Jimmy McGovern’s award-winning drama series Accused returns to BBC One for a second series, starring Anne-Marie Duff (Shameless), Olivia Colman (Peep Show), Robert Sheehan (Misfits), Joe Dempsie (The Fades), John Bishop (Skins), Sheridan Smith (Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps) and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Love Actually).

> Buy Series 1 on DVD on Amazon.

 

Episode 1: Tracie’s Story
Tuesday 14th August 2012, 9pm

Simon Gaskell (Sean Bean) stands nervously in the dock as he awaits the jury’s verdict. Will he walk free or go down?

Simon is a college English teacher who specialises in poetry and has a secret. His alter ego is a transvestite called Tracie Tremarco, who is gay, lonely, and looking for love. But trawling bars in Manchester dressed up to the nines, tottering on stilettos, and ready to pull has not produced a lasting or truly fulfilling relationship.

Then as fate would have it Tracie falls head over heels in love in unexpected circumstances following an altercation with some blokes out on a stag night. One of the stag revellers, Tony (Stephen Graham), a satellite and aerial engineer, comes to Tracie’s aid and offers her a lift home.

Tony and Tracie are smitten and hesitatingly their love affair begins. But Tony has a secret too – he’s married to a local beautician, Karen (Rachel Leskovac), and he cares deeply for his wife. Before long Tracie has unwittingly become entangled in a triangular love affair that leads inexorably to a terrible crime of passion and the dock.

 

Episode 2: Mo’s Story
Tuesday 21st August 2012, 9pm

Mo Murray (Anne-Marie Duff) has taken a stand against drugs, gangs and gun crime in her community but now she stands alongside her mother Maureen (Ruth Sheen) and her 17-year-old son Jake (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) in the dock. Why?

Hairdressing salon owner Mo refuses to be intimidated by the gangs in her neighbourhood. Supported by her best friend, Sue (Olivia Colman), they take a defiant stand and open up for business ignoring the dire warnings of their teenage sons, Jake and Sean (Oliver Lee), and Mo’s mother.

Today is not a day like any other. It is the funeral of a local gang member and his gangster leader Cormack (Joe Dempsie) has sent a message to all the local shops – stay closed and show respect or there will be consequences.

The next day everything appears back to normal at Mo’s salon until a single gunshot is heard. In a state of rising panic and foreboding the friends rush out to the street to find one of their sons is dying on the pavement.

Will the enormity of this brutal and senseless murder lead to the mothers standing shoulder to shoulder against the gangs or will this tragedy rip them apart?

Difficult and fraught time passes until arrests are made. And, now the Murray family are in the dock and the painful truth is coming out. What will the jury’s verdict be?

 

Episode 3: Stephen’s Story
Tuesday 28th August 2012, 9pm

17-year-old Stephen Cartwright (Robert Sheehan) stands charged with a serious offence as his anxious father Peter (John Bishop) looks on.

It is months earlier and Peter is trying his best to help his sons, Stephen, and Dom (Josh Bolt), face the imminent death of their beloved mother. When the palliative care nurse, Charlotte (Sheridan Smith), arrives Peter is grateful of her help at this most painful and stressful time for them.

Stephen is less sure of this efficient nurse assigned to see his mother through her final days. When his mum passes on, Stephen becomes more suspicious of Charlotte’s motivations. But is Stephen’s angst and grief clouding his judgment?

Time passes but Stephen’s anxieties and depression intensify. His troubling doubts about Charlotte are not helped by the way his father appears to move on after his wife’s demise. Increasingly, paranoid Stephen is worried sick about the welfare of his younger brother Dom and clashes with his father Peter.

Stephen behaviour becomes more erratic and fraught and leads to a desperate act which he believes will keep his brother from harm. Cleary, Stephen has suffered a mental breakdown, but what will the outcome of the court be?

 

Episode 4: Tina’s Story
Tuesday 4th September 2012, 9pm

Tina Dakin (Anna Maxwell Martin) stands silent and tense in the dock. She has told the truth and now all she can do is wait to hear the verdict. It is some months earlier and Tina, a happily married mother of three young children, is overstretched at home, and at work. She and her husband struggle to make ends meet.

It’s an ominously cold day when Tina accompanies a new inmate, Stephen Cartwright (Robert Sheehan), into the young offender’s institution where she works as a prison officer. As she runs through the ground rules with Stephen and shows him into his cell she senses something doesn’t seem right.

She notifies her senior officer Frank (Ewen Bremner) of her concerns. But an emergency elsewhere demands her attention. When she returns, her worst possible fears have become a very real tragedy. It appears that Stephen has taken his life. Her gallant attempts to resuscitate Stephen fail, and before long she will come to face to face with his father, Peter (John Bishop), in the worst circumstances imaginable.

But Tina’s troubles have only just begun and a series of betrayals and cover-ups result in her becoming the victim of a terrible crime. Now Tina is on trial for taking the law into her own hands. What will her fate be?

 

> Buy Series 1 on DVD on Amazon.

Are you looking forward to Series 2? Let us know below…