Pubdate: Sun, 04 Aug 2002
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: James Morrison, Arts and Media Correspondent

TEENAGE GIRL TO INJECT HEROIN IN BBC FILM

A teenage girl will be shown injecting heroin into her neck and arm in one 
of the most harrowing and contentious broadcasts ever shown on British 
television.

Seated on a bed in a dingy room, Michelle Pickthall, 18, is seen breaking 
the end off a cigarette, dropping it into a bubbling spoon and watching as 
brown liquid surges into a syringe. Tilting back her head, she winces as 
the needle enters her neck, before slowly relaxing with a bittersweet sigh.

Her actions form the climax of a groundbreaking docu-drama about heroin 
abuse that combines conventional fly-on-the-wall footage with improvised 
reconstructions played out by Michelle, fellow addict Shaun Mann, 21, and 
other residents of their Middlesbrough neighbourhood.

The powerful 90-minute film, Little Angels, will be broadcast on BBC2 on 13 
August, on the cusp of the 9pm television watershed.

Drug campaigners have given it a tentative welcome, expressing hopes that 
it may explode some of the myths surrounding addiction. However, it is 
bound to alarm many viewers and provoke debate about whether it is ethical 
for film-makers to record potentially life-threatening behaviour without 
intervening to try to prevent it.

Director Paul McGuigan admits to having wrestled with this question before 
deciding to let events take their course in the knowledge that they would 
still have happened "in another room" had he turned away his cameras.

He had hoped to complete the film, which opens with Michelle and Shaun 
struggling to stay "off the gear" after being released from prison, without 
having to witness anyone "shooting-up".

"I knew from day one what would happen, but I really hoped it wouldn't," he 
said, adding that he came to feel like a "protective parent" towards 
Michelle and Shaun, particularly when they began to lie to him about their 
slide back into addiction. This impulse led to his one intervention, 
preventing Michelle injecting herself in the neck again, moments after her 
first hit.

Mr McGuigan said, while he did not want to "preach" at his subjects, he 
felt like stepping in to stop them harming themselves "all the time".

While the real-life injection scene is certain to be its major 
talking-point, the film makes disturbing, if frequently moving, viewing 
throughout. Though their senses often seem dulled, both Shaun and Michelle 
are prone to moments of startling clarity and self-awareness.

At one point, in a moment reminiscent of a monologue from Trainspotting, 
Michelle says: "Heroin made me feel warm, relaxed, snuggled up in 100 
comfort blankets. It made me forget everything...

"Heroin never knows when to stop. It will take you to the depths and then 
go deeper until even death is a risk worth taking."

And all for those moments, those rare beautiful moments, when all the pain 
and the ghosts disappear. It will strip away all your emotions, including 
fear."

The film also explores the anguish suffered by the parents of drug users. 
In one scene, Shaun's mother, Angela, who has stood by him through his 
numerous failed attempts to kick his habit, re-enacts the minutes running 
up to her earlier suicide attempt.

Mr McGuigan, until now best known for the crime movie Gangster No 1 and an 
adaptation of Irvine Welsh's hallucinogenic novel The Acid House, said: 
"That, to me, was the essence of the film: what the drugs have done to her, 
not Shaun or Michelle."

The charity Turning Point, which deals with the social consequences of 
addiction, welcomed the film. "It sounds as if it highlights the sorts of 
problems many people face when they come out of prison and try to stay off 
drugs, and explores why drugs are attractive to them," said a spokesman. 
"We prefer this approach to the 'Just Say No' one, because it shows drug 
users as people."

TV FIRSTS

First 'Real' Orgasm

When: 1994

The programme: Desmond Morris's documentary series The Human Animal 
featured explicit lovemaking and a real-life orgasm, filmed from inside the 
woman's body. A London couplemade love three times a day for three weeks 
before the cameras.

The reaction: the programme attracted 12 million viewers, prompting the 
Evening Standard to comment that it was little more than a TV stunt.

First Euthanasia

When: 1995

The programme: filmed in Holland, BBC2's Death on Request showed a 
63-year-old man semi-paralysed by Lou Gehrig's disease, being administered 
a lethal injection.

The reaction: The programme won several awards.

First Penis Enlargement

When: 1995

The programme: Channel 4 youth programme The Word broadcast the operation, 
carried out on a policeman.

The reaction: The Word had, according to The Times, become " a by-word for 
bad taste", yet it regularly attracted two million viewers.

First Nipple In Prime-Time Ad

When: 1996

The programme: a French-made commercial for Neutralia shower gel.

The reaction: 199 complaints were received. A nipple-free version was then 
screened before the 9pm watershed.
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MAP posted-by: Beth