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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Stuart Jeffries

Floodlights review – this harrowing drama about sexual abuse in football is so, so valuable

Gerard Kearns as Andy Woodward in Floodlights (BBC Two).
Self-abasement … Gerard Kearns as Andy Woodward in Floodlights (BBC Two). Photograph: Matt Squire/BBC/Expectation TV

“By the way, Woody,” says Barry Bennell, “do you think you’re good enough to be one of my boys?” The football coach is visiting Andy Woodward’s parents’ house to recruit their son for Crewe Alexandra’s youth team, but, for us viewers, the line, like so many others in Floodlights (BBC Two), has a darker resonance.

Bennell is on the hunt for new talent. He can’t stay long, he tells Jean and Terry Woodward, adding: “I’m scouting under-10s in Buxton at six o’clock.”

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