Three Girls (TV series)

Last updated

Three Girls
Genre True crime
Written by Nicole Taylor
Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe
Starring Maxine Peake
Lesley Sharp
Molly Windsor
Ria Zmitrowicz
Liv Hill
Ace Bhatti
Paul Kaye
Jill Halfpenny
Bo Bragason
Lisa Riley
Composer Natalie Holt
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes3 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersLucy Richer
Hilary Salmon
Susan Hogg
ProducerSimon Lewis
CinematographyMatt Gray BSC
EditorÚna Ní Dhonghaíle
Running time60 minutes
Production companies BBC Studios and Studio Lambert
Original release
Network BBC One
Release16 May (2017-05-16) 
18 May 2017 (2017-05-18)

Three Girls is a three-part British television drama series, written by screenwriter Nicole Taylor, and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, broadcast on three consecutive nights between 16 and 18 May 2017 on BBC One. [1] A co-production between BBC Studios and Studio Lambert, the series is a dramatised version of the events surrounding the Rochdale child sex abuse ring, and describes how the authorities failed to investigate allegations of rape because the victims were perceived as unreliable witnesses, and the local authorities didn’t investigate through fear of being accused of racism because of the ethnicity of the perpetrators. [2]

Contents

Three Girls drew a strong viewing audience upon its first broadcast, with 8.24 million viewers for episode one, 7.88 million for episode two and 8.19 million for episode three. [3] The series was released on DVD in Region 2 on 8 January 2018. [4]

A BBC documentary on the case, The Betrayed Girls, was broadcast on 3 July 2017 as a follow-up to the drama. [5]

Plot

The story is told from the viewpoint of three of the victims: fourteen-year-old Holly Winshaw (Molly Windsor), sixteen-year-old Amber Bowen (Ria Zmitrowicz) and her younger sister Ruby (Liv Hill); although the focus later shifts to sexual health worker Sara Rowbotham (Maxine Peake), the main whistleblower who drew attention to the case after repeated pleas for help from social services and the police fell on deaf ears.

DC Margaret Oliver (Lesley Sharp), the lead investigator on the case, manages to gain the support of her superior officer, Sandy Guthrie (Jason Hughes) to instigate a full-blown investigation. However, despite significant evidence, the CPS decided to drop the case because of an “unrealistic prospect of conviction”. After Margaret convinces Amber Bowen to testify against her former boyfriend, Tariq (Wasim Zakir), the case is re-opened by recently appointed public prosecutor Nazir Afzal (Ace Bhatti), who with the assistance of the police and the victims involved, manages to secure convictions against ten men involved in the ring. [6]

Rowbotham, Oliver and Afzal all acted as consultants on the series. [7]

Cast

Episodes

EpisodeTitleWritten byDirected byViewers
(millions) [8]
Original airdate
1"Episode 1"Nicole TaylorPhilippa Lowthorpe8.2416 May 2017 (2017-05-16)
2"Episode 2"Nicole TaylorPhilippa Lowthorpe7.8817 May 2017 (2017-05-17)
3"Episode 3"Nicole TaylorPhilippa Lowthorpe8.1918 May 2017 (2017-05-18)

In June 2017, a terrorist attack was launched against mosque-goers in Finsbury Park. The attacker, Darren Osborne, used a van to run over Muslim pedestrians, killing one man and injuring several others. In the course of the trial, it was remarked that Osborne developed an obsession with Muslims after watching Three Girls. [9]

Reception

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.
2017 WFTV Awards The Deluxe Director AwardPhilippa LowthorpeWon [10]
Festival de la Fiction TV Awards  [ fr ] Jury Special Prize for European Fiction  [ fr ]Three GirlsWon
Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards Director - DramaPhilippa LowthorpeNominated [11]
Editing - DramaÚna Ní DhonghaíleWon
Music - Original ScoreNatalie HoltNominated
Photography - Drama & ComedyMatt GrayWon
2018 British Academy Television Awards Best Mini-Series Three GirlsWon [12]
Best Actress Molly Windsor Won
Best Supporting Actress Liv HillNominated
British Academy Television Craft Awards Best Director: Fiction Philippa LowthorpeWon [13]
Best Writer: Drama Nicole TylerWon
Best Editing: Fiction Úna Ní Dhonghaíle Won
Irish Film & Television Awards EditingÚna Ní DhonghaíleWon [14]
RTS Programme Awards - West of EnglandBest Television DramaThree GirlsWon [15]
Best Director DramaPhilippa LowthorpeWon
Royal Television Society Programme Awards Mini-SeriesThree GirlsWon [16]
Writer Award - DramaNicole TaylorWon
Breakthrough Award - On ScreenMolly WindsorNominated
Broadcasting Press Guild Best Single Drama/Mini-seriesThree GirlsWon [17]
UK Broadcast Awards Best Drama Series or SerialThree GirlsWon [18]

See also

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References

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  3. "Weekly top 30 programmes - BARB". www.barb.co.uk.
  4. "Three Girls". Amazon UK. 8 January 2018.
  5. "The Betrayed Girls: Five things we learned about the Rochdale grooming scandal from BBC documentary". The Manchester Evening News . 3 July 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  6. Homa Khaleeli (16 May 2017). "Molly Windsor, star of Rochdale abuse drama Three Girls: 'It made me really angry'". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  7. "Three Girls (TV Mini-Series 2017)". IMDb .
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