Four Lives

Four lives tells the real life story of the horrific murders of 4 young men on the very cusp of thier lives, & where the utterly shocking police incompetnce & failure to investigate, which lead to more lives being cruelly snatched away.

Stephen Merchant is utterly chilling as murderer Stephen Port. His performance is spine tingling yet almost muted making the whole persona seem eerie & sinister. Sheriden Smith as the mother of Anthony Walgate (Sarah Sac) is highly emotive & brought a tear to my eye as the mothers that lost their sons are my age & made me realise this could have happened to my son. So her performance gave me a personal connection. The supporting cast are also excellent, where I could find no fault. This deeply upsetting story is told with tact & a certain grace which I appreciate & respect, however I feel the side of the story dealing with the incompetent police investigation was slightly lacking & needed more depth. The blatent homophobia displayed by the police during the real investigation was disgusting & staggering but this is not touched upon untill part 3 of the drama.

Overall this is a great drama though & highly compelling with terrific performances. The pacing is smooth, direction is almost flawless & the photography is superb. We can also take comfort that the real killer, Stephen Port is now safely locked away on a whole life term so he can no longer terrorise the Gay community & law abiding society. Thank goodness!

8 stars for all the cast & crew. X.

Having had personal experience with police and liaison officers and investigating police this perfectly portrays the frustration of today when dealing with them. You'd like to think lessons would be learnt but no. They're a frustrating bunch with no sympathy, empathy or common sense. Scary when they're in such positions. But make no mistake the portrayal is very real.

Sheridan is wonderful as always. Seems to be something about her managing to play the rough housewife so well. Remember The Moorside?

Merchant is equality as mesmerising even if he doesn't say a lot. Check out them eyes. Hate to know what the real bloke is like.

The sadness of the ending brought me to tears.

Compelling watch.

Grim true life crime told sympathetically with credible performances all round, of four family's fight for justice. Sheriden Smith and Stephen Merchant both looking very comfortable in their roles. You're left with equal measures of anger at the perpetrator of the horrific crimes and the incredible incompetence of the police.

The show four lives is unfortunately based on true preventable events which I knew before going into watching it , I am truly sorry for the families and victims than ever before.

The show is accurate and very well acted, especially regarding Sheridan Smiths performance which I have no doubt she'll win many awards for!

I hope the tv show brings more light to unjust crimes not just in the UK but everywhere !

If u have the time to spare watch this TV show and please support the LGBT community.

Thank you .

This is a really well-made story of how four young men were murdered by same man after meeting up through a gay dating website. It's a tale very much of the time we live in. It seems to me there's so many young people who are prepared to just meet complete strangers through social media, without really thinking of the potential consequences.

Sheridan Smith plays the mother of the first victim and as always she puts on a first class performance. As far as I'm aware this was Stephen merchants first straight role and deserves praise for the way he portrayed the evil sadistic killer, who claimed his innocence right up to the end. Well worth a watch particularly if like me you were previously unaware of this story. 8/10.