Appropriate Adult
- TV Mini Series
- 2011
- 1h 7m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
4.6K
YOUR RATING
Dramatisation of the case of serial killers Fred and Rose West, focusing on the way in which they were brought to justice.Dramatisation of the case of serial killers Fred and Rose West, focusing on the way in which they were brought to justice.Dramatisation of the case of serial killers Fred and Rose West, focusing on the way in which they were brought to justice.
- Won 4 BAFTA Awards
- 12 wins & 20 nominations total
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe Wests' former house at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, England, was demolished in 1996, two years after the Wests were arrested. The exterior of the Cromwell Street house was recreated using an abandoned building in Cardiff Street, itself on an abandoned street slated for demolition at the time, in Higher Broughton, a suburb of Salford, part of the Greater Manchester metropolitan area. A second house that looms large in the Wests' story, 25 Midland Road, still stands, and its exterior is featured in the mini-series.
- Crazy creditsDisclaimer in opening titles: "This is a true story. What follows is based on extensive research, interviews and published accounts. Some scenes have been created for the purposes of dramatisation."
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Wright Stuff: Episode #16.15 (2011)
Featured review
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Given popular culture's fixation with crime and particularly topics such as serial murderers, it was an inevitability that eventually a film (a TV movie, at least) would be made about the crimes of Fred and Rose West. It was even more inevitable that there would be an out cry that it would glamorize and thus cheapen the real life murders. But, the producers of Appropriate Adult took a novel approach and chose to focus not on the actual murders themselves, but, as the title suggests, the AA that it was felt needed to sit in during Fred West's police interviews on account of his apparent 'learning difficulties.' That woman was Janet Leach, played here by Emily Watson, who went on to sell her story to the tabloids but who also appeared to suffer a certifiable breakdown, after seemingly forming a bond with West, falling under his dark spell. In doing so, it casts an interesting light on the case, bringing up facts that I certainly didn't know before seeing it (i.e. Rose West being a prostitute) and serving to make an unpleasant tale even more unsavoury.
As West, Coronation Street star Craig Charles had been in the running to play the role, but it appears to have gone to The Wire star Dominic West. I've never watched that show, so I can't compare him with what he's probably known best for, but he manages to bring West to life with an eerie darkness all of his own, interspersing his usual barrage of matter of fact recollections of his heinous crimes with the occasional emotional breakdown that reveals a vaguely human side to such a monster. It's his everyman appearance in general that makes him such an unnerving character. In support, Watson also seems like an eerily credible person, a woman desperately trying to stay professional in spite of hearing first hand accounts of crimes she can't accept are humanly possible, while still forming a bond with the perpetrator of these sick crimes.
A drama about West was always going to be in the pipe line for one day, and this is a sensitively handled and none voyeuristic handling, that is relevant, enlightening and of course, very disturbing. ****
Given popular culture's fixation with crime and particularly topics such as serial murderers, it was an inevitability that eventually a film (a TV movie, at least) would be made about the crimes of Fred and Rose West. It was even more inevitable that there would be an out cry that it would glamorize and thus cheapen the real life murders. But, the producers of Appropriate Adult took a novel approach and chose to focus not on the actual murders themselves, but, as the title suggests, the AA that it was felt needed to sit in during Fred West's police interviews on account of his apparent 'learning difficulties.' That woman was Janet Leach, played here by Emily Watson, who went on to sell her story to the tabloids but who also appeared to suffer a certifiable breakdown, after seemingly forming a bond with West, falling under his dark spell. In doing so, it casts an interesting light on the case, bringing up facts that I certainly didn't know before seeing it (i.e. Rose West being a prostitute) and serving to make an unpleasant tale even more unsavoury.
As West, Coronation Street star Craig Charles had been in the running to play the role, but it appears to have gone to The Wire star Dominic West. I've never watched that show, so I can't compare him with what he's probably known best for, but he manages to bring West to life with an eerie darkness all of his own, interspersing his usual barrage of matter of fact recollections of his heinous crimes with the occasional emotional breakdown that reveals a vaguely human side to such a monster. It's his everyman appearance in general that makes him such an unnerving character. In support, Watson also seems like an eerily credible person, a woman desperately trying to stay professional in spite of hearing first hand accounts of crimes she can't accept are humanly possible, while still forming a bond with the perpetrator of these sick crimes.
A drama about West was always going to be in the pipe line for one day, and this is a sensitively handled and none voyeuristic handling, that is relevant, enlightening and of course, very disturbing. ****
- wellthatswhatithinkanyway
- Sep 13, 2011
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