Was Appropriate Adult inappropriate TV?

It would be easy to take cover and call the first instalment of ITV's drama about mass murderer Fred West chilling or sickening, says Andrew Billen in the Times. In fact, he found the first instalment of the two-parter, Appropriate Adult, "so entertaining that I often had to remind myself that the women whose burial places West frivolously identified to the police were real people with lives that the writer Neil McKay chose not to dramatise."

Jim Shelley of the Mirror was only in partial agreement when he
declared: "Appropriate Adult was not enjoyable viewing but, paradoxically, had to be seen."

Much of the debate among reviewers centred on the question of whether the crimes of a serial killer were appropriate subject matter for a TV show.

Veteran crime reporter Neil Darbyshire did not. Writing in the Daily Mail he said he agreed with the sister of one of West's victims that the "primary purpose of this film is to feed the 'endless, morbid fascination with the case' and make entertainment out of the deaths of 12 young women and children"

Tom Sutcliffe in the Independent said time would tell. "The more pertinent question is whether it exploited our interest to any good purpose. A final verdict on that may have to wait until next week but for the moment there's no denying the drama's grip, or the compelling oddity of the relationship it explores."

One feature of the film, which centres on West's relationship with Janet Leach, the social worker who sat in on his police interviews as the "appropriate adult" following his arrest in 1994, was the occasional light moment. "There is humour in the grotesque, and Appropriate Adult was brave enough to show it," said Serena Davies in the Daily Telegraph.

Sam Woollastone in the Guardian thought it was "beautifully done. Not sensational or hysterical - we don't see the crimes, or even body parts being dug from the garden of 25 Cromwell Street, thank heaven. It's calm, measured, real, haunting and terrible. And yes, at times, even funny too."

The drama featured old-Etonian Dominic West, best known for The Wire, as his namesake Fred. Emily Watson played Leach and Fred's wife Rose was portrayed by Monica Dolan. All were hailed by the reviewers.

West's portrayal of the serial killer makes him a "shoo-in" for a Bafta, says Davies of the Telegraph. "In a riveting performance, Dominic West played Fred as a rotten-toothed Machiavelli."

But the Mirror's Shelley picked out Watson's as the "stand-out performance" of the piece. Woollastone of the Guardian bestowed the same compliment on Dolan's interpretation of Rosemary West. ·