Jimmy McGovern's Accused

[ClaraDeLaNoche]

Well that was cheery.

I'm with you Colley. What has this series added to my life? Nothing but despair.

Plus would you really bring the kids for a day out to the courts?

Pretty clunky scripts too and the stories are just too melodramatic. I only watch it because somehow he manages to get fantastic actors involved.

It's compelling, somehow.

So glad this one didn't end on a completely grim note.

I think I'm done with them. It seems to affect me in a really negative way and really disturb me. It's probably what he intends to do but I don't watch tv to feel like this.

I only joined this series at the end, tonight! Were the others linked in any way or were they all stand alone stories? Yes, agree rape scene was horrific but overall I thought it was a really high quality drama. And that it was nice to see John Bishop doing "understated", rather than being his usual shouty self.

I was unconvinced by this one. I thought that Anna Maxwell Martin was wonderful but ddn't like John Bishop.

Would there have been that much discussion abou Stephen's death at her trial??

How was her rape allegation investigated? Surely a prison governor would have had to report such an allegation to the police?

Anna MM was brill but by Christ it was depressing, I'm glad that was the last one.

My DD walked out during the rape scene. It was gratuitous and actually unnecessary to the plot.

Agree with others - this last one was very implausible and not a patch on some of the other eps

I thought the first one very good,the second not that great & the last two quite good. Depressing though,although I do quite fancy John Bishop.

The kids were there because presumably their mother had been in custody pending trial and they would have wanted to see her.

I thought the acting by the female lead was mesmerising. Hideous rape scene, I actually gasped out loud in horror and had to turn away. I thought it captured the powerless-ness of the victim and the meaningless-ness of the her supposed authority very well. And the end of the day, whether you are "in charge" or not, it was her strngth versus his and he won. Interesting reaction post the act by the perpetrator though.

Understandable, but frustrating that someone in a job related to the force didn't go and do a rape kit.

I thought John Bishop was ok.

'I thought it captured the powerless-ness of the victim and the meaningless-ness of the her supposed authority very well'

I agree Thegoddessblossom - she was fantastic. How she lay and trembled and seemed to go into shock - so chilling. Her reaction was interesting too - I wasn't sure if she was going to use her baton to cave his head in, I probably would have cheered if she had. I thought the scene showed the psychological nature of the attack well, with the disgusting comments he made to her.

Overall though, I can't help agreeing with LineRunner that the scene was gratuitous and unnecessary. Jimmy McGovern has form for including rape scenes in his work and they have always left me feeling uneasy - apart from finding the scene horrible to watch, I've always found that it didn't sit particularly well with the rest of the story.

I couldn't stand the rape scene. It made me uneasy thinking that there were probably some perverts watching and getting a kick out of it.

Oh Christ FrothyOM, I hadn't thought of that You would have to be a proper sicko to get a kick out of something like that, I can't even imagine how anyone could find it anything other than sickening.

That's exactly why I hate watching any rape scenes really - because I know that some people view them as sex scenes and are titillated by them.

I met Jame Ferman once when he was chairman of the British Board of Film Classification and he said that this was always in his mind when watching films (we were talking about a scene in Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer) especially with the modern ability to record and replay, and replay in slow mo ....

Bloody interesting conversation, actually.

Just watched the first two on I player. I really thought sue and Maureen junior might just enfold each other in a hug when she came round at the end. But of course they didn't. Optimism on my part. Jake was the boy in love actually wasn't he?

Loved Sean bean in tracie's story. Was the most unrealistic of the 4 IMVHO. or was it? I'm hardly in the know on the tranny scene so maybe I shouldn't comment. Felt so sorry for Simon, who mentioned that he felt invisible as himself and liked being noticed as tracie.