If losing a child is the worst thing, the very worst, that can happen to you, what must it be like to lose one in a tragedy that was national headline news? Alongside that insurmountable sadness comes the question of how to reconcile grief’s normally private, quiet bearing with the fact that your bereavement was a public event. Nobody would be blamed for staying out of sight, saying no to interviewers and documentary-makers, and holding the memories close. But in Our Girls: the Southport Families, we see how a loss shared can be miraculously powerful.
Nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and six-year-old Bebe King were all murdered on 29 July 2024, when a man invaded a holiday dance class in Southport, Merseyside and attacked children at random. The programme does not linger on the horror, or speak the killer’s name: instead it begins by introducing us to the girls as their parents remember them. Alice “was magic, she was wonder … the best daughter we could ask for”; Elsie “was unforgettable … she taught us how to be a mum and dad”; Bebe “was pure joy: everything was in a dance, everything was in a song”.
