It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

As I have confessed before, do have a bit of a 'thing' for UK police dramas - like any little genre in which we become immersed, some are okay, some absolutely awful - and then something like this: VERY VERY GOOD INDEED. Why?As other reviewers here have pointed out, this is the true story of five young women who were first reported as 'missing' and then found murdered. They also happened to be heroin addicts and prostitutes.They also happened to be much loved daughters, sisters and friends.Over the past twenty years there have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of films and television programmes made that use the death of women (and it is usually women) as the central foci for a narrative. The camera probes in the obligatory 'on the slab' Forensic Post Mortum - where the 'body' becomes distant, a silent receptacle for the rest of the cast to gravitate. This television programme deserves 10 out of 10 for resolutely refusing to transform a serial killer narrative into the same old pattern. We (the viewer) is never EVER allowed to forget that these young women are suffering heroin addiction, rather than some 'life style' choice, rather than some 'dim witted' woman who really should know better. It is explained to us - refusing to let us distance ourselves from the victims. ....and there are plenty of victims here. The grief and stress of the young women trying desperately to change their lives ('I want to stop'), plus the grief and stress of the families who love them. ('She's speaking in that silly accent again.') These are not stupid people, but people caught up in a kind of hell. The acting is uniformly excellent, some of the scenes are so subtle and believable. This is the first time that a programme dealing with this subject has reduced me to tears. It made me think - long and hard - about my obsession with police drama. Deeply moving, revealing and a complete subversion of stereotypes of 'working girls' and addiction. Next time you hear a news report describe a murder victim as a 'prostitute' - call the station and complain. The murder victim is a woman. Someone's daughter.

This three-part series was just broadcast by TVOntario and gave a compelling, well-acted, and probably realistic account of what happened just a few years ago in a town that I wouldn't have imagined had a "red light" area (I'm recalling a TV production of "East of Ipswich" I saw years ago). The rough and suddenly dangerous lives of street prostitutes, some quite young and even presentable-looking, who walk the streets to feed a drug habit was well-done, as were their individual backgrounds and the difficulty they had keeping off substance abuse. I remember news reports of the time saying that public and official (including Prime Minister Blair) reactions to the killings were sympathetic to the victims (reaction to the victims of the "Yorkshire Ripper" was, reportedly, less so), and here the police are portrayed as compassionate if somewhat overwhelmed by the situation. The actual killer is apprehended toward the end of the third part; there's no explanation to his motive, only that he himself frequented--and finally murdered--streetwalkers. If anything, this drama recalled "Band of Gold," set in an even rougher milieu and with some of the same actors (David Bradley and one of the police officers) involved.One note of hope: the conclusion of the drama says that some of the girls were able to straighten out and leave the dangerous streets.

Spread over three nights, this BBC drama on the murders in Ipswich of five women in the run up to Christmas 2006 made for challenging and occasionally disturbing viewing. That time-proximity today to the actual events only heightens the required empathy and sympathy of the programme-makers to the subject matter and this it patently does, from the title of the piece onwards (the original tabloid coverage of the killings unfeelingly focused on the murdered women all being prostitutes, dehumanising the victims at a stroke).For me, probably like most UK residents, the two most remembered TV images from the original investigation were firstly the CCTV images of one of the young women heading into the red light district on the local train, preening herself, readying herself for her "work" and just as tragically the fact that another of the victims was actually interviewed by national TV (her back to camera, obviously) before being killed the next night.Boldly and justifiably, the drama makes no concession to the murderer at all, concentrating wholly on the lives and desperate motivations of the women themselves. There's zero sensationalism either, with the murders themselves only suggested by the killer's car ominously approaching the victims at night-time. He's duly caught at the end, but in no sense was this a conventional crime drama.That said, I did personally find the candid insight into the drug addicted, poverty driven lives of the prostitutes disturbing and hard to stomach at times and occasionally the dialogue tended to be, although only very occasionally, maudlin and over-ripe. The ensemble acting was laudably grounded in realism, although not wholly consistent, if anything, I appreciated more the actors playing the over-run police service than those portraying either the victims or their families.My biggest qualm however was that the story opened with one girl already murdered with no background story at all to her situation, making me wonder if her family denied the producers access to her information. For me this did however imbalance the whole, almost reducing the drama to "four daughters" but all told, this was a commendably brave approach to a difficult subject, treating its difficult central, characters by and large with honesty and dignity, as they deserved.

As someone from Ipswich myself, I remember the Ipswich serial murders well and so felt a little uncomfortable when the BBC announced they were to make a drama about the events. What can I say? It is absolutely superb. The acting, the whole production cannot be faulted. The series clearly benefits from testimonies given by the families which writer, Stephen Butchard has incorporated into the script to give a true version of events and not a sensationalised account. 'Five Daughters' rejects the stereotype given by the media at the time of these events and portrays the victims as what they were: someone's daughter, sister, aunt etc. A very very good drama on behalf of the BBC which I think should be watched by everyone.