3.0 out of 5 star rating
Before watching BBC Two real-life drama Danny Boy, I knew very little about the five-year Al-Sweady Inquiry. After watching Danny Boy, I can’t say I know much more about the true story behind Danny Boy.
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The BBC billed the drama as “a legal and moral conflict that takes us from the battlefield – at so-called Checkpoint Danny Boy – to the courtroom,” but unfortunately viewers see very little of the ‘legal’ aspect, and even less of the courtroom.
In fact, we never even see our central character, accused soldier Brian Wood, inside the courtroom itself. We don’t see him take the stand and deliver his testimony. We don’t see him in the dock during questioning, a tense and “humiliat[ing]” experience the real-life Wood later compared to “walking through a minefield” in a piece for The Daily Mail. Nor do we witness the full reckoning that comes later for now-disgraced solicitor Phil Shiner.