Even fewer leave you appreciating so keenly the power of finding lasting good in the most tragic human experiences. Mother’s Day drew two powerful stories out of the same event: the bomb attack on Warrington by the IRA in March 1993, in which two children were murdered – three-year-old Johnathan Ball and 13-year-old Tim Parry. The shocking fragmentary opening seconds captured the indiscriminate deadliness of the attack; the scenes that followed made manifest, through the eyes of parents Colin (Daniel Mays) and Wendy Parry (Anna Maxwell Martin), the horror of realising their beloved son was one of the victims – and their struggle to deal with the grief that followed.
On the other side of the Irish Sea another mother was so outraged by the killings that she felt compelled to do something about it. By calling for a meeting in Dublin to protest against the deaths, Susan Mchugh (Vicky Mcclure) ignited what eventually grew into the most effective grassroots peace campaign in the 30-year history of the Troubles.
From these two intensely emotional experiences, Bafta-winning writer Nick Leather and director Fergus O’brien fashioned a story that was both heartbreakingly sad and winningly uplifting. Maxwell Martin and Mays gave performances of exceptional depth and power: she a mother struggling to grieve privately for her lost child; he a father convinced some public good must be mined from so senseless a loss. Mcclure was hugely sympathetic, too, as an extraordinary “ordinary” woman determined to make her voice heard.
Mother’s Day acknowledged but never get bogged down in Northern Ireland’s complex sectarianism, sticking to its message of transcending the politics of hatred. There can be no doubt that in giving a voice to the silent majority in Ireland disgusted by the blood-letting of the Troubles, Mchugh and the Parrys exposed just how little support the men of violence had in the communities they claimed to represent. They added a vital public impetus to negotiations that led the IRA to declare a ceasefire months later – a first step towards lasting peace.
This was a fine, emotionally absorbing drama that succeeded as a commemoration of individual courage and a wider affirmation of just how much can be achieved when people stand up together against violence and terrorism.
Traumatised families were also the subject of Married to a Paedophile (Channel 4). There was little in the way of redemption here. Just pain and a challenge to understand. Director Colette Camden’s film dramatised real-life recordings of two women whose husbands were convicted of downloading sexual images of children, with actors lip-synching their voices.
What emerged were very different responses to much the same scenario. Kate (Sinead Keenan) had broken up with her husband, and father of two grown-up daughters, in the wake of his conviction. Devastated, mortified, fending off the jibes of neighbours, she was desperately seeking to rebuild her life. Her husband, also interviewed, had avoided prison but lost everything (including his job as a teacher) and was living 170 miles away. Over the course of a year, the most painful – of many – moments recorded was between Kate and her daughter, an awkward, politely fractious conversation exposing variant attitudes to forgiveness and personal responsibility.
More complex still was the response of Helen (Abigail Mckern), whose husband of 44 years was about to be released after a lengthy sentence – the images he downloaded having been, in her words, “in the most extreme category”. Helen was startlingly upbeat, looking forward to “starting our lives again”.
Seven months after his release her loyalty had been stretched as far as it would go by the realisation that her husband “never really accepted what happened”. Forced to choose between him and her grandchildren, she chose them and, to an even greater extent, herself. “I feel free,” she admitted on revealing that they were separated.
This well made, well performed film was tough viewing. Why two loved husbands and fathers would commit such crimes remained perplexing. But there could be no doubting the devastating, and ongoing, pain and distress wrought on their families as a result.