The Daily Telegraph

Restrained return to the case that left a scar on Britain

- Anita Singh

In many ways, Stephen (ITV) is a straightfo­rward police procedural. A cold case murder taken on by an old school copper. There are boxes of evidence to be sifted through, forensics to be re-examined, witnesses to be re-interviewe­d. We will follow the case through to trial in the hope that a grieving family finally gets some justice.

You have seen all of this before on TV – particular­ly on ITV, which now turns out true-crime dramas at a rate of knots – but this case, of course, is different. The Stephen Lawrence murder is not just one family’s tragedy. It left a scar on Britain. The Macpherson report’s finding of institutio­nal racism within the Metropolit­an Police was a landmark moment. Stephen’s name is one we will never forget.

Stephen is a follow-up to Paul Greengrass’s Bafta-winning 1999 film

The Murder of Stephen Lawrence.

That seems like a long time to wait for a sequel but, as we find out at the start of this new drama, the Lawrences had waited 13 years from their son’s murder to the start of this particular investigat­ion (there had been several investigat­ions and one

public inquiry in that time, yet no conviction­s).

Writers Frank and Joe Cottrellbo­yce have chosen to focus on DCI Clive Driscoll. He was the detective who took up the case in 2006, finding evidence that his predecesso­rs had either overlooked or chosen to ignore. Driscoll is played by Steve Coogan, which takes some getting used to. Coogan is one of those actors who has played a particular character – in this case, Alan Partridge – so brilliantl­y that it is very difficult to shift them from your mind (if you have ever watched Peep Show, you will have the same problem watching Paterson Joseph in Vigil over on BBC One). But the strength of the story soon gets us over that hump.

The writers treat the case with the respect it deserves, and don’t mess about giving Driscoll a troubled home life or a series of quirks or anything else that TV detectives are lumbered with in most crime dramas. Playing the piano for the residents of a nursing home in his spare time is as far as that goes. Instead, he sets out to solve the case methodical­ly using what he calls “common sense coppering”. When a colleague breaks off from banter about the football to sneer about Stephen: “What makes him so special? It’s embarrassi­ng how we kowtow to that family…” Driscoll doesn’t argue but quietly sets him straight. That sense of restraint runs through the drama itself.

Hugh Quarshie, who appeared in the 1999 film, reprises his role as Neville Lawrence. Sharlene Whyte plays Doreen. By 2006, the Lawrences were long divorced. Both actors convey the pain of losing a son in different ways; Doreen channellin­g her anger into action and nursing an understand­able hostility towards the police, Neville quietly wrestling with his anger and asking his pastor: “What does it mean to turn the other cheek when your son has been murdered? What does anything mean after that?”

The failings of the initial investigat­ion are laid out for all to see. The writers used Driscoll’s memoir as material for the script, and he really did discover the Stephen Lawrence case files gathering dust in an empty police station that was ready for the property developers to move in. Every authority involved in the case is defensive and unhelpful. Driscoll’s boss, although this is not made abundantly clear on screen, is Cressida Dick; she is played with a certain ambiguity by Sian Brooke, allowing Driscoll to re-investigat­e the case but not exactly falling over herself with enthusiasm.

There are three episodes in total and it’s unclear how much screen time will be given to the suspects, seen in this first hour only in a surveillan­ce video. As Driscoll told his team: “This is not a whodunit – we know who done it.”

Because Stephen’s murder has become so symbolic, the details of the attack – an unprovoked, racist assault at a bus stop – have faded. In his efforts to prove that this was not a “brief ” assault, as per the original police notes, Driscoll asked two of his men to recreate it. A black junior officer played Stephen. It was the most powerful moment in the drama, bringing home the barbarity of the murder. Truly, Stephen is a testament to the fortitude of the Lawrences, and the determinat­ion of Clive Driscoll, to see this case through.

Stephen ★★★★

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 ??  ?? Hugh Quarshie, Steve Coogan & Sharlene Whyte in the ITV drama ‘Stephen’
Hugh Quarshie, Steve Coogan & Sharlene Whyte in the ITV drama ‘Stephen’

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