Little Boy Blue

The kind of senseless murder happening all-too-often in communities these days. Sensitive, emotional, top-notch production, writing, directing and acting pulled me into the community and story. Four 45-minute parts totalling three hours, it moves along very quickly and was compelling to watch and get so drawn into this tragedy and investigation.

This mini-series is an emotional rollercoaster. The actors in the British crime dramas are from top to bottom, off the charts good, and this one is just is no different. And this is based on a true story.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

In August 2007, in the car park of The Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, eleven year old Rhys Jones, who was on his way home from football practice, became the most innocent of casualties in a local gang rivalry, dying after being accidentally shot by a bullet meant for someone else. On the eve of promotion, Detective Superintendent Dave Kelly (Stephen Graham) is assigned to lead the investigation into Rhys's death that comes to have a far more profound effect on his professional and home life than he could have imagined. Despite his dogged determination to get justice for Rhys and his parents Mel (Sinead Keenan) and Steve (Brian F.O' Byrne), Kelly encounters a wall of silence from a local community living in fear of the gangs and the repercussions of being labelled a 'grass.'

Ten years on from the case that this TV drama is based on, ITV have chosen to make it into a three part drama detailing the case and how events panned out. There's certainly a lot of meat on the bones to work with, and the film is careful not to sensationalise anything, and tell the case in a sensitive and effecting way. Aside from the already horrifying death of a child, the case grabbed the nations attention also by highlighting what may well be a commonplace truth around the country, of normal, decent, respectable people living alongside those who live by their own rules with no intention of living honestly, and the shocking consequences of what happens when these two worlds sometimes inevitably.

There was no better person for the lead role than Graham, with his natural Scouse background and pretty realistic physical resemblance to the real Dave Kelly. He fits the part pretty effortlessly, but still turns in a reliably great performance, as an increasingly seasoned detective who feels personally affronted by the crime he is investigating, unable to let it go due to the sheer outrageousness and senselessness of it, young men whose need to belong and be part of armies who are willing to endanger and take life for something as stupid as an area code. He is complimented by Keenan and O'Byrne as Rhy's grieving parents, O'Byrne bringing a quiet, bottled up angst as the father, with Keenan an emotional torrent as the mother.

During the film, Mel takes exception to Rhys being described as being 'in the wrong place at the wrong time.' It's a commonly thrown around soundbite, that is rather unintentionally thoughtless in its use. A very lawful world and a very uncivilised world do coexist by each other very unknowingly, and that world can sometimes reach up and bite with the most tragic of results. But it should always be that world that never has any place or any time, rather than the decent one. ****

This is such a well scripted story of such a sad event. It pulls u in and you really go through the emotions. Great cast.

Pretty much every British person watching this already knows what's going to happen... but you'll still be hootin' and a hollerin' as events unfold and the journey to justice is completed. The writing, acting and everything else about this 4-part TV docu-drama is spot on. If you're not familiar with the story you're going to enjoy this even more.

In 2007 an 11-year-old Rhys Jones was walking home from footy practice. As he cut through a pub car-park to get home the boy was fatally shot by a teenage gang member. About eight months later the police finally get their man and this is the story of how it happened.

The writer (Oscar nominee Jeff Pope) has chosen to follow the facts of the case and not allow the emotions of the story to get the better of him. If you're binge- watching this it's three hours long and not a minute is wasted.

As we're watching the story unfold through all the characters on both sides of the law, it's easy to forget that we're looking at something that is very close to what actually happened.

These kinds of 'stories' are the staple of 'conveyer-belt' fictional police procedurals, almost all of which fall well short of this mesmerizing drama. It's as good as 2016's "In Plain Sight" which was another, similar TV 'docu-drama' about the detection and pursuit of a killer.

This is top notch television and I hope the victim's family approves of the way their story has been handled. They had a hand in helping to re-tell their side of this horrible and senseless tragedy so I strongly suspect that they do.

Here's some trivia... Apart from the actual shooting, the drama was filmed in and around Liverpool. The funeral was filmed in the Anglican Cathedral and the minute's applause was filmed during half-time of a match played at Goodison Park. The case itself was filmed at Liverpool Crown Court inside the courtroom where the original trial took place. Pretty spooky, eh?

Excellent and captivating television - proving that British TV CAN do it when they want to!