London

It’s one of those questions you can’t help asking yourself about one of the most distressing murders in recent British history: what is life like now for Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, six years out of prison, both now 25 and living under assumed names? Although the people behind it stress that it has no direct connection to the James Bulger case (nor does it shed any light on Venables and Thompson’s current circumstances), C4’s new drama ‘Boy A’ examines one possible answer. Feature continues

‘Jack’, aged 24 and played by Andrew Garfield, is just out of prison and under the wing of his case worker Terry (Peter Mullan) whose job it is to help assimilate his charge into everyday life – jobs, friends, girlfriends – even though Jack committed an unspeakable crime (initially unspecified, but gradually filled in via flashback), along with another boy, in his early teens. The heart of this extraordinary feature-length film, which is based on the book by Jonathan Trigell, is formed by Jack’s attempts to build a new life for himself while battling intense guilt and the persistent fear his real identity will be uncovered. The parallels with the Bulger case are unavoidable, but Trigell insists it wasn’t this that gave him the idea for the book.

‘In fact the inspiration for the book was from a friend of mine who’d done some juvenile prison time and turned into a lovely lad, maybe one of the rare success stories of the British system,’ he explains. ‘So I wondered what it would have been like if he’d been institutionalised all of that time and then suddenly came into the world at 24. It’s incredibly difficult for anyone who’s been in prison for a long time, let alone someone who’s been locked away during their formative years.’

So while there are very occasional moments which explore the humour of this situation (‘He’s just like David Brent,’ says Jack’s new colleague about their boss, ‘Who?’ replies Jack), generally, as Trigell says ‘it’s not a happy tale’. The more things that go right for Jack – he does well at his job, quickly develops close friendships and finds love with colleague Michelle (Katie Lyons) – the more the feeling grows that things are about to go horribly wrong. Yet this is far less simplistic and much richer than that, partly because of Garfield’s performance. If there’s been a more auspicious TV debut this year (he’s had minor roles previously but nothing anywhere near this scale or intensity), we’d like to see it. Not only does Garfield movingly portray Jack’s struggle to find a redemptive future, but also the violence and horror of Jack’s past – the murder, and the experience of prison (neither of which is shown). Garfield says he goes home ‘depressed’ if his parts don’t present this much of a challenge.

‘The beauty with acting is that you discover there are secret parts of yourself you didn’t realise were there,’ he explains. ‘You have to find every single aspect of your character from within yourself otherwise you’re faking it. Why should you expect an audience to believe it? So I had to find Jack’s violence, pain, fear, the ability to hurt people and his naivety and openness. This feeling that he’s never seen the world before, he’s never seen a pair of breasts before. All these first-time experiences I had to find for myself.’

The persuasiveness of his performance and the power of the story make the final scenes – when we’re asked to reconsider how we see Jack, and then his world unravels – that much more affecting. The question is, will the Bulger similarities overshadow the drama? Trigell hopes not. ‘Of course there are parallels – you can only have children of a certain age and two protagonists for the story to work,’ he explains. ‘But it’s been shown in a few countries now and in America they see it as a totally different case that’s relevant to them, while the title “Boy A” actually comes from a Japanese case. Even here, there are many other cases that have occupied the public consciousness, such as Mary Bell. I think Jack’s story is a universal one.’

Read our first review of 'Boy A', which appeared recently at the London Film Festival.