How Jimmy McGovern created the storyline behind Unforgivable

When award-winning screenwriter Jimmy McGovern received a letter from a woman who worked with sex offenders, he was curious to find out more.

“I went down to talk to the psychologist and she told me this story,” recalls McGovern, whose catalogue of work includes Cracker, The Street, Accused and Time.

“It was about a young man who had become a child abuser and he realised that he had been abused as a child himself.

“Understandably he decided to take the child abuser – the man who abused him – to court.”

It was during this meeting that Liverpool-born McGovern felt compelled to write about it.

McGovern has a reputation for tackling complicated and emotive subjects – Unforgivable is no different.

His latest drama centres around the Mitchell family who are dealing with the devastating aftermath of an act of sex abuse perpetrated by a member of their own family.

“I don’t try to be controversial,” says McGovern, who has written about this topic before in shows including Priest and Broken.

“I go along and talk to people and I think these people will be very interesting and I get sucked in.

“I always say to people, why write about things that do not matter?

“It’s hard enough to sit at your computer and write, it’s so hard.”

Like much of McGovern’s work, Unforgivable is set in the north of England – more specifically his hometown of Liverpool.

“I love the city and I’m actually so proud of it as well… you forget how beautiful it is,” he says.

The drama stars a host of acting talent including Bobby Schofield, Anna Maxwell Martin, Anna Friel and David Threlfall.

But does McGovern have an army of actors awaiting his call when he puts pen to paper each time?

“I’ve just been turned down by an actor we wanted so it doesn’t always work that way,” he laughs.

“As a writer you are constantly turned down, it’s just that you don’t talk about it – but you mark the director’s card, that’s the last time I offer you anything.

“There are some actors you just want all the time.

“We did write [the role in Unforgivable] for Bobby Schofield, which is dangerous to do because often they’ll say ‘no’ and you’ve written with them in mind.

“Thank God he said ‘yes’. I think he’s fantastic in this.”

When asked if – over the course of his career – there is a particular piece of writing that means more to him than most, his answer is immediate.

“Hillsborough,” he says. “Because it meant so much to the people of the city.”

“It’s definitely not the best thing I’ve ever written,” he adds.

“I wrote it with an army of lawyers looking at it, so it was difficult to do an awful lot of stuff I wanted to do.

“[But] I always say when I die, I’ll have that tucked under my arm and go up and say, ‘okay I was drunk too much, but I made this’.”

Ahead of the release of Unforgivable, McGovern says he believes the audience “will learn things” from the fictional drama.

“Even though we’re talking about child abusers, I still think there’s a need for compassion,” he says.

“Caution, yes, punishment, yes, justice, yes.

“These are enormous crimes, they must be punished, you must go to prison. But alongside all that, an element of compassion.

“To understand a bit more and equally condemn.”

You can watch Unforgivable on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from 21:00 BST on Thursday 24 July.