Four Lives (2022 Writer Neil McKay)

Appropriate Adult, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher.

Dramatized study of killer of young gay men, played by Stephen Merchant in an interesting performance. I'm loving his new lease of life both as a comedic and straight actor. Rufus Jones (actor and writer of Home) good. Sheridan Smith, Michael Jibson (terrible liaison detective), Daniel Ryan, Robert Emms, Jaime Winston, Stephanie Hyam, Leanne Best (Cold Feet, LOD), Samuel Barnett (killer's neighbour; Dirk Gently, The History Boys).

The victims: Jakub Svec, Tim Preston, Leo Flanagan, Paddy Rowan.

The focus is on the inoffensive young men and their determined families; but unfortunately also on the homophobic and listless police force and their appalling mishandling of the evidence and of the victims. The IPCC verdict was not issued until December 2021, holding up the airing of the series. It referred to 'fundamental failings' in the Barking and Dagenham police force, that the case was 'one of the most widespread institutional failures in modern history' and that the Met's actions were, in part, 'driven by homophobia'.