Writer Jimmy McGovern praises ‘brave' BBC for airing child abuse drama

Leader Live

22-07-2025

The Liverpool-born scriptwriter said he thought he 'had' to write Unforgivable to tell the story – based on an account he heard from a child psychologist – of a convicted sex offender who revealed details of his own abuse after being released from prison.
He said that as he was writing it he doubted whether it would ever be aired.
The 75-year-old told the PA news agency: 'I wanted to get it right, but the thing that bothered me most was, why am I doing this? Because I have a very strong feeling that the BBC will never do this, because it was not only condemning child abuse, it was trying to understand all the issues about child abuse, and that's not easy for people to take.
'I thought the BBC would say no, but they haven't said no.
'I know that they've been subject to attack at the moment, but it is an extraordinarily brave organisation at times, particularly over drama.'
McGovern said as he wrote it he worried about backlash 'more over this particular project than any other' from people who may think it offered a sympathetic view of child abusers.
He said: 'People are more than the crime they have committed, aren't they? There is more to any criminal than the crime they committed.
'So, it's finding that within the child abuser that helps you tell the story.
'He is an interesting character. We do not make it easy for him at all.
'The crime of abuse is an appalling crime and should be punished as an appalling crime. We do not make it easy for for our abuser at all, but we do delve into aspects of his life.'
The writer said he understood the public reaction to child abusers – having once driven around Liverpool's Sefton Park with a neighbour trying to find a man they believed had tried to touch their children.
'All we knew was the man who did it had blue running shorts on,' he said.
'We went, we toured around Sefton Park looking for a man, any man, in blue running shorts and we were going to kill him. Thank God we did not find such a man.
'I excuse myself by saying probably most men would have reacted that way.'
McGovern said he always wanted actor Bobby Schofield, who appeared in the writer's prison series Time, to play the role of abuser Joe Mitchell.
He said: 'He's tremendous in it. He doesn't curry favour at all. What he does do is he plays self-disgust really well and he is a man who hates himself.'
The one-off TV film also sees McGovern working with Anna Friel and Anna Maxwell Martin, both of whom he has worked with before.
'It's great to give lines to actors like that, you know. You know they're going to be done well,' he said.
For the first time, he worked with David Threlfall, who McGovern had admired since he had seen him as Frank Gallagher in Shameless.
He said: 'I always saw that as King Lear, because he was just that man in the storm, almost, wasn't he? I think he's an incredible actor.'
Unforgivable will air on BBC Two at 9pm on Thursday and will be available on BBC iPlayer from the same day.