David Farnor | On 09, Jan 2022

If Help, Stephen or Anne haven’t enraged audiences enough at the mishandling, cover-ups and other injustices by authorities in recent decades, BBC’s Four Lives may just be the programme to tip viewers over the edge. The three-part drama tells the story of the four young men murdered by Stephen Port, who was sentenced to life for the killings in 2016. The tragedy that becomes appallingly clear is that several of those deaths could have been avoided if the police investigation into the first death was carried out correctly.

The first victim is Anthony Walgate (Tim Preston), a fashion student who worked an as escort to help make ends meet. When he is found dead on Stephen Port’s doorstep, the police seem to happily dismiss any connection to Stephen, despite the discovery that he anonymously made the phone call alerting them to the body, and gladly accept an accidental drug overdose was an acceptable explanation for what had happened. The insidious homophobia that seemed to guide these decisions, accompanied by an unspoken judgement about Anthony’s lifestyle choices, grows in relevance as more bodies all appear in close proximity to Port’s house, but the police still don’t twig his culpability until three more people have died: Gabriel Kovari (Jakub Svec), Daniel Whitworth (Leo Flanagan) and Jack Taylor (Paddy Rowan).

Written by Neil McKay and exec-produced by Jeff Pope (the team behind The Moorside and Appropriate Adult), the drama deftly manages to keep the focus away from Port and on the families of the young men who were murdered. As the young men, Preston, Svec, Flanagan and Rowan don’t have much time to to make an impact, but they flesh out their characters and situations with nuance, from Gabriel’s kind but nervous nature to Jack’s closeted sexuality. They then pass the baton on to the supporting cast playing their loved ones – including Jaime Winstone, Rufus Jones, Robert Emms and Leanne Best – who react with a mix of dismay at what they didn’t know (in the case of Anthony and Jack) and regret that they didn’t know more or sadness at the prospect of their boyfriend cheating on them (in the case of Daniel) coupled with grief over their death.

It’s telling that it falls to their friends and families to ultimately uncover the truth of what happened. At the heart of it all is a typically brilliant Sheridan Smith as Anthony’s mother, Sarah, who blames herself in part for not pushing the police further in investigating her son’s death. Deliberately underplaying throughout, meanwhile, is Stephen Merchant, who plays chillingly against type as the quiet, unsettling Stephen Port. The more Port’s explanations become inconsistent and irrational – a one point he forges a suicide note from Daniel, confessing to the murder of Gabriel – the more alarming it is that it took so long for Port to be brought to justice.

While that repeated pattern might make for sluggish viewing, it’s the details along the way that keep you invested, from the police officer who mispronounces Anthony’s name to Samuel Barnett’s performance as Port’s neighbour, Ryan, who tried to offer Gabriel a place to stay away from Stephen. Over the three episodes, these small moments add up to a damning portrait of a deeply flawed police investigation that never loses sight of the young men in the middle of the picture.

 

Four Lives is available on BBC iPlayer until January 2023.

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