Katie Leung (Harry Potter, Run) stars in One Child, BBC Two’s new drama mini-series from Blood And Oil writer Guy Hibbert.

Leung play a young Chinese-born woman adopted by Anglo-American parents struggles with who she really is and where her loyalties lies.

Mei, a first-born Chinese girl adopted by an American mother and British father, is asked to return to her birthplace, Guangzhou, when her birth mother desperately seeks her assistance in saving her son. How far will Mei go to help the woman who gave her away and the brother she’s never met? This drama takes a new look at what it means to be family.

Katie Leung plays Mei, Sebastian So plays Ajun, Linh-Dan Pham plays Qianyi, Mardy Ma plays Liu Ying, Donald Sumpter plays Jim and Elizabeth Perkins plays Katherine.

 

Episode 1

Wednesday 17 February 2016, 9pm

Adopted as a baby from China, Mei (Katie Leung) has had a contented upbringing in the UK. She’s grown up knowing little about her beginnings, but is the love of her parent’s life.

Out of the blue Mei gets a message from a journalist in China called Pan Qianyi, who tells Mei that her birth mother wants to meet her. She is desperate for Mei’s help. Her son, Ajun, the brother Mei has never met or even knew existed, is on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Suddenly questions of abandonment and identity overwhelm Mei. Qianyi asks her to come to Guangzhou immediately. Telling her adoptive parents only that her mother wants to meet her, Mei is relieved when they agree she should go and must take this journey alone.

When Mei arrives in China, Qianyi takes her to meet her birth mother, Liu Ying, but their first meeting is not what she expected or hoped for. Her mother can’t look her in the eye because she’s too ashamed of giving Mei up as a result of the one child policy.

Qianyi and Ying explain the desperate situation. Ajun has been convicted of killing an African man outside the nightclub where he works, but he was only an innocent bystander – the real killer is a rich Chinese ‘princeling’ whose wealthy father has corrupted the other witnesses into lying. With no connections Ying has little hope of fighting back, and they want Mei to help them get justice for Ajun before it’s too late. Mei is overwhelmed: she has no connections or idea what to do.

Mei worries she has made a mistake in coming, and her parents urge her to come home. But then a meeting with the Citizen’s Justice Movement offers hope, and when Qianyi introduces her to Ajun, the emotional connection between them is instantaneous – and makes Mei decide to stay.

 

Episode 2

Wednesday 24 February 2016, 9pm

Ignoring warnings from Mei’s parents and the British Consulate, Mei and Qianyi set about finding the one witness who is willing to tell the truth and change their statement about the night that Ajun was wrongfully arrested.

They head to ‘Little Africa’, an African district in Guangzhou, but as each of the witnesses in turn refuses to help, it becomes clear that fear of retribution dwarfs any desire for justice for Ajun. Even his best friend Huang Tao is unable to help. Though devastated for Ajun, he and his family know that standing up to the authorities would result in severe punishment and it’s a risk they can’t take.

With all avenues appearing futile, Qianyi introduces Mei to a private investigator called Mr Lin. He says he can get all the witnesses to change their statements, but he wants £50,000 for his time.

When Mei turns to her parents for help they have an agonising decision to make: give Mei the money or risk losing her forever. They agree, but decide it’s time they went to China.

The shared desire to free Ajun and expose this miscarriage of justice brings Mei and Ying closer, allowing her mother to share with her the difficulties of their past. As she assimilates to China, its cultures and her family, Mei’s life back in England grows ever-more distant.

Mr Lin successfully discovers a route by which to persuade the key witnesses to tell the truth, but he needs Mei’s help in collecting the evidence. Determined to save her brother, Mei crosses a Rubicon and secures the means to win his freedom – but it comes at a cost to her personally. As the day for Ajun’s court hearing looms large, hope is high and a family close to being reunited.

 

Episode 3

Wednesday 2 March 2016, 9pm

As they await the verdict from Ajun’s appeal, the Citizen’s Justice Movement takes advantage of a new government policy to crack down on corruption.

Choosing now to run an article on Ajun’s case, they hope exposing the police corruption will force the court’s hand into returning the right verdict. But their plan backfires and instead the judge accuses Ajun and his legal team of corrupting witnesses. They uphold Ajun’s death sentence.

As Ying collapses, a confused Mei wonders if she’s been used by Qianyi and her friends – did they always know this wasn’t going to work? But before she gets any answers, Qianyi and all the members of the Citizen Justice Movement are arrested.

Alone with her mother Mei feels abandoned and useless. Then she realises there’s one person who still might be able to help her – Xiaopeng, the real killer. Can she persuade him to admit his guilt? Her meeting with him is tense but it’s clear this rich ‘princeling’ is very attracted to this determined English girl and she uses it to her advantage.

Xiaopeng agrees to help her and arranges a meeting for her with his father, a high-ranking security official. He offers Mei a choice – one that will secure Ajun’s freedom but at a cost Mei just can’t bring herself to take.

 

Watch the trailer…

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