Award-winning screenwriter Jimmy McGovern on his latest drama, Unforgivable

With a cast led by Bobby Schofield, Anna Maxwell Martin and Anna Friel, Unforgivable dives deep into themes of guilt, trauma, and recovery.

Transcript

00:00Award-winning screenwriter Jamie McGovern is no stranger to tackling the toughest subjects

00:06and his latest BBC drama, Unforgivable, is no exception.

00:12The idea was sparked when McGovern received a letter from a woman who worked with sex offenders.

00:17That conversation stayed with him and eventually inspired his new drama.

00:22She told me a story and it was about a young man

00:27who was a child abuser whom she was treating.

00:32And he found out or had confirmed, I can't remember exactly what now,

00:39that as a boy he too was abused.

00:43Set in his hometown of Liverpool, the fictional drama follows the Mitchell family

00:47shattered by the devastating aftermath of sexual abuse committed by one of their own.

00:52I like to think they'll say to themselves, I've learned something there.

00:58With a cast led by Bobby Schofield, Anna Maxwell-Martin and Anna Friel,

01:03the drama dives deep into themes of guilt, trauma and the long road to recovery.

01:09It's a thing I always like.

01:10I always like a film to be filmed in Liverpool, if it's mine.

01:14Sometimes it can't be, for all kinds of reasons, but if it can be, yes, it ought to be filmed here,

01:22because the city is absolutely stunningly beautiful.

01:25And the most important thing is it puts quite technical jobs.

01:33It gives scousers access to technical jobs, and from those technical jobs, access to money.

01:40The show confronts some difficult truths.

01:43Jimmy told us why he thinks it's important for people to watch it.

01:47I think the subject should be approached with compassion and intelligence and understanding.

01:55I'm not saying go easy on child abusers.

01:58You know, lock them up.

01:59You know, they have to be locked up.

02:00It's an enormous crime, and you have to pay the price of that crime.

02:05You have to go to prison.

02:06You know, but that doesn't say we do not treat the subject with compassion and intelligence and understanding,

02:14you know, and still be as tough as we are, you know.

02:18McGovern said he was very lucky to have started his TV career on Brookside.

02:24I was learning the job.

02:25I'd never worked in TV before in my life, but neither had anybody else on that show.

02:30And I saw people acquiring skills there, you know, learning the job.

02:34For the first six months, Brookside was terrible, and then it got a bit better and a bit better and a bit better.

02:40That's because people were learning the jobs, could do the jobs properly, you know.

02:43And many of those people now have become stalwarts in the television industry, you know.

02:48It's great to have seen that, great to have been part of that, you know.

02:53It tells a deeply human story from multiple perspectives,

02:55asking whether it's ever possible to move forward after such devastation.