Critic Reviews
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There is nothing gratuitous, and no sense of the killer being glamorised. This is true-crime drama done as well as it can be.
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Like Anne on ITV this is a quality drama about bereaved mothers fighting for justice for their dead children, the final thing they can do for them.
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Ultimately, Four Lives was an emotive tribute to a mother’s determination to achieve justice for her son. If Merchant’s Port showed us the worst in humanity, Smith’s raw and honest turn ensured the focus was on the young men whose futures were so horrifically stolen.
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n less sensitive hands, a case like this could lend itself to prurience or melodrama, but Neil Mackay’s script and David Blair’s direction deftly avoid these traps. Four Lives doesn’t linger on the crimes themselves, but balances the events leading up to them with the fallout.
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If you go into The Barking Murders with the right frame of mind, it’s a tense and emotional drama about Stephen Port’s victims and their families.
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The drama does a good job of making the victims – Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth, Jack Taylor (portrayed with depth, vigour and sweetness by Tim Preston, Jakub Svec, Leo Flanagan and Paddy Rowan, respectively) – live again. ... Beyond that, and despite the usual great work of Sheridan Smith (as Anthony’s mother, Sarah) and others, the drama never catches fire.