|
Despite the popularity of true-life reconstructions, the dramatisation of
actual events and real people is often controversial. Even diligent research and
intensive legal scrutiny cannot prevent accusations of fictionalisation or the
manipulation of facts for dramatic effect. When those real events are
particularly sensitive, criticism can even be phrased in ethical terms, as the
makers of Shipman discovered.
Press complaints began as early as the commissioning of Shipman (working
titles Prescription for Murder and Harold Shipman: Doctor Death). Although
writer Michael Eaton had worked on Shoot to Kill (ITV, 1990), the press
unfavourably invoked its production company's previous drama about the Dunblane
massacre. Further complaints were made during the filming of exhumation scenes
and, ultimately, by the victims' families, who were upset by the timing of
Shipman's transmission, which pre-empted a report into the deaths of Shipman
patients in previous decades. Also, its sympathy towards one failed
investigation sits uneasily with the families' official complaint against the
police.
Responding to debates on "the 'manipulative' devices of 'fiction'" in an
article in The Guardian, Eaton defended dramatisation as a way of addressing
this tragedy and wider issues of trust. As Eaton pointed out, Shipman focuses on
the investigation rather than Shipman. Detective Inspector Stan Egerton becomes
the story's centre; Egerton was consulted by Eaton and actor James Hazeldine,
whose portrayal of Egerton is one of Shipman's highlights. In promotional
interviews, Hazeldine attested to the script's accuracy (for instance, the
police interrogation scenes were taken verbatim from transcripts) and argued
that dramatisation revealed more than horrifying statistics and news reports.
Sadly, Egerton died before broadcast (although he saw a rough cut), while
Hazeldine died within months of transmission.
James Bolam's central performance switches between the avuncular charm which
led Shipman's patients to trust and admire him and detached menace. However,
subtlety is undermined by visual clichés, for example lingering close-ups on
Shipman's shadowy face as he prepares fatal injections. Shipman is least
convincing when it attempts to get into its protagonist's mind, a motivation
implied when a policeman investigating Shipman's computer says "I'm inside him".
Although Eaton challenged the media's psychoanalysis of Shipman's motives, he
created scenes in which Egerton and a priest debate explanations.
Further reports concluded by January 2005 that Shipman's victims may have
numbered 250, although a final figure will never be known. Shipman never
confessed, and killed himself in prison in January 2004.
Dave Rolinson
|
1. Ivy (4:20)
