Unforgivable

Please be aware that some reviews on here contain spoilers; I'm glad I didn't see any before I watched it.

The acting in this show is top notch by everyone, and Anna Maxwell-Martin was an inspired addition to the cast.

If you like crime dramas and gritty content, then you will likely enjoy this. I'd give it 10 out 10 if only it had been longer; it ended fairly abruptly.

I was expecting so much more from this. It skirted around the story with little to no character development except for the lead actor, and seemed as if the script was written by a committee with no cohesion. It all seemed a bit rushed and incomplete in the end. It just goes to show that even with a couple of outstanding performances a poorly written script is always visible.

They don't make dramatists like Jimmy McGovern anymore. His latest film, 'Unforgiveable', bravely asks us to sympathise with a child abuser, in a story set in rows of terraced houses without front gardens and steeped in Catholic guilt. On one hand, it goes to obvious places, telling how terrible deeds live on in predictable ways; but McGovern deserves credit for showing that even those who do the worst things are human. However, while the message that abused people become abusers is undoubtedly true, it's also a little pat: in moving the deepest responsibility from the protagonist to his own abuser, it could be suggested that the script is merely passing the buck. Nonetheless, in what often seems like a merciless age, this is still a worthwhile, and welcome, drama to see on our television screens.

Unforgivable 2025, BBC. 1 hour 43 minutes.

The aftermath and consequences of child abuse of a young boy, and his abuser.

Its a bleak watch, but the acting and story are so believable. Bobby Schofield, plays the abuser Joe along with his sister Anna Friel playing his sister Anna,, the mother of his victim Tom who struggle with the long term damage.

It is a difficult watch, because of the subject matter and due to the sympathy and understanding of Joe's circumstances and his brutal coming to terms with what he has done and lost.

Plaudits to writer Jimmy McGovern, and actors Friel, Schofield, Anna Maxwell Martin, David Threlfall and the young actor Austin Haynes who plays Tom.

It' been likened to Adolescence for its realistic portrayal of modern life, it's good but not that good, being a one off, it's a shame you couldn't get to know the characters more

Essentially telly, well done BBC, long may you live.

8/10.

I was blown away by the silence and the acting in the silence, my heart was broken for them all. Bobby Schofield is absolutely incredible. Can't wait to watch him in the future.

All the characters had important roles, they showed the heartache that abuse causes in families. Anna frail was amazing as always.