Stephen (2021) - Steve Coogan, Hugh Quarshie

[CelestialAgent]

One-off ITV drama released by Dazzler Media on 18th October.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stephen-Blu-ray/dp/B09CQRMVCJ/

Stephen portrays events from 2006, thirteen years after Stephen’s death on the evening of 22 April 1993 in a racially motivated attack whilst waiting for a bus in Well Hall Road, Eltham.

Even though Doreen and Neville Lawrence knew the identity of their son’s killers, the original investigation had failed to convict those responsible, and their extraordinary campaign for justice led to a public inquiry that branded Metropolitan Police institutionally racist and brought about sweeping changes in the law and police practices and transformed thinking and understanding of racial inequality in the UK.

Yet six years on from the Inquiry no progress had been made into the case. The drama tells the story of the ongoing struggle by Doreen and Neville Lawrence to achieve justice and how a detective, DCI Clive Driscoll – working closely with the Lawrences – puts together an investigation that finally – more than 18 years after his death – secures the convictions of two of the gang who committed the murder of Stephen.

Starring Steve Coogan. Sharlene Whyte & Hugh Quarshie

[McCrutchy]

I watched this yesterday and thought it was quite excellent. Steve Coogan, Sharlene Whyte and Hugh Quarshie do excellent work. As someone who didn't know anything about Stephen Lawrence case, I thought the mini-series did an admirable job of informing the viewer, while at the same time highlighting the gross injustice he and his family suffered (and continue to suffer) at the hands of the police.

I see that the case has been dramatized before as The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (1999), an ITV film that starred Quarshie (in the same role he would reprise for Stephen) alongside Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Neville and Doreen Lawrence, but that film only seems to have a VHS release. It seems to have been re-broadcast and made available digitally in 2020, so perhaps a Blu-ray will one day be released.