Anyone been watching Criminal Justice on BBC1 this week?
It's a drama screened over five consecutive nights about a woman who stabs her husband after years of psychological abuse.
It appears to have one of those incredibly rare things on TV - a sympathetic portrait of a social worker.
The social worker - Norma - is charged with responsibility for Ella, the couple's daughter who has to go into care on the arrest of her mother.
We see her at all points advocating for Ella, moving her from a children's home to stay with her best friend's family, shielding her from police interviews after her father's stabbing and getting her therapeutic help.
She even seems to have a relatively sympathetic manager of the 'using procedures to gain the right outcome' school.
There are still three - very gripping I expect on the basis of the first two - episodes to go.
I wouldn't get too excited Mithran, given that it's an accurate portrayal of a children's social worker I daresay the remaining three episodes will be taken up with watching her stare at a computer screen, filling in pointless, repetitive forms and attending unnecessary meetings.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
she has just taken the baby away. That is going to reinforce all the old stereotypes, isnt it.
Mithran: Anyone been watching Criminal Justice on BBC1 this week? It's a drama screened over five consecutive nights about a woman who stabs her husband after years of psychological abuse. It appears to have one of those incredibly rare things on TV - a sympathetic portrait of a social worker. The social worker - Norma - is charged with responsibility for Ella, the couple's daughter who has to go into care on the arrest of her mother. We see her at all points advocating for Ella, moving her from a children's home to stay with her best friend's family, shielding her from police interviews after her father's stabbing and getting her therapeutic help. She even seems to have a relatively sympathetic manager of the 'using procedures to gain the right outcome' school. There are still three - very gripping I expect on the basis of the first two - episodes to go.
can i ask what you mean by 'sympathetic'.?
Hi titchmagoo
In using the word sympathetic, all I meant was positive - I think the portrayal has been relatively positive so far though as I'm a journalist not a practitioner I'm sure there's plenty I'm missing.
I think all her efforts to get Juliet and her baby into a mother and baby unit (against big systemic barriers) following on from the very proactive, advocating role she took with Ella in previous episodes were pretty positive.
The manager was not cast in so good a light yesterday (though I missed the end so maybe she redeemed herself) though I did enjoy that exchange the two of them had when Norma was working late and started throwing lots of management jargon ironically at her boss (who seemed to take it in reasonably good spirits).
I think what's been interesting about this programme is the way it's attempted to showcase all parts of the system- police, criminal law, family law, children's social care, mental health/therapeutic services, prison and tried (whether successfully or not) to give each its due.