Two Daughters (BBC Two) is a raw and devastating film about grief, and an astonishing testament to resilience and the power of faith. The presenter, Stacey Dooley, has spent close to a year with Mina and Chris Smallman. Mina’s daughter Bibaa Henry and Mina and Chris’s daughter, Nicole Smallman, were murdered in a north London park in June 2020, as Bibaa celebrated her birthday. Like so many crimes perpetrated by violent men, it was, says Dooley, a horrific case of wrong time, wrong place for the women. But, she goes on to say, with barely concealed rage, what happened afterwards had nothing to do with bad luck.
Mina is an astonishing woman. Dooley first visits her and Chris at home in Ramsgate on what would have been Bibaa’s 47th birthday, a year after the murders. She brings them flowers. Dooley feels less like a presenter and more like a family friend. When she talks to Mina and Chris, we are bearing witness to deeply personal conversations. In other scenarios, her conversational, casual approach can have its weaknesses, but in this one, it is all strength. She is very good at getting in a moment to the heart of what matters, and her empathy enables people to trust her with the unvarnished truth.
