This is appalling!

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Dave the Smeghead

Über Member
This could be career suicide for Alistair McGowan.

Personally not something I would want to go and see, but equally I don't want to see The Jeremy Kyle Show, TOWIE, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, the Voice or anything else like that so you know what? I don't watch them! I don't preach to those that do and wouldn't presume to (I do just think they are generally brain dead morons - I just don't tell them - not that I am concerned in any way - just they wouldn't understand my half of the argument)
 

Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
This could be career suicide for Alistair McGowan.

Personally not something I would want to go and see, but equally I don't want to see The Jeremy Kyle Show, TOWIE, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, the Voice or anything else like that so you know what? I don't watch them! I don't preach to those that do and wouldn't presume to (I do just think they are generally brain dead morons - I just don't tell them - not that I am concerned in any way - just they wouldn't understand my half of the argument)

Neither do I watch things like that, but watching an actor commiting career suicide?? Worth seeing!! :laugh:
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
Springtime for Hitler

We do seem to have lots of "entertainment" based on victims. Sweeny Todd, although fictional seems rather in bad taste with song and dance routines while dispatching victims. There was some rather horrid thing on TV at the weekend about DNA fingerprinting based on a true case. Surely the victims family is still around.

On from there we have lots of crimes turned into films, like the great train robbery and McVicar which I think were both written or at least had input from the criminals themselves profiteering from their crime.

I feel people should have the freedom to produce the art they wish to produce but really the public could be a bit more selective in what they pay to see.

Then of course it is OK to do what you want if you are Michael Jackson and settle out of court. You still get your music played.
Slightly off topic but I was one of the @ 5000 men tested in the Linda Mann/Dawn Ashworth murders and the guy who killed them was not caught by his DNA, he was caught because the workmate who took the test for him spoke about it in a pub called the Clarenden in Leicester and this was overheard and reported to the Police. I wonder if this will come out in pt2.
 

AndyRM

XOXO
Location
North Shields
This could be career suicide for Alistair McGowan.

Personally not something I would want to go and see, but equally I don't want to see The Jeremy Kyle Show, TOWIE, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, the Voice or anything else like that so you know what? I don't watch them! I don't preach to those that do and wouldn't presume to (I do just think they are generally brain dead morons - I just don't tell them - not that I am concerned in any way - just they wouldn't understand my half of the argument)

It won't be.

The gulf between this play and the programmes you've highlighted is vast.
 

Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
Slightly off topic but I was one of the @ 5000 men tested in the Linda Mann/Dawn Ashworth murders and the guy who killed them was not caught by his DNA, he was caught because the workmate who took the test for him spoke about it in a pub called the Clarenden in Leicester and this was overheard and reported to the Police. I wonder if this will come out in pt2.

Ah, ok, but it did help eliminate the prime suspect (who admitted to the murders for some reason) at a time when such processes were unheard of. Right?
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
Ah, ok, but it did help eliminate the prime suspect (who admitted to the murders for some reason) at a time when such processes were unheard of. Right?
Yes, but the police 'interview. techniques were pretty brutal. If what happened to my mates brother, who was subjected to them despite being at home with his family (not believed by the cops at the time) happened to the lad who did eventually confess then I'm not surprised that he did.
 

Hitchington

Lovely stuff
Location
That London
This all boils down to the "how soon is too soon" question. Personally I don't have a problem, but understand why people may feel uneasy about it coming only 3 years after the exposure. But art is meant to challenge and this play looks like it will investigate the dark side of humanity and one of this country's most prolific serial criminals. I'm quite certain it won't be titillating, or an affectionate portrait of the creepy pedo rapist.
 
True, but that 'horrid' thing to which you refer was just as much the story of how an unrelated scientific discovery gradually developed into the meeting between Science and Police work and the forensic police investigations we have today.
It followed the first (admittedly unfortunate) cases where it was used as well as what the Scientists did at Leicester University to create the intial breakthrough of being able to record everyone's individual DNA, to develop what had originally been meant as little more than a paternity test and then help the Police after being asked, to apply it to work it had never been intended for, with clear success!

In terms of the number of dangerous people who otherwise would probably still be walking the streets, but instead have been put behind bars, as well as those who have been proven innocent over the past 30 years, I see it as anything but 'horrid'. It changed so much, regardless of how accurate the dramatisation may or may not be!

Oh, and I doubt they would have done it without the permission of the families, do you? :rolleyes:
Surely even they can see the good that came out of it. Yes, I bet they wished it had happened another way, but, it didn't.

You post does highlight a very good point, in that the story was perhaps more about the DNA discovery than the individual crime and victim. Similarly stories can tell of landmark cases or miscarriages of justice.
Personally I do not really like watching anything of that sort. I did watch Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but did not like some scenes. I guess it is down to what you see as entertainment, and I do not wish to have anyone dictate that for us.
Beyond that there is the reality of a factual case and often the victims or their families.
I think often the answer is to turn it into a similar story with fictional characters. That may then not make it such an ordeal for the victims.
 

Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
Yes, but the police 'interview. techniques were pretty brutal. If what happened to my mates brother, who was subjected to them despite being at home with his family (not believed by the cops at the time) happened to the lad who did eventually confess then I'm not surprised that he did.

Yeah the Police were a bit.... Err, rough and ready in the first episode until they realised what they had, or at least, the chief investigator did anyway.
 

Dave the Smeghead

Über Member
It won't be.

The gulf between this play and the programmes you've highlighted is vast.

I wasn't really comparing merely expressing that if there is something I don't want to watch for whatever reason I don't watch it.
I don't watch the programmes listed as I think they are c*ap, boring and generally sh*t. I wouldn't tell anyone else not to watch them if they enjoy that sort of thing.
Similarly I wouldn't want to watch a play about an old time celebrity especially knowing what allegations have now been made against him. However, if someone does that is their perogative.
I believe that there would likely be so much bad press surrounding this play if it goes ahead that any actor playing the lead may have problems finding work afterwards. Incidentally I do understand how fickle the media and public can be......
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
Yeah the Police were a bit.... Err, rough and ready in the first episode until they realised what they had, or at least, the chief investigator did anyway.
The TV 'dramatisation' portrayal doesn't even come close to what Geoff's brother was put through, despite the fact that he was at home with both his parents.
At the time family members were not believed as an 'alibi'.
 
The TV 'dramatisation' portrayal doesn't even come close to what Geoff's brother was put through, despite the fact that he was at home with both his parents.
At the time family members were not believed as an 'alibi'.

Not excusing violence, but taking alibis as Gospel truth is never going to happen.

In many cases the family, friends or workmates will provide an alibi or other proof that is false. This needs to be checked and investigated. Take the example above

Slightly off topic but I was one of the @ 5000 men tested in the Linda Mann/Dawn Ashworth murders and the guy who killed them was not caught by his DNA, he was caught because the workmate who took the test for him spoke about it in a pub called the Clarenden in Leicester and this was overheard and reported to the Police. I wonder if this will come out in pt2.
 
If it is a documentary or book about Saville and the system that propped him up, thats quite understandable. People are still looking for answers.

A play is a different kettle of fish. A play construct for an evil character never does come out well and just opens up old wounds. Imagine a play about a serial pedophile - how does that work. Will the actor receive rave reviews, get nominated for an award, will there be a long queues and sell-out performances, etc.

A play about the holocaust though an evil event however can work in a play as its portrays a dark side of mankind but a Saville play though dark side of mankind does not seem to same.
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
Not excusing violence, but taking alibis as Gospel truth is never going to happen.

In many cases the family, friends or workmates will provide an alibi or other proof that is false. This needs to be checked and investigated. Take the example above
All I know is that it left one totally innocent 15yr old lad quite traumatised for a couple of years and he wasn't the only one they took in for 'questioning'. :cursing:
It also made Enderby and Narborough a very strange place to live until they caught Colin Pitchfork, no man under 30 was above suspicion until we had been tested and then everybody still got 'funny looks' if they were walking along on their own (or cycling)
 
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