Viewers have said they were left “disgusted” by gang culture after watching a TV dramatisation of the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones.
ITV’s Little Boy Blue tells the story of the 11-year-old, who was gunned down by 16-year-old Sean Mercer on his way home from football practice in Croxteth, Liverpool, in 2007.
On Monday night the second instalment looked at the way the crime affected the community and showed how the parents of the youth who supplied the weapon even destroyed evidence for him.
Watching #littleboyblue Sadness & anger in = measures. Horrified & sickened @ coldness of the parents. but then that sums up gang culture
— Lesley (@gorlestongirl74) May 1, 2017
#littleboyblue Parents are lying to protect their sons. An innocent little boy had been murdered. This gang culture is toxic to the core.
— Linette Standing (@LinetteStanding) May 1, 2017
Being a 'grass' is the lowest of the low? No, killing a child and then throwing a wall of protection around him is #littleboyblue
— Michael Chadderton (@mchadders100) May 1, 2017
Plenty of tweets suggested the programme was screened to young people to show them the reality of gang life.
#LittleBoyBlue should be shown to every teenager out there who thinks being in a gang is a clever thing @ITV drama pic.twitter.com/xVjx2NEfnL
— Siobhan Connor (@ConnorPR) May 1, 2017
Last week actress Sinead Keenan, who plays Rhys’s mother Melanie, won praise for harrowing scenes including one in which she held her son’s body as he lay bleeding on the ground.She impressed viewers again in the latest instalment, with several fans saying her acting was “amazing”.Taboo actor Stephen Graham plays Detective Superintendent Dave Kelly in the programme.
The drama was written by Jeff Pope, executive producer of The Moorside, about the faked kidnapping of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews.
