As the BBC placed this repeat of their factual 2017 programme on the serial killer Stephen Port directly after the final episode of their 3-part dramatisation of his horrendous crimes "Four Lives", it was irresistible not to watch it. There probably isn't too much to say about it other than it appeared to me that the factual retelling of his deviant actions was pretty close to what really happened, which of course is as it should be.
The programme did tease out one or two minor aspects of Port's upbringing and background (we learn for example, that he was bullied at school and worked for many years as a chef, this latter leading to the heavily circulated shot of him grinning at the camera in the background of a previous episode of the BBC's own "Celebrity Masterchef"), made good use of graphics to show just how close to his flat the sites were where he placed his victim's bodies and showed in greater detail the CCTV footage of him walking off with his final victim and the interview footage with him once in custody.
What it certainly did was give the families and friends of the victims the opportunity to openly and heavily criticise the local police handling of the case, which is again exactly as it should be. Like the TV version though, it seemed too to stop short of naming hardly any, if any of the members of the force who so let them down. Indeed the point is forcibly made that if the police procedures had been duly rigorous, the succeeding murders to the first could all have been prevented.
In passing too, I might say that for the most part all the actors in the new drama bore strong resemblances to their real-life counterparts, which again is as it should be. One thing the drama didn't appear to reflect however was the collective anger at the perceived homophobia behind the police's lack of energy, competence and commitment to treating these deaths as they should have.
It seems as if the publicity generated by "Four Lives" is forcing the police to look again at the systemic mishandling of this case and perhaps at last some accountability will emerge for the police staff who so let these obviously devastated families down. Through watching this programme as a supplement to the TV series, I sincerely hope it does.
The programme did tease out one or two minor aspects of Port's upbringing and background (we learn for example, that he was bullied at school and worked for many years as a chef, this latter leading to the heavily circulated shot of him grinning at the camera in the background of a previous episode of the BBC's own "Celebrity Masterchef"), made good use of graphics to show just how close to his flat the sites were where he placed his victim's bodies and showed in greater detail the CCTV footage of him walking off with his final victim and the interview footage with him once in custody.
What it certainly did was give the families and friends of the victims the opportunity to openly and heavily criticise the local police handling of the case, which is again exactly as it should be. Like the TV version though, it seemed too to stop short of naming hardly any, if any of the members of the force who so let them down. Indeed the point is forcibly made that if the police procedures had been duly rigorous, the succeeding murders to the first could all have been prevented.
In passing too, I might say that for the most part all the actors in the new drama bore strong resemblances to their real-life counterparts, which again is as it should be. One thing the drama didn't appear to reflect however was the collective anger at the perceived homophobia behind the police's lack of energy, competence and commitment to treating these deaths as they should have.
It seems as if the publicity generated by "Four Lives" is forcing the police to look again at the systemic mishandling of this case and perhaps at last some accountability will emerge for the police staff who so let these obviously devastated families down. Through watching this programme as a supplement to the TV series, I sincerely hope it does.
