What is it: A gut-wrenching dramatisation of a real murder with a truly powerful message.
Why you’ll love it: It’s not a programme you’ll love, but it will stay with you long after the credits have rolled. Following on from the astonishing Murdered by My Boyfriend and Murdered by My Father (both BBC3), this hour-long drama is the story of 20-year-old Sophie Lancaster (Abigail Lawrie) and her boyfriend, Robert Maltby (Nico Mirallegro). Ten years ago in a park in Bacup, Lancashire, the couple were attacked by a gang of youths because they wore goth clothing. Rob survived his horrific injuries, just. But Sophie was kicked and stamped to death as she tried to defend the man she loved.
This affecting film is the centrepiece for a BBC3 season on identity and demonstrates the passion and intelligent commissioning of a channel that has confounded the budgetary limitations of a move online. Director Paul Andrew Williams (he also directed Murdered by My Boyfriend) and writer Nick Leather put Sophie and Rob’s love story at the heart of the film, romanticising their meeting in a goth club in Lancashire and even showering them with ticker tape as they collide in slo-mo for their first kiss.
It opens with the first bars of Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a fairytale arrangement with twinkling xylophones as the couple are invited to hang out in the park by a young man they bump into in the corner shop. Then all is black, chaos, sirens, the same young man screaming into a mobile, saying she is not breathing, begging the ambulance to hurry. Two bloodied bodies lie on the ground next to the skate ramps. The story that follows, as the tape rewinds to two years before, describes events from Rob’s memory and from extensive research into the case and witness testimony.
From Sophie and Rob’s first meeting, the direction and editing beautifully captures the bond between them and then horribly but effectively contrasts it with what happened that night. A simple and judicious use of flashback gives life to the story I remember reading in the paper a decade ago and thinking was terribly sad, but no more than that.
Rob walks miles in the rain at midnight to get her the last Harry Potter novel, saving his money for it, leaving him without the bus fare home. He paints wings on her back as she grins and laughs. “You’re an angel. You need wings,” he smiles. If it sounds heavy-handed, it isn’t. It’s young love between two outsiders and infused with the joy that comes from finding a fellow traveller. When they are chased by another gang of youths, Rob wants to hide. “Hiding means the idiots win,” she tells him, grinning and inviting him to the pub.
We meet Rob’s desperate, anguished parents at his hospital bedside, unable to comprehend what has happened to their son. Sally Lindsay, in particular, is heartbreaking as Rob’s mum as she tentatively approaches the bed and asks, “Can I touch him?” before seeing his horrific injuries and the print of a boot sunken into his face. She breaks at this and so did I.
The focus then switches to Michael Gorman, the young man who first got talking to the couple before inviting them to the park. It is him we can hear after the opening titles, pleading with the emergency operator. His terror of repercussions sees him close ranks with his friends until the determination of DC Steph Farley (Chanel Cresswell) begins to ease the truth out of him.
Every shot is framed beautifully, from the otherworldly quality of Rob and Sophie’s romance to the sullen skies and views of “our town from that hill” that punctuate the tragedy unfolding below.
Ten minutes before the end, the events of that night, having been hinted at and half-seen in flashback, are played out in full and it’s appalling. You have to endure it because it is important to know what these thugs stooped to as Sophie held her boyfriend, trying to protect him from their kicks.
But the ending is hopeful and honours the young woman who wouldn’t bow down to vicious bullies. Rob leaves hospital, dressed again in the goth gear that marked him out as different in the first place, and walks through Bacup market listening to Placebo. Not hiding any more.
Where: BBC3 on iPlayer.
Length: One hour-long episode.
Standout episode: In every way, it’s a one-off.
If you liked Murdered for Being Different, watch: Murdered by My Boyfriend and Murdered by My Father (both BBC3 on iPlayer).
