Accused (TV Series) Frankie's Story (2010) User Reviews

Biting the bullet

[xmasdaybaby1966 · 7/10 · 15 October 2021]

A very different story this time and hard to resonate with the characters as few of us have been in the forces.

Mackenzie Crook plays the bully and very different from the comical roles he generally plays.

A strong story with good reason for character feelings and actions.

The attempt to be "fair and balanced" seemed a bit out of place in this episode of Accused

[safenoe · 6/10 · 11 January 2017]

Jimmy McGovern's Accused series is provocative and provides an impressive backstory to why the accused is sitting in the dock at a criminal trial.

Here, Frankie, a former army man, is charged with the murder of Lance Corporal Buckley, because Buckley bullied Frankie's friend Peter to death because of Peter's alleged cowardice on the battlefield.

However, one scene was really jarring. It's when Frankie and Buckley appear before the commanding officer about Peter's death, and Buckley's bullying. Here the writer Jimmy McGovern attempted to portray both sides of the bullying side, from the words of Frankie (who claimed Buckley bullied Peter to death) and Buckley (who claimed war is hell and so on). But really, if you look at The Sopranos, you don't have a "debating panel" giving both sides to the story of the protagonist's right and wrong of organized crime!

But I'm not surprised Mr McGovern did this in Frankie's story. This is because I saw the documentary "Writing the wrongs", which featured Jimmy McGovern leading a team of former dockers to write the script to Dockers (1999). In Writing the wrongs, Jimmy skilfully presented the pros and cons of modernization and the impact on the dockers, kind of giving both sides of the story.