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Issue:- 16 May 2013

BBC Filming on Neville Street, Southport

A film crew from Liverpool Academy Productions Ltd. have been filming on Neville Street, Southport, for a new The Jimmy McGovern BBC 1 drama. The drama, going by the working title “Common”, is set to be around 90 mins long once completed. We took a look at the filming on Tuesday night with the stabbing and an Ambulance attending scenario took place, outside Leos Bar.

The film has already sparked controversy due to the plot line, along with its views of the UK’s controversial Joint Enterprise Law. But some of the controversy so far is down to the "foul and abusive language" that the characters are reported to be using in the drama.

The plot line starts with what we are told are 3 Liverpudlian youths in a car, who later end up at a pizza parlour stabbing and are the group all being charged for murder.

The drama is intended to examine the potential for injustice within the Joint Enterprise or Common Purpose rule. Makers of the film have spent a few days in Southport filming and it will be interesting to see the reaction to drama when it is transmitted later on in 2013, on the BBC 1 channel.

BBC One Controller, Danny Cohen, and Controller of Drama Commissioning, Ben Stephenson, in a joint press statement said that:- “Building on the award winning writer Jimmy McGovern success of his acclaimed dramas, Hillsborough and Dockers, this drama will be just as ambitious and controversial. In the same way as in his dramas Hillsborough and Sunday, he wanted to write this film after talking to the families of those directly affected by the Joint Enterprise Law. We believe it is right for the BBC to give writers such as Jimmy an opportunity to tell a story like this, and to allow the audience to make up their own minds about it.”

Jimmy McGovern added just before filming started:- “The Joint Enterprise was first used in Britain's courts a few hundred years ago. It was designed to stop the aristocracy duelling. If one duellist killed another then all involved in that duel (the seconds and the surgeons) were charged with murder. It worked. Britain's aristocrats stopped duelling. Now the law is being used against Britain's youth. If someone dies in a fight and you're involved in any way whatsoever, you could find yourself charged with murder. And, if you do, Heaven help you because the burden of proof required in joint enterprise cases is frighteningly low.”

To see our full photographic coverage please click on here now.

What are your views about the shooting of this McGovern’s landmark drama in Southport? Email our newsroom to:- news24@southportreporter.com with your views on it..

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Southport Vue Film Showing Times

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