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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Dominique Hines

The devastating story behind Jimmy McGovern’s Unforgivable: ‘A letter that haunted him’:

Jimmy McGovern Anna Friel BBC iPlayer
David Threlfall as Brian, Anna Friel as Anna and Austin Haynes as Tom - (Kerry Spicer/BBC/LA Productions)

Jimmy McGovern’s Unforgivable is one of the BBC’s most talked-about dramas this summer, gripping viewers with its raw depiction of a family shattered by child sexual abuse.

But the roots of the drama trace back to a single letter that landed on McGovern’s desk. The veteran writer, known for Time and Hillsborough, received a letter from a mother whose child had been abused by a family member.

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