Care is about Davey, a teenager who suffers systematic sexual abuse while living in a council-run children's home. Though Glenavon and the Welsh county of Caradog are fictitious, the roots of Prendiville's story are not. We know this from the millions of words of testimony that have been aired in recent years the now adult victims of institutionalised abuse. Once, Cleveland, Leicestershire and Norrth Wales were just places. Today in some circumstances they are synonymous with the physical, sexual and emotional suffering of children in care.
Though the programme depicts Davey's physical abuse with chilling clarity, its main focus is how the mental suffering never stops as he struggles to create some kind of normality for himself in adulthood. Directed by Antonia Bird, who dealt so powerfully with the issue of homosexuality in the church in Priest, Care is not easy to watch. At times harrowing in its intensity; and viewers may well be stunned by Steven Mackintosh, playing adult Davey, as he unleashes a terrifying volcano of pain and primal rage.
Though the programme depicts Davey's physical abuse with chilling clarity, its main focus is how the mental suffering never stops as he struggles to create some kind of normality for himself in adulthood. Directed by Antonia Bird, who dealt so powerfully with the issue of homosexuality in the church in Priest, Care is not easy to watch. At times harrowing in its intensity; and viewers may well be stunned by Steven Mackintosh, playing adult Davey, as he unleashes a terrifying volcano of pain and primal rage.
