Thread by @MetroUK

EXCLUSIVE: How the families of Stephen Port’s victims helped shape the BBC drama Four Lives.
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The three-part series documents the murders of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth, and Jack Taylor, and is based on extensive and frank research provided by the victims’ families.

‘It’s an enormous privilege to talk to them and to hear their stories,’ writer Neil McKay tells Metro.co.uk.

‘I have to pay tribute to the courage they showed in telling their stories so openly and frankly.’

‘What was so brilliant about the families was that they didn’t try to censor us. They wanted us to tell the stories truthfully and accurately because, in the end, there was nothing to hide.’

All four victims were – as McKay puts it – in the middle of ‘slightly complicated events’ at the time of their deaths.

Port’s first victim Anthony Walgate, a fashion student from Hull, occasionally did escort work, with his parents discovering this after his murder.

Meanwhile, Jack Taylor was questioning his sexuality, unbeknownst to his family.

‘All this was normal stuff we go through in our lives; figuring out who we are and what we want to be,’ McKay says. ‘There was no shame in any of it.’

Besides sharing their stories so that the script could be written, the families and loved ones also visited the set and met with the cast.

‘All the way through the cast would meet with their real-life counterparts. It was enormously helpful.’

Four Lives airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One 📺metro.co.uk/2022/01/03/fou…