What function does a television series have when the disgrace it covers is already in the public domain? The “spy cops” scandal has been the subject of extensive reporting, spearheaded by the Guardian. There is no need to demand a public inquiry, either: one is under way.
Yet ITV’s three-part The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed – produced with the Guardian and featuring its journalists Rob Evans and Paul Lewis – more than earns its place. Aside from television simply hitting a wider audience, the way it unfolds narratives using personal testimony has a power a written summary may not achieve. And, as the series uses the tricks, and some of the cliches, of the true-crime documentary to keep viewers happily engrossed for three hours, it gives us the time we need to sit with the story and absorb its importance. Because this injustice asks huge questions about Britain.
